Pizzaria Owners Advised To Short The Public

Published June 5, 2010 at 7:16 p.m.

I came across an extraordinary bit of beer business advice in PMQ which I take in this context to be "Pizzaria Marketing Quarterly"¹ Read this and let me know what you think:

...It’s also important to know how many servings you should get from a keg. For example, most owners know there are 1,984 ounces in a 15.5-gallon domestic keg, and they know they pour 16-ounce pints, so they assume 124 servings per keg. However, with the evolution of the 14-ounce pint glass (in combination with ½” head), they should expect closer to 155 servings per keg. At $4 per serving, that adds up to $124 per keg in lost revenue!

Because you've shorted your customer by 12.5%! That's not you lost "revenue" - that is other people's money! The bizarre thing is that the bit of sage advice sits at the end of an article entitled "Managing Your Draft Beer" in which the issue of lack of controls in retailing draft beer is discussed. Apparently, an average of 20% of draft beer does not make it out of the keg and into a paying glass through spillage, giveaways and other forms of shrinkage. Good thing to know but, as always, a good diagnosis does not mean you are going to get the right prescription.

Don't get me wrong. While I have no sympathy for the circumstance described illustrating how losses can be caused by bad apple bartenders, I think the author goes way too far. Frankly, I find the claim to 20% loss unlikely. If that is the average then 50% of pizza shop owners are dunces. And I am especially disgusted that controlling loss is tied to the idea that bars and restaurants should short pour their clients. A bad employee represents the failure of duties under a contract. But the sale of a beer to a customer is also a contract and a fair measure at a fair price is what the customer expects. So, if your menu states that the measure is 16 oz - or whatever implies that measure - you better serve a full 16 fluid ounces. Not head. Not 14 oz of beer and 2 of additional glass weight. Otherwise, it is a failure of contract just as bad or worse than the bad apple bartender. Sounds like it is time we all renewed our vows with The Honest Pint Project. Time we armed ourselves with beer gauges.

This sort of business writing illustrates nothing so well as the absence of a meaningful beer consumer advocacy environment in North America. Maybe it's an illusion but you have the sense that within CAMRA's jurisdiction armies of large bearded sweatered men with notebooks would pounce on any operator who acted in the manner suggested in this piece. Nothing less would be deserved...even if the prospect is rather distasteful.

¹...and not for me the short form of "Post Married Quarters" or suburbs on Canadian armed forces bases. I lived in military towns growing up.

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