Thursday, March 1, 2012

Restaurant Inventory


Is not restaurant inventory the most daunting task on the planet?  I dread the end of month where all the liquor, food,small wear,beer and everything else in the restaurant needs to be counted.  There I am coffee in hand, a coffee I should probably not be drinking as it is my seventh or eighth of the day and I am ready to enter the deep freezer pen and clipboard in hand. Ready to freeze my hands and ears to count case after case of frozen product.  Can you image my dismay finding multiple boxes open, empty boxes, and product that should not even be on the freezer.  Ahhh the life of a restaurant manager!

I remember a time when smart phones 1st came onto the market and I owned one hoping to be able to save myself a few golden moments of data entry after counting so many items but I always found that my old trusty clipboard an pen was best.  Always hunting down the months invoices to adjust my pricing on my restaurant inventory forms.

I so wish they had iPads when I started on the restaurant industry.  How easy it could be to access all your restaurant forms on the fly and adjust pricing as each invoice came in.  Never mind the ability to have your excel inventory sheets almost the same size of tradition paper an pen inventory forms.

Heres a great trick to play on a fellow employee next time inventory gets you down.  You know the plastic swords behind the bar they use for olives, onions and soon for cocktails.  Next time your working on bar inventory find an easy target and ask them for help with your inventory and get them to found something easy 1st like the katsup at the server station.  When they come back and give you the inventory total ask them to help again and ask them to count the bar swords of an open box.  Now remember you CANNOT smile at all when asking or you will give yourself away.

Have fun!

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