Responsible serving is year 'round concern
Pub Date: 1/1/2008
A bar owner in Montana recently told us a story about his brother, who had been under tremendous emotional and psychological strain, even grieving over a recent death.
That brother had gone to a bar in his town and had gotten sloppy drunk, pounding down shots.
Our bar owner let's call him Mike for the sake of clarity (not his real name) called the owner of the bar where his brother had gotten hammered and asked, "What kind of policy do you have where a customer is allowed to drink themselves stupid? It was obvious what was happening just by the amount of alcohol he consumed in a relatively short time.
"You need to have a talk with your staff about the problems of over-serving and the solutions to it, then consider it yourself as it regards your liability, not to mention just giving a damn about the well being of your customers."
These points were well taken.
It is regrettable, but some tavern workers are still not yet trained well enough when it comes to the over-serving issue.
And some owners haven't adequately appreciated the consequent exposure to loss of their assets. They should think about the $3 million judgement recently assessed by a jury against a southwest Montana bar, which is now closed. (This particular outcome also had other ancillary or exacerbating issues associated with it.)
But here's the real irony in our tale: The bar owner, "Mike," whose brother went on the binge, walked into his own premises a couple of weeks later and...you guessed it the brother was on another binge and was being over-served in Mike's own establishment!
Talk about an epiphany!
It was easy to see the problem in a fellow bar owner's business, but not so easy to recognize it in his own.
Believe us, "Mike" called a staff meeting for the next day where sphincters were ripped, but where it was also resolved to put everyone through the TIPS training again, with special emphasis on the over-serving issue.
New Year's Eve, an event where over-imbibing has historicaly been tolerated if not encouraged, will be over by the time many of our readers get to this article. We hope you and your staff scrupulously observed good serving practices and that your customers had a great time and all arrived home safely.
We also hope you encouraged customers to utilize the Ride Free program (or whatever name it goes by in your locale) or used designated drivers. If licensees don't have these good, proven programs available, get them started now for everyone's sakes.
Here's are a few suggested New Year's resolutions:
Never, never, under any circumstances, serve a patron who appears intoxicated
If such a person comes into your establishment, try to find a way to get them home safely
Contact the Montana Tavern Association to learn more about responsible server training, then schedule it for your crew
Work with you local trade association to set up or expand designated driver incentive campaigns, or Ride Free-style programs
Review your own business practices to assure you are operating as responsibly, all the time, as possible.
Your customers, your workers, society and you will all benefit.
Happy New Year!
Source: The Montana Tavern Times, January, 2008, published monthly by Continental Communications, 125 W. Granite St., Suite 102, Butte, MT 59701.