CONTOLLING STOCK IN A RESTAURANT
You could be losing a lot of money each day you receive deliveries
from your suppliers and in the actual sense, you can’t see exactly or
even to ascertain how much you lose at the end of the week or month
because of your poor recording system. A straight forward,
understandable record keeping system should be electified at your
restaurant and bar such that you minimise on waste through receiving
what you exactly ordered for to the store and receiving the exact
amount, price, appearance and taste of goods
There fore its important to check the following before you receive
supplies to the store;
Items are not damaged
They are in the right measurements and your requisition
Some suppliers may exploit your establishment’s weakness or un
awareness of the supplies of what you ordered to give you less and
when you find out, you realise you have been leaving your profits to
the supplier.
Its there fore important to have a weighing scale and make it a
routine for the one in-charge of the store to first weigh what has
been delivered and record it in the book before keeping them for use
in the store. It’s important at this stage to check the master price
list to find out if the quoted prices tally with the actual delivery
prices for your accountability. Only accept items which you requested
from the supplier since some make it a habit to supply goods which are
about to go bad without your knowledge and here, its much important to
order for items in standard weights such as kilogramme and not in
heaps or bundles since much as you want to make a profit, it will be
easier for you to know how much has been used by your kitchen or bar,
staff meals etc
Always make sure that not every one goes into the store to pick up
items. There should be some one to give away items from the store and
make sure he measures what is being taken, records the destination and
also weighs what is being left out. It’s him who in the end will be
accountable for all the stock loss in the store if at all it happens
For the staff bar, it’s so imperative to assign each staff a specific
bar each shift and cannot work in other areas without management
direction. This makes the staff members accountable for any stock
losses/cash shortages.
It’s important for the suppliers to separate stock deliveries
according to the destination i.e. beverages to the bar and food
supplies to the restaurant store. This will eliminate all the
possibilities of theft among staff because in each department there
will be some one accountable and not all have access to the store
keys. This allows two individual inventories and isolation of
potential problems swiftly in your restaurant.
The author is aconsultant at excel restaurant consultants
e-mail:sebaggala09@aol.com
