Last Call

About Us

Spotters are essentially secret shoppers who come into the bar to spy on employees, mostly bartenders. They’ll sit at the bar and observe, watching the bartender for signs of theft or misconduct. Most reputable Spotter services employee former bartenders who are quick to pick up on scams that would go unnoticed by a regular customer. Spotters are often equipped with hidden cameras and record every exchange of a bartender suspected of stealing. At the end of their visit they’ll review the video and present their findings to the owner. Depending on what the tapes reveal the bartender could wind up with a warning or immediate termination. In some cases where the bartender has been caught stealing money outright charges have been pressed and the evidential tapes held up in court.

 Some bar owners choose a Spotter service because the company boasts that they employ retired cops. While that may look good on paper, 9 times out of 10 they have no idea what they’re looking for. They’ll hone in on “suspicious behavior” but a lot of things a bartender does behind the bar can be misconstrued or deemed suspicious. Cash over rings are a perfect example. Instead of complicating the matter further by trying to find a manager to void it; bartenders usually make up the difference over the next couple of cash sales. The money goes into the register but they don’t ring it up until they make up the difference. This can easily be misinterpreted as ‘padding’ the register.

Bar owners have also been known to send friends and family into their establishment to spy on employees. They’ll offer them free food and drink in return they report what they see. Again, this leads to the issue of the Spotters not knowing what they’re looking for or at for that matter. Sometimes friends and family Spotters feel compelled to embellish the truth of something negative in order to justify what they ate and drank on the owner’s dime.

For the most part bartenders are hard working and straightforward people. It’s only a handful of dishonest self serving bartenders that give the rest a bad name. In all my years of bartending I have found that if the bar is making money and the bartender isn’t then the bartender needs to reevaluate their work ethic. If the bartender is making money and the bar isn’t, it’s safe to assume the bartender is stealing. Slow nights aside, if the bartender is doing their job well then the bartender and the bar both make money.