[eyespy3017]

over the last 5 months our sales % have been:

food liquor beer wine soda/coffee etc
65% 9% 6% 17% 3%

now, whether our sales are 40kper month, 80k per month or 95k per month these %'s only vary by 1% or less. Is this normal? Is it good or bad? What is it really telling me? Bad front of the house, i.e. just order takers?

numbers help please!!!!

[oldschool1982]

For one I would consider coffee/soda as part of food sales but that's a different story. Anyhow if your sales break down is 65/35 food to bar then I'd say you're owners are raking in a heck of a profit margine given the costs in the respective areas. That is if your food comes in in the low 20's and beverage is in the low teens.

Most places I worked at ran a mix of 75/25 and would've killed for bar sales to be 35% of total sales.

I seem to remember reading something a few years ago that the average was typically 80/20 for a restaurant that had a full service bar.

I guess to understand your situation more fully we would have to ask what size is the bar in respect to the dining room? It would appear your wine sales are a fairly high %. 17 is very nice if your bottle cost average is in the low teens too. Also how much by the glass vs bottle wine is sold?
I'm not sure anymore but when I was in the FOH Liquor was my best bottle cost followed by beer and then wine.

As far as the ordertakers thing that may very well be the case. Folks are gonna drink but need some guidance through the menu. It still gets me when we go out that servers refuse to suggestively sell things when they get to a table. Granted we know what we want and if it's gonna be apps or dessert with dinner that night but it's nice to see the extra effort. Kind know that we're dealing with someone (a professional) that is there to take care of us and not someone (a slouch) just going through the motions. Service that sells! Now that's the ticket.

[kuan]

That's $3.20 of alcoholic beverage per $6.50 and very little soda/coffee. Are you kidding me? That basically means everyone who orders a hamburger orders a beer or wine. Maybe one in five or six order people order a soda or coffee. You are doing fantastic!

What's the average ticket price?

[boar_d_laze]

Originally Posted by eyespy3017

over the last 5 months our sales % have been:

food liquor beer wine soda/coffee etc
65% 9% 6% 17% 3%

now, whether our sales are 40kper month, 80k per month or 95k per month these %'s only vary by 1% or less. Is this normal? Is it good or bad? What is it really telling me? Bad front of the house, i.e. just order takers?

numbers help please!!!!

Need to know a lot more about the operation to provide anything approaching a meaningful answer.

To my mind, stable figures suggest the clientele, whether more or fewer clients, order essentially the same type of meals. In turn, this probably says more about the location, type of restaurant and clientele than anything else. It's as though you're a beer and sandwich restaurant across the street from a large factory/office building complex.

That's not my guess, just saying you do a particular type of business -- whether it's beer and sandwiches or salads and white wine or both or neither doesn't matter.

If you want answers you've got to give data and lots of them. If you want real numbers instead of informed generalities you need to buy or do an audit. Any advice you get around here is going to have a fairly high BS component. Not because we're BS people (we aren't), but because we don't have all the facts.

As several people have already noted, the high beer-wine sales must be very profitable. Keep it up.

BDL

[even stephen]

It tells me that your establishment probably has a good sized bar.....perhaps a good portion of your guests come for drinks or wine.....it tells me your probably in a business district of a relatively large city and capture a lot of early evening business. If I had to guess, the owner is probably tickled pink...as more money is made on alcoholic beverage sales....don't take it as an insult or a shortcoming.....it's a good thing.....continue to cultivate your food sales.....sounds like a successful place....I think....of course I don't know your cost of goods in any of the categories mentioned above....keep up the good work....and for goodness sake...keep them drinking!

[David Jones]

Have you talked to the GM about these numbers? The sales ratio is just a first step. How are costs of sales? Labor?

COGS and Payroll are "controllable expenses" while the sales mix really depends on the guest. (Technically speaking COGS is not a controllable expense, but for this example....)

If you are worried that your staff are "order takers", test them by offering an incentive for sales - escpecially in an underperforming category. If your dessert sales are 30%, offer the server who sell the most desserts in a week $50 cash. See how that works and get back to us.