Clubs that play games with drinks

it doesn’t make sense why they would want somebody sober.

Have definitely encountered this on my recent visits. As someone who doesn’t like beers it’s essential that I get a good spirits drink.

@Jascoi: Some of them are penny conscious, pound foolish for sure. But some are also running fairly sophisticated sales order management systems that tell them that people buy more drinks when the ones they get are weaker. What those systems of course don't tell them is what happens when the word is out that they are playing those games.

I for one would think most clubs run this ruse for weaker drinks equaling more drinks purchased.

There also is the theory of clubs serving weaker drinks so customers do not become too intoxicated which may be an issue to handle inside the club or a liability at the end of the night.

Either way with the way things are these days I personally would not want to own a business where alcohol is consumed on premise causing a liability. Over the years I’ve seen a few bar owners and restaurant owners lose everything over an intoxicated customer doing something stupid.

Regardless of MY fears it doesn’t give anyone severing alcohol the green light to change or dilute a drink.

BTW why is it I go to a local Mexican restaurant and they pour half a bottle of tequila in a jumbo margarita and I go down the street to a sports bar and get a bourbon and Coke and can’t even taste the bourbon?

They water drinks down coz they know people don't want to be sober and they'll buy more drinks when they're weak.

A bigger problem I'm seeing is bartenders charging more and pocketing the difference. This is rampant in Vegas clubs.

Here is a related story. About 20 years ago I was sitting with my ATF, Gridget, who was not a big drinker to start with. A guy comes into the club and talks to her away from me. She tells me he is an ex boy friend and tried to get ger to dump me and go sit with him. She told him to fuck off. Awhile later the waitress comes over and says the ex BF wants to buy her a drink. So she asks the waitress what was the most expensive drink on the menu. So she ordered a $27 drink in a time and place a mixed drink normally ran $6 or $7. When she left for the day the drink was still sitting there untouched.

This seems like simply a bad business practice. As Rick Dugan said - it’s penny wise, pound foolish.

I’m sure they are expecting customers to not be fully aware of the taste - or possibly customers being distracted by tits? If a guy orders a specific brand of booze, it’s usually because that’s his brand, and he will likely notice if it’s watered down - or another brand.

I agree, these places have sophisticated inventory and beverage disbursement systems, so they can track purchases and quantities. But, once they start fucking with the bottles after hours, it screws things up.

Usually clubs charge a premium for hard liquor anyway, so why make it less equitable for the customer with a short pour, watered down liquor, or a cheaper brand?

If your sure the club is diluting their better brands, it would be worthwhile to get in touch with the brands quality control division and formally complain, there could be consequences.

^ @25, done, thanks. No one rips off the Big T and gets away with it.

One other nasty little trick that I avail myself of, I check my portfolio of equities and I check the funds I hold a position in, if I find the brand, in one of my holdings I also call investor relations/ shareholder services, I have never not at the very least when filing a complaint with those offices not received at a minimum minimum a letter of apology and offers for free product, or substantial discount coupons.

^ @25, I've done that too, and with at least some money in broad index funds I've got most large companies covered. I can also reverse engineer any senior leader's email address in my sleep.

Experienced flight attendants tell travelers never to order any drink that doesn’t come directly from a can or bottle when on a plane

Perhaps some modified version can be applied to strip clubs

^ that would be incredibly expensive and probably not legal in many venues.

OTH I mostly order bottled beer, at strip clubs, I’m more concerned over the possibility of getting drugged and robbed, that I am about dilution or short pour though.

===> "Usually clubs charge a premium for hard liquor anyway, so why make it less equitable for the customer with a short pour, watered down liquor, or a cheaper brand?"

Again, because their sales order management systems are telling them that sales improved when they started fucking around, at least in the short-term. What it doesn't tell them are the longer-term consequences of those practices.

Though I will say that I have most often seen this in larger urban areas with more tourists and/or higher amounts of customer turnover. Dallas, L.A. and NYC quickly come to mind as places with clubs I've whacked for this shit in my reviews. I don't see this deplorable behavior as often in smaller market clubs that are more reliant upon regulars, probably because they know (or eventually learn) that they can't get away with it.

Locally, Wackos was pulling this shit for a while with Jack Daniels and probably other boozes as well. They shoot their most popular alcohols out of a hose gun and, for a period of time some years back, whatever was coming out of that thing was NOT Jack. It was harsher and clearly cheaper. I stopped going to that club for a long time because of it and I'm sure that others did too. Eventually they cut this shit out, at least with the Jack.

When I drank I drank at Baby dolls Dallas! Dey meke da strong dranks

🍹🧃🍾🍼🍺🍻🍹🥂🍸🍷🍶☕🧉

"Why club owners would want to be so penny conscious, pound foolish is a mystery to me, but sadly it's not uncommon. You'd think that they'd be happy with earning a 400-500% markup on a bottle of liquor, but for some it's not enough. They want to squeeze another 5-6 drinks out of the same damned bottle."

I agree, it's stupid and common. I also think some bars/clubs aren't just doing it to get a few extra drinks from a bottle, they're doing it to sell more drinks. If they can sell me 5x 1oz shots instead of 4x 1.25oz ones, they can increase sales by 25% and decrease cost at the same time. It's those same systems that have ID scanners as part of the package, they'll often have inventory management and sales tracking software that will encourage management to decrease pours. I'm not a fan of that kind of shit, but it's not 1/10 as bad as switching out liquors. In Florida at least, it's a misdemeanor to do that. I can't imagine your liquor distributor looking to kindly on you getting caught doing it either, but I doubt you'd lose your license or they'd stop selling to you.

^ Wow! Mack Truck is one thirsty guy!

Ninja’ed by Dolfan!

We be Poppin bottles Cashmane

LOL Mack. Nice trolling. 😁

Seriously though shit like this can't be helping places like Baby Dolls right now. It's historically been tourist trap central, but business travel is still way down right now. I even hear that they've had to shut down the upstairs.

I would almost expect some level of that type of behavior at tourist trap clubs. They likely know their main customers aren’t regulars, so there is less concern about that sort of shit.

It’s not right, but it is likely easier to pull off with a high customer turnover.

It's a hit and miss. I know one club where it's so common. But if they like you then you get the good stuff. I think the practice is much more common where dancers have drink quotas to sell. The clubs really want to bank on that. On the flip side there are clubs with very heavy pours. Those are usually hustle heavy clubs. They know what they're doing. In either case they do it because it works.

But when it comes to watered down drinks. Trendy restaurants and casinos seem to do it the most.

One more reason not to drink in a strip club. 🤣🤣🤣

But yeah, very shortsighted. Somebody will notice at some point.

@GMD, someone did. Me.

That idiot Jon Taffer of Bar Rescue makes his clients carefully measure their pours, i.e. make them weak as fuck. When I go to a bar that has weak pours it's usually the last time I go there. Or, I order wine -- it's hard to dilute wine.

It was very common in Las Vegas strip clubs to refill top shelf bottles with cheaper alcohol when they were empty. Like refilling a Ketel One bottle with Smirnoff. I was told this by former employees I knew from outside the clubs. Most guests are too shy to stand up to strippers ripping them off, so do you really think they are going to stand up to management ripping them off on drinks?

A club I was frequently going to told me they had Coke in their fountain gun. It did not taste like Coke, but some other generic cola. I contacted the local Coke bottler to report the club was selling knockoff cola as Coke. The bottler followed up and investigated.

I think this happens a lot less frequently than this thread is assuming. Maybe it is penny wise pound foolish. More likely, it’s stupid to the point of not making sense. Ketel One is $29 a bottle. Smirnoff is $23. Why bother? Rick’s JD is $23 a bottle. Those are retail prices. The clubs would pay even less. Again, why bother?

I’ll offer another explanation - poor maintenance. This doesn’t explain off flavors if you drink neat, but most bars are horrible about cleaning their taps and the speed guns. If you’re tasting funky flavors, it’s most likely that the lines are dirty. When this has happened to me, I just tell the bartender and get a different drink. If your draft beer is overly foamy, or no foam at all, it’s a warning signal. If you taste off flavors in your jack and coke, it’s most likely the coke or the ice coming from a dirty line. If you’re really convinced it’s the liquor ask them politely to open a new bottle. It’s rare, especially with stuff like Jack that turns over quickly, but the booze can get contaminated on the shelf if they don’t cover the bottles every night.

Again, I agree swapping booze does happen, but it’s not common. Now short pours, that will happen and is obvious when you watch them pour your drink.

Drinker patrons = looser wallets with the girls.

I can see refilling top shelf with well liquor because especially vodka most people can't tell the difference, especially two drinks in. But clubs should want their patrons tipsy.