Startup Idea: Smart Liquor Dispense and Charge System for Bars

Startup idea to develop a comprehensive software-hardware combo for bars. This system would track and charge the liquor quantity poured, allow multiple pour options, enable custom drink pricing, and provide error correction capability. Such a system would drastically enhance efficiency, reduce wastage, and ensure correct billing in bars while also enabling the managers and owners to keep a check on the operations.

I am a bartender at a small neighborhood (dive) bar in Chicago. We recently switched over to a system that tracks how much liquor is poured from the bottle, and then automatically puts the charge to the register. The system uses a black tube-like attachment that you stick on the top of the bottle every time you pour a drink, and only can pour out 1.5 oz every time. There are little black nibs that go on each of the bottles to electronically send to the register how much it costs. In some ways, this system is better for the owners of the bar, but it makes it very difficult for those of us who work there. And overall, ends up limiting the kinds of drinks we can make, which hurts business for the owners/managers as well!

Drinks that require smaller amounts of a particular alcohol (like Long Island Iced Teas) or most mixed shots, are out of the question with this system. If we were to make a LI Iced Tea, it would end up being the equivalent of about 5 drinks, and would be ridiculously expensive because the machine registers each individual pour. There is no way to customize the price of the drinks.

Finally, the most frustrating thing about the system is that there is no way to go back and take off a charge. This is an issue when either the customer leaves (or doesn't pay) and we have to take the drink back, if the system malfunctions and won't pour anything, but still puts a charge up, or when it reaches the end of the bottle. We are supposed to throw out the last bit in the bottle if we aren't sure that it's the full 1.5 oz - and that wastes money! It is also annoying when the manager calls and asks us to comp a customer's drink, because we have to do a lot of fancy footwork with saving receipts and balancing the register at the end of the night.

Some things that would be a great improvement:

1. Put a switch or button on the actual hardware that has multiple pour options: like .25oz, .5oz, .75oz, 1oz.

2. Add an option to put in a custom drink price, for drinks like LI iced teas, Kansas City Tap water, etc.

3. Have one or two "backtrack" buttons somewhere. They could still be logged into the system that way the managers can make sure the bartenders aren't giving away tons of free drinks or making lots of mistakes, but it would make it much easier on the bartenders, which means quicker service for the customers. Helpful buttons or settings would be: System Error (if the machine makes an error), Incorrect Order (if the bartender makes an error or a customer doesn't pay) and Comp (if the manager wants to pay for a drink for a customer). This would also make it really easy to see where money may be leaking out and could save a lot for the managers and owners, thus making the software very attractive.

To make this software more profitable, you could have essentially two to three "levels", that really only vary in aesthetics (and maybe receipt printing?). I know many upscale bars either have, or would like to have a high-tech looking system that also saves them money and time. You could increase the price tag for these systems because those kinds of bars can afford to buy them at a higher price. For dive-esque bars, make a bare-bones looking option that only serves to save money and time, and has no aesthetic quality. The "base model" if you will. This would ensure a high volume of units sold, since there are dive bars in almost every city in America.

This product would also sell VERY well in college towns, where the bars are mostly staffed by students, have a high turnover rate, and thus lowered trust between managers and employees.

If I managed a bar, I would definitely invest in technology like this, especially if there was a way to see how much money it saves on average over time. I have looked into it because I thought about coming up with something like this myself because I really think it could be a money maker, but I have no idea how to create anything like that. Similar products cost at least $2,500, but still don't solve the problems listed above.

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