The Slippery Slope Floor

The landlord of a local CAMRA award-winning hostelry has taken the unusual step of removing the drip trays from his pumps in order to minimise wastage. The idea, as explained to me, is that staff will be more careful and pull a better pint if there is no tray to catch any excess. The claim is that 15-35 pints a night are being wasted which impacts on the quarterly profit margins; which the under-pressure manager, naturally, wants to maximise. Unfortunately it seems to have had the side effect of creating beer puddles on the floor that require bar towels to help soak them up. This iniative seems to have been taken at his own behest and I’m not sure a pubco would sanction such a potential safety hazard these days. The staff have apparently signed waivers in that regard but you can’t sign away your rights that easily and it would only take one accident to bring the house down. It doesn’t seem very sanitary to me, either, and although there is a tray available for “lively” beers, I think they should be reinstated across the board. 

Comments

Curmudgeon said…
Best way to avoid spilt beer is using oversize glasses ;-)
31 July 2014 at 19:08
Tyson said…
Agreed. And that's why in my state controlled utopia they would be compulsory:)
31 July 2014 at 19:19
Paul Bailey said…
Sounds like desparation measures to me.

Mind you, there is a lot less wasteage when pulling a pint down here, as we don't like our beer topped with a couple of inches of shaving foam!
31 July 2014 at 23:33
RedNev said…
Those waivers have no legal standing. Any bar staff who suffered injury would simply have to declare that they felt under duress, i.e. if they didn't sign, they'd lose their job.

It's so stupid in every way. Train your staff better, and if they continue to waste beer unnecessarily, give them a warning to improve or go.
1 August 2014 at 11:56
francis said…
Don't Sam Smiths tell their staff to top up from the drip tray?
1 August 2014 at 14:34
M.Lawrenson said…
A pub I go to did the same (new manager from Yorkshire, naturally). Apparently, it worked in getting wastage down. All was "fine" until the pubco's works guy who put the floor down came in and saw how his pint of Veltins was being served. He went apeshit at the hapless part-time barman serving him when he saw the puddles on "his" linoleum.

The drip trays were reinstalled soon after. "Positive stock take result" was the reason given.
1 August 2014 at 22:07
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