When stocking your bar with the latest and greatest in bar supplies it is important to take into account what you are trying to achieve. I took over the lease on a small bar around 75 capacity that was formerly attached to a local gym. It was designed to be a members bar however whatever genius devised the idea did not take into account that many people who are into fitness would not be plying themselves with alcohol. Suffice to say that the bar could not even close to break even and the lease was going for next to nothing as there was a certain amount of refurbishment needed to make it into a hot night spot. Before I go on this is not a how to guide this is a how not to. My lack of experience in this area lead to a major flaw in my refurbishment activities which was primarily a lack of planning. I rushed into purchasing bar supplies to replace the existing ones making two crucial oversights by not asking two questions, did I need them and did they fit? I was more caught up in designing the decor, setting the ethos and planning the dazzling opening night. The bar supplies I ordered were from a reputable supplier however I did not read the agreements correctly which lead to much confusion. The first problem came with me ordering bottle coolers which did not have delivery included. This meant I had to incur the cost of picking them up only to find on my return that they were a good 20 centimetres too big for my units. Without time to reorder the bottle coolers this meant that my bottle coolers needed to be moved to the kitchen area, leaving gaping holes in the bar fabrication where their smaller successors would eventually be placed. Secondly I went a bit mad buying bad supplies that were not essential or in fact of any use to the day to day bar operations. I had a vision of beautiful people sipping beautiful cocktails that I had prepared in my bar blend however this was not practical due to space and preparation timing issues. This lead to the bar blender staying in the packaging until the bar was sold. The point being that with careful planning you only need order bar supplies you require. I ordered an ice machine which was not compatible with the plumbing that I has in place and had to incur the expense of calling out a plumber, who rubbed his chine, worked for twenty minutes then slapped a two hundred pounds invoice in front of me. This was again due to poor planning and all this can be avoided by attention to detail when ordering bar supplies. Although I had these teething problems, eventually the place became functional and I eventually sold the lease for a tidy profit, however it could have gone very wrong and people with tighter margins could run into serious trouble. The moral of the story is to plan carefully before you order bar supplies.
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