If the bartender persuaded you to start the evening with a Long Island or you couldn’t tell by eye that a beef steak was underweight, know that they made money on you.
Each business has its own characteristics and workarounds that allow you to reduce costs and increase profits. Employees of Russian cafes, bars and restaurants told Life about “crimes in the kitchen.”
The management knows that the staff in the hall and kitchen steal. That’s why the official wages of cafe or restaurant employees are small, their bread is tips,” says Olga, who worked as a waiter for more than 2.5 years in one of the capital’s establishments located on Bolshoi Tolmachevsky Lane.
In order to earn good “tea”, the waiter needs to make certain efforts, and sometimes the talent of communicating with clients is required. If there is little enthusiasm to develop communication skills, the employee shows creativity. Such processes have been adjusted to the point of automation in all establishments, catering workers assure. According to some of them, up to 60,000 rubles can pass by the cash register per shift.
More will fit
In order for the client to place an order for the maximum amount, it is necessary to present the menu correctly. The waiter always starts by listing the most expensive dishes; as a rule, he does not even offer the cheap items. Another trick is to offer water in large volumes (0.4 l instead of 0.2 l) and only in a high price segment. Albina, who entered the restaurant business more than five years ago and managed to work as a manager in establishments in Rostov, Moscow and St. Petersburg, says:
All clients are strictly divided into three categories. Each of them requires its own approach. The most difficult category is those who know what they want. It is problematic for them to “shove in” additional dishes, drinks, and related products (bread, sauce, etc.). Advice can only cause them irritation. The second category is people who know approximately what they want to order. These can be offered up to four positions. The chic category are those who don’t even have an idea about the future order, but 90% of what the guest wants depends on the waiter.
In addition, it is better to take the order immediately “from” to “to”, that is, together with dessert, since a hungry person will always take more than an already full one. Bartenders have a similar task - to “pump up” the client with two or three cocktails so that he loses his vigilance and does not control how much he spends in the evening.
First, it is better to suggest Long Island, since it contains five types of alcohol. This is a win-win option, and it’s almost impossible to stay sane after this drink,” says Albina.
Underweight or how much to weigh in grams
Cooks working in the kitchen absolutely always underweight dishes, say those who are familiar with the rules of the restaurant business. Let's say 15 kg of beef is allocated for the next two days for cooking steaks, of which, according to the program (meals marked at the checkout), about 10 kg are consumed, in the end there should be about five kilograms left. However, due to the fact that the cook does not add a little to each dish, a larger food residue is formed (about eight kg). Information about this is passed on to the waiter, who offers the “plus” portions to the customers. The proceeds are divided in half.
A common “leftist” is underfilling, says Olga. - To serve 50 ml alcoholic shots, for example, they can use 40 ml containers. This also includes fraud with ice. The drink is most often underfilled, but in combination with ice it is difficult to determine this, especially since it melts. Cocktails are prepared using the same principle. If you want to underfill the beer, then you make more foam accordingly.
“There’s even a saying in the restaurant community: “Ice and foam are the bartender’s bread.”
Check for the vigilant
Few people know that payment for an order in any catering establishment takes place in two stages. After the client has asked to calculate the amount of his order, the waiter provides him with a bill - an information sheet containing a list of dishes and drinks. Next, the guest deposits money, and he must be given a check - a fiscal document received through a cash register. If this does not happen, most likely the waiter canceled (by agreement with the administrator or manager) some dishes or drinks, and put the amount in his pocket.
Thus, a bill for 2,500 rubles, which included first or second courses and desserts, can turn into a bill for 250 rubles, for which the client allegedly bought only water and juice. Most often, this scheme is used in servicing “regulars” (regular guests), but doing this with new ones is risky, there is a high probability of verification, notes Albina.
I carry everything I have with me
Another way to make money is to bring your own, cheaper ingredients to the establishment. The replacement of “alcohol” (that is, alcohol) is the most common. According to the experience of interviewed restaurant and cafe workers, the easiest way to deceive guests who ordered vodka: when chilled, it is almost impossible to distinguish an expensive drink from a cheap one, but wine is easy to recognize.
One bartender I knew earned millions in a bar in Domodedovo. In a nearby store, he bought vodka costing 300 rubles per bottle and sold these bottles to customers at the price on the menu (about 6,000 rubles). Later, surveillance cameras were installed in the establishment, and this “smart guy” had to change his job, Olga recalls.
A Taste of Deception
A former waiter at a Moscow veranda told the opposite story when a client considered the original drink to be a fake:
One day a girl came to us and asked for Hennessy VSOP cognac, warning the waiter that she was well versed in elite alcohol and would accurately determine the taste of the real drink. The bartender poured her the original, and the guest began to be indignant that they brought her “scorched” cognac, and all because where the girl had been before, they poured her a cheap one. She just didn't know the taste of real VSOP.
The advice that most former or current employees of cafes and restaurants give to each other is simple: “You need to eat in moderation!” Otherwise, you may not have time to carry your feet away.
Accountant Elena Nesterova says: “If it weren’t for the critical situation, I would not have decided to forge a check. But life really can be unpredictable. The driver of our company refueled the car, received a receipt at the gas station, after which he came home and washed his things along with the receipt. Well, what can you do about it! You can’t go 300 kilometers from Moscow to a gas station in order to restore confirmation of expenses in the amount of 700 rubles... I had to contact a company that made a new check in three days.”
Many accountants come to the conclusion that it is easier to forge than to restore. Demand creates supply, and countless companies provide check printing services.
“The documents we produce are no different from the originals issued by existing organizations. The checks bear real details and seals of existing companies. For counterfeiting, real registered devices with details of existing cash registers are used. Therefore, identifying counterfeit documents is unlikely,” says one employee of an online store that sells checks. – For a set of fictitious documents worth less than 10,000 rubles, the company will pay 500 rubles; for an amount up to 50,000 - 700 rubles, and more than 100,000 - 2,700 rubles. Cash receipts are prepared in batches. I would like to mention one of the security criteria heard from the source: “Tax officials pay attention to the presence of supporting documents; they are only interested in the fact of authenticity when there are large expenses. Therefore, we prepare several checks for small amounts that do not arouse suspicion among inspectors, although even in the case of a detailed analysis, it is almost impossible to identify the fact of forgery.”
The “offices” that print checks are equipped with a large amount of equipment. Not long ago in Lipetsk, a group of people were caught who were engaged in forging documents. 4 system units, 12 cash registers, 375 counterfeit stamps and 32 folders with ready-made payment forms were confiscated from them. With such preparation, it is really not that difficult to make a check that will be no different from the real thing.
"Bouquet" of crimes
Quite often, among the fake documents you can find an invoice. Moreover, the tax authorities themselves are to blame for the countless number of fakes. To accept VAT for deduction, you must have a properly executed invoice. The preparation of this document is the responsibility of the seller, and the buyer is interested in receiving it. At the same time, a large number of invoices are written with errors that accountants are tired of correcting, but to do this they need to return the paper to the counterparty.
For a set of fictitious documents worth less than 10,000 rubles, the company will pay 500 rubles, up to an amount of 50,000 - 700 rubles; and more than 100,000 – 2,700 rubles. Cash receipts are prepared in batches.
Ordering a fake invoice or making one yourself is faster and easier, since forms of primary documents are sold in every market. Many still prefer to use the services of intermediaries, since falsifying an invoice includes a whole “bouquet” of crimes.
Firstly, the details of a truly existing organization located in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities are used.
Secondly, to ensure the authenticity of the paper, the organization’s seal and the signature of the general director are forged.
Of course, cases are not excluded when invoices confirm transactions that do not exist at all. Then the ubiquitous “one-day projects” come into play. On the one hand, the quality of the document benefits from this, because you can put on it not a copied, but a real “wet” seal and signature of the general director, which is difficult to compare with an analogue. On the other hand, the tax office may have claims against the organization itself, and the company will be accused of receiving unjustified tax benefits.
Nothing extra
Another document that is often lost or requires “rework” for the company to receive additional benefits is the invoice. There is nothing complicated about filling it out, however, inspectors identify a number of mistakes that accountants constantly make when preparing this document “manually.” Firstly, taxpayers often present whole stacks of documents issued to the same company. It turns out that the company paid the organization for the goods, transportation and consultation. Tax authorities inevitably pay attention to such a “multi-profile” enterprise. Therefore, those who constantly use fictitious documents keep special notebooks in which they write that the Romashka company provides transport services, and the Hedgehog company provides consulting services.
Another common mistake that immediately results in a fake invoice is too many stamps. On genuine documents there is only one, but on fake ones they also have stamps: corner and “Paid.” Apparently, accountants think that the more imprints on paper, the more solid it looks. It is not possible to assess the extent of falsification of primary documentation. Some inspectors claim that 50 percent of the papers are fictitious, others claim 80 percent. In fact, tax authorities are not able to check every single document in a company. They pay attention only to obvious violations; the rest is left to the accountant’s conscience.
Irina Golova, expert at Calculation magazine
With restaurant industry professionals about the lengths guests go to in order to eat for free.
Blocked credit cards
I have been working in the Moscow restaurant business for the last 10 years and I can say with confidence that the deception schemes remain the same as in the 2000s. They have just transformed to modern technologies. For example, a guest pays with Apple Pay. The phone doesn't work, and I don't have the card with me. Then he starts blaming our system, saying that there are problems with it, and not with his phone.
A well-known story: before closing, a man came to the restaurant - respectably dressed and looking adequate. When the check arrived, he tried to pay with credit cards - all in the same name, but the payment did not go through - the cards were blocked. Here the man begins to swear that he will pay another time. Sometimes they offer to leave a phone or passport as collateral. But we have no right to agree, just as we have no right to detain a person without security. We called the police, but by the time the squad arrived, the man had left. His photograph circulates in restaurant pages. When asked why he does this, he replies that it is for self-satisfaction. The motivation of deceivers is pleasure, adrenaline. This is a hobby.
The staff suffers from these frauds - they are the ones who pay for it out of their own pockets or divide the amount from someone else’s account per shift. There is only one solution to the problem - call the police. On behalf of the restaurant, an application for the provision of the “Unpaid Check” service is written, then the court. True, in my practice the matter was never completed.
A hair in the plate and an expired card
The situations are usually the same. There is a category of freeloaders who understand that the restaurant is ready to pay the bill, and begin to constantly find fault. Either there is a hair on the plate or the dish is tasteless. Two girls came for the first time, just to eat. And then every time they started to get hair - and they asked to remove the dish from the bill. At some point, we replied that we were ready to remake the food, but we would not exclude it from the check. The girls reacted negatively, but we explained that we see how often they come to us and have noticed a pattern in their behavior. Since that time they have not appeared again.
Another story: a guy came, ate, and when the bill arrived, it turned out that his card had expired. We called the police and drew up a report, the guest wrote a receipt that he undertakes to pay by a certain date. Then there was a sharp jump - and there were many such cases. It happened that in the end they did not pay.
It happens that a guest does not like a dish. There are two options: either it was poorly executed, or the person simply doesn’t like exactly those ingredients, textures or combinations. Then the chef or chef checks the dish and then either corrects it, treats the guest with a compliment, or takes it off the bill. We cannot reject the complaint, because word of mouth works and you can leave a bad review about the establishment on Facebook. This is a blow to your reputation.
Fraudulent minors and counterfeit bills
Two weeks ago, a girl wrote to us on Instagram. She threatened to sue and call Rospotrebnazdor because her child was poisoned by seafood in our restaurant and was dying. To hush up the matter, she asked for half a million. We started to figure it out and asked when they visited us? She answered that on Friday. That is, at the time of her complaint, four days had passed, and if the symptoms of poisoning appeared only on Monday, then it is unlikely that we are to blame. After our message, the girl disappeared.
Another story. A brutal bearded man came to us, he looked 30 years old. I ordered whiskey. The waiter brought it without asking for documents, but it turned out that the guy was underage. Here a comrade with an inspector's hand joined him. He introduced himself as Rospotrebnadzor and asked for 25,000 rubles so as not to bring the case of selling alcohol to persons under 18 to court. We suspected something was wrong, because 25 thousand is not enough for a bribe in Moscow. They called the police, and while they were waiting, the guys retreated.
But it is not only visitors who are deceived. We always have change in the cash register - 30,000 rubles. Our former cashier once said that he accidentally threw it in the trash. The whole team began to search - to no avail. And the next day the cashier disappeared. There were still counterfeit bills at the cash register.
How to deal with deception? As part of HoReCa, conduct lectures for restaurateurs. Like PIR Expo, but legal. Experienced businessmen share practical stories with beginners. If something happens, it is better to immediately contact a lawyer; doing it yourself will cost more.
Kleptomaniacs in restaurants
Visitors are cheated regularly. We recently had a banquet and regular guests came. The waiter who served them came up to me and laughingly said that one of the girls had our cloth napkin sticking out of her bag. I approached her and asked what this meant. She unfolded the napkin to reveal a salt and pepper shaker. The girl blushed, returned it and explained that she really liked them. We did not make this story public.
Here's another funny story: in one of the Italian restaurants I worked at, they served aged balsamic vinegar and olive oil with carpaccio or fish. Vinegar, by the way, RUB 4,000. worth it per bottle. The guests ate, paid, and after they left we noticed that the vinegar was gone. Then our Italian manager caught up with these people and suggested taking olive oil along with the vinegar. It's probably excitement or kleptomania.
Well-dressed homeless people and an eating, disappearing gigolo
We had a story with a male repeat offender. He sat down at a table with the girls, ate, drank, and then disappeared. Legally, we couldn't combine the bill between the man and the girls he dined with. Therefore, the ladies paid only for what they ordered. This repeat offender came not only to our restaurant. The case was referred to the police, but the man was never found.
Once, decently dressed visitors came, but in reality they turned out to be homeless. When they refused to pay, we called the police. The police asked them for documents, but these people didn’t even have passports. I had to let them go.
In general, if the bill is up to 10,000 rubles, the police will not deal with the case. At most, the freeloading guest will be brought to administrative responsibility. If the amount is above 50,000 rubles, then maybe you should count on law enforcement agencies. In most situations, the restaurant suffers losses.
Refusal to pay invoice
A standard situation for restaurants - a guest comes, eats and refuses to pay. There is only one scheme, and no one has invented a new one. They call the police, they sort it out, it’s like that everywhere. There were no fights in our practice.
Poisoning and sale of alcohol to minors
I have been working in restaurants since 1993, during which time I have accumulated a whole portfolio of curiosities. When a person says that he was poisoned in our restaurant, we ask to see the bill from our establishment. I always check it for food compatibility, because it also happened that a girl ate 12 oysters and washed it all down with a milkshake - it’s not our fault. Then I assess the seriousness of the guest’s intentions, check whether there is a doctor’s certificate, proof that the person was admitted to the hospital or called an ambulance. If there is evidence, I will raise all products from the receipt. I present the “victim” with quality certificates, proving that the products comply with the standards.
Poisoning is a delicate matter; most people don’t know what makes them really sick. When I worked at Erwin, guests often complained of feeling ill after eating oysters. Then we found out that symptoms of seafood food poisoning appear within 1-2 hours. And the chance that a spoiled product will end up on a guest’s table is small - the dish goes through four stages of quality control: receiving the product, cooking, tasting by the chef during serving, and evaluating the waiter.
Of course, it is more difficult to test thermally unprocessed products. For example, if burrata was purchased from a bad supplier, it may contain milk stick. But these are very rare cases. The main causes of “poisoning” are incompatibility of products or protein poisoning. When a guest complains, we always try not to lead to a conflict; we give a bottle of prosecco and fruit. It is important to be able to negotiate.
We also had alcohol supplies. The scheme is classic - girls on the verge of 18 years old are heavily painted and powdered, and seated at the table. They drink cocktails and beer, and the guys are sitting at the next table and, when the waiter brings out the drinks, they say that we have broken the law. In this case, the waiter is responsible. When hired, he signs an acquaintance form regarding the regulation of the sale of alcohol to minors. This means that the protocol is drawn up for a private individual, and not for an LLC.
It is important for technicians to know the weak points in the automation system. Firstly, restaurant administrative staff often turn to technical specialists for help on these issues. Also, often in case of controversial or incomprehensible issues, users of the program claim that this program “chemically” something, and the specialist is obliged to professionally weigh all the arguments and give his authoritative opinion. It is sad if a specialist could not defend the “honesty” of the program on the spot, and the programmer is forced to go through the code of an often harmless program, not always knowing the logic of the system.
In most cases, fraud is associated with dishonesty of staff, sometimes it is due to incorrect operation of the program, and staff takes advantage of this. Therefore, it is so important to have fraud protection and control measures in the program and to present various diagrams of typical loopholes. So, unfair personnel schemes:
- The classic scam in restaurants is “underdoing” and “underreporting.” The counter to this scheme is a “mystery shopper”, a check by a chef, a technologist or a quality specialist. The dish or product is weighed as a whole or by ingredients.
- Often, especially in a bar, there is a method of selling your product. More complicated is diluting expensive types of alcohol with similar cheap ones. And the released elite alcohol is sold bypassing the system. Control of this scheme - entry and exit of personnel only through one door, all checked by a security guard.
- Sales bypassing the program are controlled by administrative personnel permanently located in. Counteraction to this scheme - in the shops, cooks serve dishes only according to orders, bartenders are prohibited from serving visitors at the bar counter, customers are allowed not to pay for the order if the waiter handwritten the bill or did not hand it out at all.
- Re-grading is a popular word in retail, essentially selling one product and writing off another. As a result, the first is a plus, and the second, accordingly, a minus. In inventory, such situations are clearly visible, because these are usually goods of the same type. It is considered fraud if the cook intentionally used an ingredient that was not on the recipe sheet (usually a cheaper one). Classic examples: using pollock meat instead of crab meat or using cheaper varieties of cheese than stated on the menu. Such misgrading rarely happens in isolated cases; most likely, the cook deliberately deviates from the production technology. As a result, this deviation is clearly visible in the inventory. Eliminating mis-grading in the kitchen - strict control over production technology.
- Removing entire orders or some lines from it. Using this scheme is considered quite rude, and often requires accomplices in the kitchen. The waiter deletes the order from the system, and when returning the proceeds, he claims that the guests made an order, and then abruptly abandoned the order and left, thereby increasing their profit by the cost of this order. A subtler version is that the waiter has an accomplice in the kitchen, opens the paid order, removes the dish that was being prepared in the kitchen, the accomplice intercepts the order and destroys it. In total, upon delivery, the waiter, if necessary, claims that there was no dish and increases his profit by the cost of this dish. Counteraction to this scheme is all deletions and cancellations only from the administrator’s card, the program records these actions and at the end of the shift a corresponding report is generated, an explanatory note is written for each deletion, waiters do not have access to closed orders.
- The most beautiful scheme is carried out through an order at a discount. There was an order with a good discount, the client pays the invoice, payment (closing) is not made. All subsequent orders are calculated according to the invoice, and after the client pays, all items from the current one are transferred to the order with a good discount. As a result, the waiter closes the order, which is already quite full, with a discount, and hands over the proceeds, keeping for himself the difference between the cost of real orders and the cost of the order with a discount. Counteraction to this scheme is to print the invoice (even better for payment) only once, transfers and discounts only by the administrator, constantly viewing the discount report, using discounts through the discount system.
- A technical problem with “inexpensive” programs, or those that have been extensively redesigned, is when the program runs on several computers and at one of the stations the time is deliberately or accidentally greatly confused, and the current time of this station is entered in orders. As a result, when generating reports in which the selection is based on the opening and closing dates of the cash register shift (this is logical, it makes sense to look for orders outside the shift), orders with the “missed” time are not included in them. Accordingly, these orders are a plus for the waiters, but a minus for the kitchen and establishment.
- The simplest scheme for “hurrying” customers (order for takeaway), when the customer stands next to the station and the waiter punches the order in front of him. When all positions are filled, the client sees “Total” on the screen, but the order has not yet been saved (!), the client begins to pay. After receiving the money, the waiter clears the order and, accordingly, it is not saved in the program (and without deletions or cancellations!). Such an action is considered normal by most programs and is not recorded, since the waiter may make a mistake, and if he did not save the order, then this position can be deleted without obstacles. Now the waiter just has to persuade the kitchen to prepare what the client ordered. Typically, an accomplice or arguments like “the program is not running” or “the computer is busy” are used for this.
Very often, all these problems can be solved by simply implementing a good accounting program!
The proposal to leave the restaurant must come from the initiator of the meeting. If a table is reserved for two, the man offers to finish the meal. Only in exceptional cases can a woman, looking at her watch, say: “Unfortunately, I have to go.”
Etiquette rules do not allow the waiter to bring you the bill until you ask him to do so. But under no circumstances ask for the bill while your guests or your lady is still eating - this is rude to them.
The bill will be brought to you in a special folder or on a tray, with the check turned face down. Perhaps the worst mistake a waiter can make is to leave an “open” bill and name the total amount out loud. The waiter should also not stand over you waiting for your money.
If it is initially assumed that each of those present pays for themselves, inform the waiter about this before the start of the meal, when you place your order. Then a separate bill will be prepared for each dinner participant.
In any other case, one person pays the waiter. There is nothing wrong with checking the bill you brought. The manager can also make a mistake. But commenting on the contents of the bill out loud is unacceptable. It is also extremely impolite to discuss who exactly will pay the bill, or to arrange a “sharing match” in the presence of the waiter.
Money, a credit or bonus card (in restaurants where this form of payment is provided) must be placed in a folder or on a tray along with the bill and left on the edge of the table. Don't forget about tips. This is a rather delicate issue, so you should not discuss it with the waiter or your companions. A tip is not a handout, but a sign of gratitude for good service. Typically, the tip is 10% of the amount of the bill brought. Of course, if you are completely delighted with the service, the amount may be higher. But if you have reasons for dissatisfaction, tipping is out of the question. This will force the waiter to think about his professional skills and next time pay more attention to the customers. However, it is bad form not to pay a tip without a reason.
While the calculation is taking place, the other participants in the meal should not focus their attention on this, continuing the conversation.
You should leave the restaurant slowly and with dignity. Don't forget to thank the service staff. One should not assume that a generous tip can replace an ordinary human “thank you” and “it was very tasty.” Your kind word is important for the waiter, for the administration, and for the reputation of the restaurant.
We wish you a pleasant time.
