Inefficiency. Does it drive you demented?

MadsL · 26-02-2014 08:54AM #1

So tonight I was at a gig with 2600 other people. The line for the bar was just ridiculous and I missed at least five songs by the band (Pixies) I came to hear. When I finally got to the bar, the bar staff were pouring bottled beer into plastic glasses. One beer, pour. One beer, pour. They must not like money or have heard of draft beer and the idea of one person pouring and the other grabbing money like they were printing it.

Does this level of idiotic inefficiency drive you mental or is it just me...?

SeantheMan · 26-02-2014 08:58AM

I'd have gone back to the gig when I seen the queue.
I'm not gonna miss 5 songs of a band I like for the sake of 1 beer.

Inefficient planning on your part OP. You gotta know to have a sneaky hipflask with you sometimes

vandriver · 26-02-2014 08:59AM

Or have 50 poured,just ready.

MadsL · 26-02-2014 09:00AM

SeantheMan wrote: »

I'd have gone back to the gig when I seen the queue.
I'm not gonna miss 5 songs of a band I like for the sake of 1 beer.

Inefficient planning on your part OP. You gotta know to have a sneaky hipflask with you sometimes

I'd already queued for 35 mins at that point. I was having a fucking beer. I've seen them three times before...

MadsL · 26-02-2014 09:00AM

vandriver wrote: »

Or have 50 poured,just ready.

You think..?

kippy · 26-02-2014 09:01AM

SeantheMan wrote: »

I'd have gone back to the gig when I seen the queue.
I'm not gonna miss 5 songs of a band I like for the sake of 1 beer.

Inefficient planning on your part OP. You gotta know to have a sneaky hipflask with you sometimes

100 percent. Gigs a renowned for long queues at bars. I dont get why people would rather queue at a bar for generally overpriced piss than see the artist who come here on a rare occassion that the person has spent significant money on a ticket for. Spendin money on something you dont get value for.....that's innefficiency.......
Get beer before and after the gig.......

Squatman · 26-02-2014 09:02AM

MadsL wrote: »

I'd already queued for 35 mins at that point. I was having a fucking beer. I've seen them three times before...

Should have stayed at home in that case. would have saved a childish internet rant!

kneemos · 26-02-2014 09:03AM

Paying for a gig to spend half of it waiting for a bottle of beer sounds insane.

Stavros Murphy · 26-02-2014 09:03AM

MadsL wrote: »

So tonight I was at a gig with 2600 other people. The line for the bar was just ridiculous and I missed at least five songs by the band (Pixies) I came to hear. When I finally got to the bar, the bar staff were pouring bottled beer into plastic glasses. One beer, pour. One beer, pour. They must not like money or have heard of draft beer and the idea of one person pouring and the other grabbing money like they were printing it.

Does this level of idiotic inefficiency drive you mental or is it just me...?

Draft beer costs - there's a set-up needed. Bottled beer, you just buy, pour and sell. Hence, the chapeen who was running the bar is making out like a bandit in a bank-vault. He is also probably from Cavan, and when his poor, overworked and much abused staff ask for draft beer taps, he just sniggers, and rolls around in his money a bit. Also, would I fcuk spend the Gig queing, I'd get a beer afterwards.

MadsL · 26-02-2014 09:04AM

kippy wrote: »

Get beer before and after the gig.......

This was before the gig...

I should have gone with the first instinct which was to slip out for a beer in the middle of the gig.

But the events management company were an utter shower of cunts. I mean who caters bottled beer that has to be poured, who does that???

MadsL · 26-02-2014 09:04AM

Stavros Murphy wrote: »

Draft beer costs - there's a set-up needed. .

Bollocks frankly. Way more profit on draft.

MadsL · 26-02-2014 09:07AM

Squatman wrote: »

Should have stayed at home in that case. would have saved a childish internet rant!

Yeah, get with the rant. That's the point of rants. If only we had a forum..hey wait a minute....

kneemos wrote: »

Paying for a gig to spend half of it waiting for a bottle of beer sounds insane.

Pixies songs are about 2.5 minutes long...I didn't miss that much. I did miss Bone Machine however :mad:

kippy · 26-02-2014 09:08AM

MadsL wrote: »

This was before the gig...

I should have gone with the first instinct which was to slip out for a beer in the middle of the gig.

But the events management company were an utter shower of cunts. I mean who caters bottled beer that has to be poured, who does that???

I thought you said you missed 5 songs

Stavros Murphy · 26-02-2014 09:10AM

MadsL wrote: »

Bollocks frankly. Way more profit on draft.

No, no there isn't.

MadsL · 26-02-2014 09:12AM

kippy wrote: »

I thought you said you missed 5 songs

They came on stage after I had queued for 35mins already. There were about 30 people in front of me in line and nine bar stations. I figured how much longer could it take.

Find beer, Pour beer, present beer. Find other beer, Pour beer, present beer. Make mixed drink. Take card, run card, present check, check signature.

Mother of God.....grrrrrr....

MadsL · 26-02-2014 09:13AM

Stavros Murphy wrote: »

No, no there isn't.

I would love to see your figures on that. Have you worked in the bar trade?

Stavros Murphy · 26-02-2014 09:17AM

MadsL wrote: »

I would love to see your figures on that. Have you worked in the bar trade?

No, I work in the making money trade. There's no direct costs with Bottled, and they pour it due to the concert venue demanding no bottles to be thrown at Pixies - the staff would rather just hand you the bottle. Family run "areas" at Electric picnic etc..and the mark-up on bottled beer is very good, especially as there's no investment in draft equipment, its maintenance, etc etc. You need to have infrastructure for draft - bottled, you just rock up with crates and start selling.

jester77 · 26-02-2014 09:18AM

MadsL wrote: »

So tonight I was at a gig with 2600 other people. The line for the bar was just ridiculous and I missed at least five songs by the band (Pixies) I came to hear. When I finally got to the bar, the bar staff were pouring bottled beer into plastic glasses. One beer, pour. One beer, pour. They must not like money or have heard of draft beer and the idea of one person pouring and the other grabbing money like they were printing it.

Does this level of idiotic inefficiency drive you mental or is it just me...?

lol, draft might not always be the answer. I was at a gig a while back and there was a girl looking after one of the smaller bars at the venue. It had just the one sponsored beer on draft. This girl had obviously never pulled a beer in her life or even shown how to. She had about 30 beer glasses with an inch of beer and the rest was froth. She was just putting the glass under the tap and pulling. Eventually someone got hold of someone from the venue and a new lad was put into position and the problem was quickly fixed, but it was infuriating to watch.

Sky King · 26-02-2014 09:18AM

MadsL wrote: »

I would love to see your figures on that. Have you worked in the bar trade?

There is an enormous setup cost associated with draft beer dispense systems at events, and they mightnt be willing to shell out in case they don't make money on it.

That said, they have their systems down to a T in Ireland, where they know that it is in their interests to get as much beer into people as possible in as short a time as possible, and there's only ever queues at the very peak hours. Other countries might not have their sh!t together to the same extent.

But not having enough staff on to minimise the queue is fking stupid.

MadsL · 26-02-2014 09:20AM

One of these would have trebled their profit....no training needed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiu_IX14wLI

MadsL · 26-02-2014 09:26AM

Sky King wrote: »

There is an enormous setup cost associated with draft beer dispense systems at events, and they mightnt be willing to shell out in case they don't make money on it.

My high-end home system cost less than $600 with two pro taps and lines, and I just built one for a friend that cost less than $250. A simply jockey box would run $200 plus renting a CO2 tank. Portable draft systems are not expensive. And you can make a 85%-90% profit margin on draft beer.

That said, they have their systems down to a T in Ireland, where they know that it is in their interests to get as much beer into people as possible in as short a time as possible, and there's only ever queues at the very peak hours. Other countries might not have their sh!t together to the same extent.

You have no idea how not together this was. They couldn't even figure out the idea of handing bottle + glass to the customer and as this was a separate room putting security at the door to prevent people leaving with bottles.

But not having enough staff on to minimise the queue is fking stupid.

They had four security to marshall the queue. :rolleyes:

Stavros Murphy · 26-02-2014 09:26AM

oooh, shiny... what witchcraft is this??

Potatoeman · 26-02-2014 09:28AM

MadsL wrote: »

They came on stage after I had queued for 35mins already. There were about 30 people in front of me in line and nine bar stations. I figured how much longer could it take.

Find beer, Pour beer, present beer. Find other beer, Pour beer, present beer. Make mixed drink. Take card, run card, present check, check signature.

Mother of God.....grrrrrr....

They get paid the same no matter how many they sell. If they got a comission it would not have happened.

I do hate people that use credit cards in busy bars or for small purchases.

MadsL · 26-02-2014 09:30AM

Stavros Murphy wrote: »

oooh, shiny... what witchcraft is this??

Clever isn't it.

Took me ages to figure out how it works...

MadsL · 26-02-2014 09:31AM

Potatoeman wrote: »

I do hate people that use credit cards in busy bars or for small purchases.

They really should have had a separate line for people who have no cash at gigs, or as I like to call them; idiots.

MadsL · 26-02-2014 09:32AM

Potatoeman wrote: »

They get paid the same no matter how many they sell. .

If that is true, someone needs firing. That is downright unAmerican.

tin79 · 26-02-2014 09:33AM

MadsL wrote: »

Bollocks frankly. Way more profit on draft.

Don't call him frankly.

MadsL · 26-02-2014 09:36AM

I think Electric Picnic had these one year...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLHhKLdAjx4

tin79 · 26-02-2014 09:37AM

MadsL wrote: »

Clever isn't it.

Took me ages to figure out how it works...

Do the special glasses cost much more I wonder? Would imagine that's well offset by the speed of serving maybe

MadsL · 26-02-2014 09:46AM

tin79 wrote: »

Do the special glasses cost much more I wonder? Would imagine that's well offset by the speed of serving maybe

I don't know. I think it is based on magnets on the valve in the bottom that the needle pierces, but you would destroy the competition with that speed of serving. It serves 1/6th of a regular barrel a minute...so a one keg every six minutes with just one operator. I assume a tank dispense is the way to go...or a really busy bar back.

They are only $1200 too, aint bad really, but I bet the cups are pricy.

If I ran a venue and outsourced the bar I would make damn sure to have two businesses competing on speed of service and I would want a percentage rather than a fee.

The Backwards Man · 26-02-2014 09:50AM

The Pixies?

Just when I thought I'd heard it all. . .

Inefficiency. Does it drive you demented?

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