Controlling Costs in the Restaurant - Part 1

Is Your Money Going in the Garbage?

In order to control costs you need to keep a close eye on excess waste and pilferage.  Watching what is going out of your restaurant due to carelessness or by dishonest means can really help to control excess costs for your restaurant.  Here are 4 ways to make sure your profits aren’t getting tossed.

Remove trash cans from the kitchen - Replace the trash cans in the kitchen with 10 qt clear storage containers.  By giving each employee their own container you can easily see if good, useable product is winding up in the trash.  Employee  often get lazy, careless or are not trained properly and this can cost you money. By seeing what your staff has in their bin at the end of the night and pointing out what is excess waste can help educate your staff on best practices and save you money. 

Keep a close eye on your trash can in your dish room and your dumpster - I never forget the morning I brought trash out to the dumpster and discovered at least 3 bus buckets of dirty dishes in the garbage.  In order to get out of work quicker, the dishwashers were chucking the final dishes away instead of cleaning them and putting them away.   This is an extreme but it happens.  It is wise to check the dish room trash at the end of the night; you will be surprised how much silverware and small items “ fall through the cracks.”  

 

Place a video camera on your back door - Small items are easily taken by dishonest employee from your restaurants hidden in coats, purses, backpacks etc.   But to steal larger items such as cases of beer or a case of meat a common tactic is for an employee to take the case out to the dumpster and leave it there until they can sneak it out and put it in their car later.  Having your back door outfitted with a camera will act as a deterrent because employees will know they are being watched  and it will also provide evidence if you feel someone is stealing. 

Make a policy that employees must inform manager when taking out trash - As in the last paragraph, taking out the trash is a typical way in which product can be stolen from your business.  It literally “walks out the back door.”  For this reason it is wise to limit access in and out of your kitchen by your employees.   Employees should not have carte blanche to walk in and out of the restaurant as they please.  This just leads to trouble and if they are outside doing whatever they are doing most times they are not doing what they should be doing inside the restaurant.