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Drunk Driving Kills – But Not on My Watch from my Nightclub Using EASy Bottle!
Drunk driving kills and we all know it. If you are in the nightclub of high-end social entertainment business, you not only know it but are very concerned about the potential liability that it causes you. You are especially wary if you provide bottle service to your patrons at their tables. Undoubtedly you have instructed your service staff to watch for intoxicated patrons and make sure they do not leave with bottles. Maybe you have even gone to the extent to spend thousands of dollars per table putting in secure bottle lockers into your tables on the floor. You may have thought that these were your only options. I have come to realize that there is another option.
During my career, I have had the misfortune of having to investigate fatality drunk driving automobile collisions resulting from a severely intoxicated person leaving the bar or nightclub after having drank to obvious impairment and not being stopped by the bar or club management. They may have even left with the bottle from the club and took one for the road.” It is the responsibility of every person in the alcoholic beverage service industry to ensure that their patrons do not leave with alcohol or severely under the influence. I have also met and come to respect those members of the nightclub service community who do take that responsibility seriously and monitor the alcoholic beverage intake of their patrons and ensure that they are not permitted to leave with a bottle should the club have bottle service.
My interest was sparked due to my history in accident investigation when I saw the EASy bottle locking bottle cap by Alpha Products, a division of Checkpoint Security Systems. I understand your need to provide a bottle service to the patrons’ tables and give your club the look of a high-end establishment that treats its customers as V.I.P.s. Therefore, any solution must allow you to still have the bottles at the table but it should not look like Fort Knox and the tables should be standard tables so your expenses are not hiked unnecessarily. That is where the EASy bottle comes into play. It is a four-pronged key that inserts into the top of a bottle lock that secures the cap to the bottle. The patron will break the bottle before they are able to remove the cap. The key can also be kept on the person as opposed to previous keys in different models, this key is very lightweight and is not a problem to fit into the fashionable attire of your waitresses. It also comes with a retractor that can be worn on the person so the waitress does not have a concern about losing the key or placing it on the table where the patrons can help themselves to the bottle, which is what we are trying to avoid.
The EASy bottle system allows for your patrons to have that V.I.P. feel of a bottle service at the table without you having the worries of them serving themselves, often against the law in many states, or taking the bottle with them. Your service staff can then monitor the consumption of alcohol by patrons and assist them in getting transportation or disallow further service, protecting you from the liability and the tragedy of having one of your patrons involved in a drunk-driving motor vehicle accident.
Your nightclub will then continue to be a responsible high-end establishment that recognizes that patrons sometimes drink to excess if left to their own devices. You will acknowledge that intoxicated individuals often don’t know when to stop or when to take alternative transportation so you do your part to assist them in making those decisions. You know that drunk-driving kills – but it’s not going to happen on your watch from your place!
For more information on Bottle Service contact us at www.bottle-services.net or call
1.770.426.0547.
Drunk driving kills and we all know it. If you are in the nightclub of high-end social entertainment business, you not only know it but are very concerned about the potential liability that it causes you. You are especially wary if you provide bottle service to your patrons at their tables. Undoubtedly you have instructed your service staff to watch for intoxicated patrons and make sure they do not leave with bottles. Maybe you have even gone to the extent to spend thousands of dollars per table putting in secure bottle lockers into your tables on the floor. You may have thought that these were your only options. I have come to realize that there is another option.
During my career, I have had the misfortune of having to investigate fatality drunk driving automobile collisions resulting from a severely intoxicated person leaving the bar or nightclub after having drank to obvious impairment and not being stopped by the bar or club management. They may have even left with the bottle from the club and took one for the road.” It is the responsibility of every person in the alcoholic beverage service industry to ensure that their patrons do not leave with alcohol or severely under the influence. I have also met and come to respect those members of the nightclub service community who do take that responsibility seriously and monitor the alcoholic beverage intake of their patrons and ensure that they are not permitted to leave with a bottle should the club have bottle service.
My interest was sparked due to my history in accident investigation when I saw the EASy bottle locking bottle cap by Alpha Products, a division of Checkpoint Security Systems. I understand your need to provide a bottle service to the patrons’ tables and give your club the look of a high-end establishment that treats its customers as V.I.P.s. Therefore, any solution must allow you to still have the bottles at the table but it should not look like Fort Knox and the tables should be standard tables so your expenses are not hiked unnecessarily. That is where the EASy bottle comes into play. It is a four-pronged key that inserts into the top of a bottle lock that secures the cap to the bottle. The patron will break the bottle before they are able to remove the cap. The key can also be kept on the person as opposed to previous keys in different models, this key is very lightweight and is not a problem to fit into the fashionable attire of your waitresses. It also comes with a retractor that can be worn on the person so the waitress does not have a concern about losing the key or placing it on the table where the patrons can help themselves to the bottle, which is what we are trying to avoid.
The EASy bottle system allows for your patrons to have that V.I.P. feel of a bottle service at the table without you having the worries of them serving themselves, often against the law in many states, or taking the bottle with them. Your service staff can then monitor the consumption of alcohol by patrons and assist them in getting transportation or disallow further service, protecting you from the liability and the tragedy of having one of your patrons involved in a drunk-driving motor vehicle accident.
Your nightclub will then continue to be a responsible high-end establishment that recognizes that patrons sometimes drink to excess if left to their own devices. You will acknowledge that intoxicated individuals often don’t know when to stop or when to take alternative transportation so you do your part to assist them in making those decisions. You know that drunk-driving kills – but it’s not going to happen on your watch from your place!
For more information on Bottle Service contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 or at www.bottle-services.net
There is not a more terrible feeling in the world for a store owner or manager than to find an empty spot on a shelf where a very expensive item once sat. You just hope the item sold, but when you check your inventory numbers, you get that sick, sinking feeling when you see the item is still on the books. If you have no product protection tools in place, like Alpha Security, then really the only person to blame is the one you see in the mirror.
Liquor bottle security is no exception. If you don’t employ bottle locks, you are simply gambling with your inventory. Recently a major theft occurred in about eight minutes at a liquor store a few states away. Eight minutes is a short amount of time for the average person, but it is an eternity to a store owner watching video of a thief making off with $2,000 worth of liquor. First the man came in and browsed around, and then his female accomplice followed. The accomplice distracted a store employee, asking about the best wines to serve with various desserts. While she did this, he worked on his game plan. He walked around and chose three bottles. They averaged $300 each, and he shoved them all down his pants. While the accomplice chatted up the clerk, the man walked out the door. He went to the car and unloaded. Neither of the two employees ever had a clue. So the man came back inside. The female then went and found the other employee and used the same tactic on him, asking him mundane questions to keep him occupied. This time the man chose an $1,100 bottle of Cognac. He removed it from the store in the same manner. The lady wrapped up her charade, and they both left. It wasn’t until the following day when the owner came in to work that the empty spot where the Cognac was previously displayed was discovered. The video is good to have and may deter a future theft by the same couple, but it remains a reactive tool.
The thing is that bottle locks could have stopped the theft in the first place. As soon as the man entered the store, he would have seen that they take security seriously. Instead of seeing an open opportunity, his grandiose theft would have been shut down immediately. Bottle locks are the ultimate gadget for liquor bottle security. They have alarm capabilities that would have alerted the store staff as soon as he attempted to get out the door with those bottles. The entire staff can be quickly trained to easily attach and remove them. They do not impede the customer’s ability to shop and select any product they want. They can still pick up the merchandise, make comparisons, and bring it all to the checkout counter at their own convenience. If they attempt to remove or tamper with the bottle locks, they can self alarm. The bottle lock is almost impossible to remove without the proper key. The bottle will break, sending glass everywhere, before that thing comes off, rendering the item unusable.
Without bottle locks, your wines and spirits are just waiting to be stolen in the same manner. The investment in these tools will pay you back over and over. It will stop the petty thieves that just steal every once in a while just as well as it will stop the professional thief like the guy above. Unless your business can afford a $2,000 loss, I suggest you take a look at Alpha Security and what it can do for you.
For more information on Bottle Locks, contact us 1.770.426.0547 or Bottlelock.net
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Bottle Locks Keep Your Product Out of the Hands of Juveniles and Shoplifters and In the Hands of Paying Customers!
Recently I watched as a clerk in a local convenience store was stocking his shelves with liquor bottles in an area much too close to the door. I asked him if had suffered any losses and he related to me just the other day how some guys kept him busy at the front of the store while two guys helped themselves to five bottles of hard liquor and left the store. He said it was not that uncommon and he was researching what to do about it. I told him I had seen a good solution for bottle security in a liquor store across town—the same solution I will share with you.
Grab and runs were not that uncommon when I was a law enforcement officer so I always noted the displays and how the store tried to provide liquor bottle security. Many used bottle locks such as the ones developed by Alpha security. In today’s store environment you not only have to contend with the juvenile trying to get out of your store with a liquor bottle but the organized retail criminal who is trying to get multiples of your product for resale. Any solution has to deal with both threats.
Alpha security developed a bottle lock that meets those challenges posed by both classes of shoplifters. The bottle lock fits over the cap of the bottle and locks in place with a special Alpha key. When someone tries to leave with a bottle it is going to active your EAS system or if they are fortunate to get out of your store, they are still stuck with a bottle they cannot open. They have to have the special key to remove the lock that your cashier has so he or she can remove the lock when the customer BUYS the bottle. They are more likely to break the bottle than open it.
This denial-of-service capability makes both the juvenile offender and the experienced criminal think about the return-on-investment of their time in taking your merchandise. They go through the same process unthinkingly as we do as business professionals. Is the reward worth the risk? In most cases, they will determine it isn’t and meander down the street to a softer target—your competitor.
These relatively inexpensive bottle locks fit over the cap in a way that the product label is still visible and the product can still be handled by your customer. Combined with an electronic article surveillance system (EAS) they make a strong deterrent for any shoplifter. Not too long ago I saw a report where a juvenile had stolen a bottle of vodka from the local convenience store that did not have EAS installed but did have liquor bottle security. It seems that the juvenile got home and couldn’t figure out how to open the vodka and get the lock off the bottle. He called his friend, who happened to be the son of a deputy sheriff. The deputy overheard their conversation and he went to the juvenile’s house and confronted the boy, who confessed to the shoplifting and returned the liquor to the store with an apology as one of his terms of juvenile diversion.
It is even more frustrating for the experienced criminal who is getting the liquor for resale. Just exactly how is he going to sell bottles of liquor to someone when the bottle has a bottle lock on it? That might make for some interesting conversation between reseller and customer.
Going back to the original clerk in the convenience store I was at, you now know the advice that I gave him. Protect you valuable liquor products in the same way I recommended to him. Get bottle security from Alpha security and keep the liquor in your bottle and in your store until it is in the hands of your paying customer!
For more information about bottle locks contact us at www.bottlelock.net or call 1-770-426-0547.
Recently I watched as a clerk in a local convenience store was stocking his shelves with liquor bottles in an area much too close to the door. I asked him if he had suffered any losses and he related to me just the other day how some guys kept him busy at the front of the store while two guys helped themselves to five bottles of hard liquor and left the store. He said it was not that uncommon and he was researching what to do about it. I told him I had seen a good solution for bottle security in a liquor store across town—the same solution I will share with you.
Grab and runs were not that uncommon when I was a law enforcement officer so I always noted the displays and how the store tried to provide liquor bottle security. Many used bottle locks such as the ones developed by Alpha security. In today’s store environment you not only have to contend with the juvenile trying to get out of your store with a liquor bottle but the organized retail criminal who is trying to get multiples of your product for resale. Any solution has to deal with both threats.
Alpha security developed a bottle lock that meets those challenges posed by both classes of shoplifters. The bottle lock fits over the cap of the bottle and locks in place with a special Alpha key. When someone tries to leave with a bottle it is going to active your EAS system or if they are fortunate to get out of your store, they are still stuck with a bottle they cannot open. They have to have the special key to remove the lock that your cashier has so he or she can remove the lock when the customer BUYS the bottle. They are more likely to break the bottle than open it.
This denial-of-service capability makes both the juvenile offender and the experienced criminal think about the return-on-investment of their time in taking your merchandise. They go through the same process unthinkingly as we do as business professionals. Is the reward worth the risk? In most cases, they will determine it isn’t and meander down the street to a softer target—your competitor.
These relatively inexpensive bottle locks fit over the cap in a way that the product label is still visible and the product can still be handled by your customer. Combined with an electronic article surveillance system (EAS) they make a strong deterrent for any shoplifter. Not too long ago I saw a report where a juvenile had stolen a bottle of vodka from the local convenience store that did not have EAS installed but did have liquor bottle security. It seems that the juvenile got home and couldn’t figure out how to open the vodka and get the lock off the bottle. He called his friend, who happened to be the son of a deputy sheriff. The deputy overheard their conversation and he went to the juvenile’s house and confronted the boy, who confessed to the shoplifting and returned the liquor to the store with an apology as one of his terms of juvenile diversion.
It is even more frustrating for the experienced criminal who is getting the liquor for resale. Just exactly how is he going to sell bottles of liquor to someone when the bottle has a bottle lock on it? That might make for some interesting conversation between reseller and customer.
Going back to the original clerk in the convenience store I was at, you now know the advice that I gave him. Protect you valuable liquor products in the same way I recommended to him. Get bottle security from Alpha security and keep the liquor in your bottle and in your store until it is in the hands of your paying customer!
For more information about bottle locks contact us or call 1-770-426-0547 or at www.bottlelock.net
JD-Blog-009 Keyword: Bottle Service- 5 (Secondary: Bottle lock-4)
Reducing the Risk of Bottle Service
Bottle service is an increasing trend that can bring higher profits to bars and nightclubs. It’s essentially selling a patron a full bottle of liquor at a significant markup. Some establishments provide mixers to go with the bottle and maybe even a VIP seating area or secluded table for the patron and their guests. This allows the patron to have a private party atmosphere and a VIP experience. For this, the patron is willing to pay a significantly higher price. For many in the nightclub scene, bottle service is the best way to highlight their status. As a bar or nightclub owner, this is a way to significantly increase revenue and great source of loyal repeat business.
With this added revenue and increased profit comes an increased risk. When someone uses bottle service, they own the bottle and there can be a tendency to over-serve themselves or their guests at their semi-private party. This leads to an increased risk of litigation for the nightclub for failing to cut off over-indulgence. There is also an increased risk in general liability claims from customer accidents as over-served customers fall down or otherwise get injured. Another risk is someone over-serving themselves (or a friend) and then getting behind the wheel of a car. These risks can do significant harm to a business.
There are ways to mitigate and manage this risk. The first is through the use of a designated server for the bottle service. This server can observe customers and make decisions on who to serve based upon their observation. The second, and most effective way to mitigate risk, is to use the dedicated server in conjunction with a bottle lock. A bottle lock is a device placed over the mouth of a bottle, preventing anyone who does not have the proper key from pouring a drink from the bottle. The dedicated server retains the key to the lock. The server can unlock the bottle to serve guests or decide not to, based upon their observations. A trained server can monitor consumption and make a risk-based decision to serve or not to serve a particular guest. While the customer paid for the whole bottle, the server retains the key and the ability to serve responsibly. An added side-benefit is that this eliminates the risk of those who would use the service as a way of allowing their under-age friends to have drinks in the bar. With the lock, before any drink could be poured, the server can determine the true age of potential underage drinkers. The server also retains the ability to head off those who might drink and drive. The server could make the polite suggestion that a member of the party switch to a soft drink and even if they refuse, the server has the key and the bottle lock cannot be opened without it. It’s a safe and non-confrontational way to reduce liability while being socially responsible at the same time. Some might see this as infringing on the benefits of the service, but in practice it actually enhances the patron’s experience. Having a way to control who consumes out of the bottle and how much, as well as having a dedicated server plays very nicely into the atmosphere of the service and it’s use as a status symbol.
Bottle service, when used with a dedicated, trained server, and a bottle lock is a great way to increase revenue and protect profits for a bar or nightclub.
For more information about Bottle Service contact us or call 1.770.426.0547.
Bottle service is an increasing trend that can bring higher profits to bars and nightclubs. It’s essentially selling a patron a full bottle of liquor at a significant markup. Some establishments provide mixers to go with the bottle and maybe even a VIP seating area or secluded table for the patron and their guests. This allows the patron to have a private party atmosphere and a VIP experience. For this, the patron is willing to pay a significantly higher price. For many in the nightclub scene, bottle service is the best way to highlight their status. As a bar or nightclub owner, this is a way to significantly increase revenue and great source of loyal repeat business.
With this added revenue and increased profit comes an increased risk. When someone uses bottle service, they own the bottle and there can be a tendency to over-serve themselves or their guests at their semi-private party. This leads to an increased risk of litigation for the nightclub for failing to cut off over-indulgence. There is also an increased risk in general liability claims from customer accidents as over-served customers fall down or otherwise get injured. Another risk is someone over-serving themselves (or a friend) and then getting behind the wheel of a car. These risks can do significant harm to a business.
There are ways to mitigate and manage this risk. The first is through the use of a designated server for the bottle service. This server can observe customers and make decisions on who to serve based upon their observation. The second, and most effective way to mitigate risk, is to use the dedicated server in conjunction with a bottle lock. A bottle lock is a device placed over the mouth of a bottle, preventing anyone who does not have the proper key from pouring a drink from the bottle. The dedicated server retains the key to the lock. The server can unlock the bottle to serve guests or decide not to, based upon their observations. A trained server can monitor consumption and make a risk-based decision to serve or not to serve a particular guest. While the customer paid for the whole bottle, the server retains the key and the ability to serve responsibly. An added side-benefit is that this eliminates the risk of those who would use the service as a way of allowing their under-age friends to have drinks in the bar. With the lock, before any drink could be poured, the server can determine the true age of potential underage drinkers. The server also retains the ability to head off those who might drink and drive. The server could make the polite suggestion that a member of the party switch to a soft drink and even if they refuse, the server has the key and the bottle lock cannot be opened without it. It’s a safe and non-confrontational way to reduce liability while being socially responsible at the same time. Some might see this as infringing on the benefits of the service, but in practice it actually enhances the patron’s experience. Having a way to control who consumes out of the bottle and how much, as well as having a dedicated server plays very nicely into the atmosphere of the service and it’s use as a status symbol.
Bottle service, when used with a dedicated, trained server, and a bottle lock is a great way to increase revenue and protect profits for a bar or nightclub.
For more information about Bottle Service contact us or call 1.770.426.0547.
