Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Guess Who's Eating Your Profits...: The Manager's Essential Guide to Restaurant and Bar Loss Prevention and Investigations
    Guess Who's Eating Your Profits...: The Manager's Essential Guide to Restaurant and Bar Loss Prevention and Investigations
    Guess Who's Eating Your Profits...: The Manager's Essential Guide to Restaurant and Bar Loss Prevention and Investigations
    Ebook233 pages3 hours

    Guess Who's Eating Your Profits...: The Manager's Essential Guide to Restaurant and Bar Loss Prevention and Investigations

    By Craig A. Whitfield

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Attention restaurant and bar owners! This book is a must read to ensure your restaurant or bar is reaching its full profitability potential. Do you worry why your food or alcohol costs are out of control? Have you been concerned about lack of sales? Have you considered that there may be a thief lurking in your midst, and they are eating your profits?

    Guess Whos Eating Your Profits will help you realize your restaurants fullest profit potential. It offers a range of simple, powerful techniques to combat internal theft in your restaurant. It shows how to identify, investigate, and prosecute those who are impacting your bottom line.

    Some highlights:
    Increase your restaurants profitability by conducting a quality investigation
    Descriptions of the employee scams and how to prevent them
    Guidelines on how to investigate employee theft
    Learn how to sharpen your senses toward dishonest employees
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAuthorHouse
    Release dateApr 26, 2013
    ISBN9781481725156
    Guess Who's Eating Your Profits...: The Manager's Essential Guide to Restaurant and Bar Loss Prevention and Investigations
    Author

    Craig A. Whitfield

    Craig Whitfield has over 35 years experience in law enforcement and corporate loss prevention. He has a Bachelors degree in Criminal Justice from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Craig began his law enforcement career as an intern with the Muncie (IN) Police Department. Upon graduation from Ball State University, Craig began his public service career with the Mishawaka (IN) Police Department. Mishawaka is located in Northern Indiana and is part of a larger metropolitan area which includes South Bend and the University of Notre Dame. His chosen career path resulted in his serving twenty-five years in law enforcement, nineteen as an investigator. After retiring from the Mishawaka Police Department he was hired by the St. Joseph County Prosecutor's Office in South Bend as the County's very first cold case homicide investigator. Craig helped set up and organize the newly formed unit. He has conducted thousands of criminal and internal investigations. He specialized in major felony cases including homicide, robbery, burglary, and fraud investigations. After retiring from law enforcement, Craig transitioned into the private sector as Director of Safety & Security for one of the nation's largest franchisee restaurant companies. He has spent the past decade protecting company profits and assets. He specializes in restaurant and bar fraud and internal theft investigations. Craig is married and has two daughters, and six grandchildren. In his spare time Craig enjoys fishing and spending time with his grandchildren. He resides in Mishawaka, Indiana. Craig can be reached at craigwhitfield@ymail.com

    Related to Guess Who's Eating Your Profits...

    Related ebooks

    Management For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Luxe Life

      Sep 2, 2017

      The Luxe Life
      2 min read

    • Article

      ’Tis The Season To Be Sceptical

      Dec 1, 2021

      Everybody thinks there is a stock-market Holy Grail: a method, a technique, an algorithm, a repeatable process that guarantees stockmarket success. And they’re right. I’ll tell you what it is: “Predicting the future.” Predicting the future is the sto

      3 min read

    • Article

      Priyank Sukhija

      Jul 27, 2022

      Priyank Sukhija
      2 min read

    • Article

      Letter From Publisher

      Dec 24, 2020

      The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted many business areas necessary for succeeding as a small business owner. These areas include sales, marketing, business operations, social media, and technology. One major area is financial management. Our cover stor

      1 min read

    • Article

      Making A Genuine Difference

      Oct 19, 2022

      Say goodbye to soggy soap dishes. In 2018 in the small town of Wakefield, south of Nelson, Clare Wilson came up with the idea for the Block Dock Vertical Soap Dish and Shampoo Bar Holder - to make using solid bars in bathrooms and kitchens clean and

      1 min read

    • Article

      Persevere Under Pressure

      Apr 4, 2023

      IN 2002, WHEN I WAS 23 years old, the career I'd always wanted looked to be over before it even started. One night in Michigan, after a bartender cut me off from tipping back way too many whiskeys, I proceeded to tear his bar apart. Malicious destruc

      3 min read

    • Article

      In Your Interest

      Jul 31, 2019

      Wow. Just look at interest rates. Over my nearly four decades commenting on money, I’ve said a lot about interest rates. But I am sure I have never mentioned our “base” rate set by the Reserve Bank going below 1%. Now, though, that looks pretty much

      3 min read

    • Article

      From Prisoner To Millionaire

      Dec 1, 2020

      From Prisoner To Millionaire
      4 min read

    • Article

      5 Financial Boxes You Should Check Before COVID-19 Strikes

      Apr 23, 2020

      I'm not sure I've ever read, let alone written, a title so morbid. These are unprecedented times. The unfortunate reality is that, according to the CDC, the fatality rate of this virus is over 10% for those 85+, but the virus can be deadly no matte

      4 min read

    • Article

      No Place Like Home

      May 3, 2022

      No Place Like Home
      5 min read

    • Article

      Safe In The City

      Feb 21, 2023

      Safe In The City
      6 min read

    • Article

      Safe In The City

      Apr 18, 2023

      Safe In The City
      6 min read

    • Article

      Second Chances

      Oct 1, 2021

      Second Chances
      6 min read

    • Article

      Second Chances

      Oct 1, 2021

      Second Chances
      6 min read

    • Article

      Are All of Our Good Intentions Just Cheap Talk?

      May 1, 2017

      Like most of you, I consider myself an honourable member of society: Trustworthy, honest and moral. Yet I don’t always act accordingly — and judging by the magnitude of insurance fraud, tax deception and the illegal downloading of music, films and ga

      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Guess Who's Eating Your Profits...

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Guess Who's Eating Your Profits... - Craig A. Whitfield

      GUESS WHO’S

      EATING YOUR

      PROFITS…

      The Manager’s Essential Guide to Restaurant

      and Bar Loss Prevention and Investigations

      Craig A. Whitfield

      Edited by Ray Leliaert

      foo.jpg

      AuthorHouse™

      1663 Liberty Drive

      Bloomington, IN 47403

      www.authorhouse.com

      Phone: 1-800-839-8640

      © 2013 by Craig A. Whitfield. All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

      Published by AuthorHouse 04/23/2013

      ISBN: 978-1-4817-2514-9 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4817-2513-2 (hc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4817-2515-6 (e)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2013904275

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      CONTENTS

      DISCLAIMER

      DEDICATION

      FOREWORD

      INTRODUCTION

      Chapter ONE

      LOSS PREVENTION MEETS OPERATIONS

      Chapter TWO

      OVERVIEW OF RESTAURANT LOSS PREVENTION

      Chapter THREE

      PROFILE OF THE RESTAURANT THIEF

      Chapter FOUR

      CONDUCTING INTERNAL INVESTIGATIONS

      Chapter FIVE

      THE ART OF INTERVIEWING

      Chapter SIX

      WHAT’S NEXT?

      Chapter SEVEN

      HOW EMPLOYEES STEAL

      Chapter EIGHT

      AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION

      Chapter NINE

      SECURITY LOSS CONTROL PROGRAM

      Chapter TEN

      BUILDING SECURITY

      CONCLUSION

      Meet the Author

      APPENDIX (1)

      APPENDIX (2)

      APPENDIX (3)

      USEFUL WEBSITES

      DISCLAIMER

      This book is presented solely for educational and informational purposes. The author and publisher are not offering this book as legal or professional services advice. While best efforts have been used in preparing this book, the author and publisher make no representations or warranties of any kind and assume no liabilities of any kind with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness of use for a particular purpose.

      Neither the author nor the publisher shall be held liable or responsible to any person or entity with respect to any loss or incidental or consequential damages caused, or alleged to have been caused, directly or indirectly, by the information or techniques contained herein.

      There is absolutely no assurance that any statement contained in this book touching on legal matters is true, correct, or precise. Law varies from place to place and it evolves over time. No part of this book should be construed as an attempt to offer a legal opinion or otherwise engage in the practice of law.

      The characters and entities are fictional. Any likeness to actual persons, either living or dead, or a particular company or brand is strictly coincidental. We urge you to consult with your legal advisor before taking any action based on information appearing in this book.

      DEDICATION

      To my parents Lloyd and Geneva Whitfield whose restaurant ownership provided me with my first glimpse into the many challenges of successful restaurant operation and ownership;

      To all the hard working restaurant and bar employees who have always done the right thing; and

      To all my family and friends who encouraged me to complete this project.

      Rule #1 Never lose money

      Rule #2 Never forget rule #1

      Warren Buffett

      FOREWORD

      Craig Whitfield says he always wanted to be a cop when he was growing up. People who know him are likely to say he was born to be a police officer.

      But his aspirations likely began as a young boy helping out in his parent’s Mishawaka restaurant. One of the anecdotes he shares in this book involves the systematic way his parents caught a waitress who was stealing from their diner.

      Throughout a law enforcement career that began as an intern cop in Muncie, Ind., and continued through his rise from beat patrolman to a key investigator on a regional homicide squad, he systematically outsmarted the bad guys.

      Patrolling his sector, Craig—like most beat cops—regularly was dispatched to businesses, including bars and restaurants, where he saw firsthand the results of criminal activity more serious than the theft he witnessed as a child in his family’s diner.

      As a detective, he was charged with following up the preliminary work of patrolmen to develop cases that would stand up in court. That experience taught him to use his university education and his instincts to solve crimes.

      Like all police officers, Craig realized how a few common sense steps could prevent most crimes. He also witnessed how some basic mistakes—by business owners and investigators alike—could jeopardize prosecution. Those observations formed the genesis that developed into the idea for this book.

      One of the crimes discussed in this book involved the murders of two fast-food restaurant workers by co-workers during a robbery, one of the major cases of his career. It’s also a case packed with lessons for restaurant owners and managers.

      Lessons based on real-life experiences form the foundation of this book, from a waiter who is stealing a few dollars or a bartender with an expensive gambling habit to employees who become murderous armed robbers.

      While he was writing this book, Craig and I often discussed whether this book could be used as a how-to manual by criminals. That certainly is a concern. But he likes to point out that criminals don’t learn their craft by reading books; they learn from each other. And criminals succeed by outsmarting you, their victims, and by wasting their smarts thinking up new schemes while you’re working hard to succeed.

      Beating the bad guys at their own game, in other words, comes down to being smarter than the crooks.

      Craig explains to his readers how to be well-prepared before investigating internal crimes, and he tells you how to prepare so that when police are called in they can make a case that will stand up in court as well as win restitution.

      That diligence made him highly successful as a police investigator and makes him successful now in the private sector.

      No one—even Craig—can claim to successfully investigate every case. But many of the cases related in this book were solved with confessions. That’s rare, except in movies and TV dramas where tough-guy cops use threats to get criminals to spill the beans.

      Craig wasn’t one of those stereotypical tough-guy cops. But he succeeded by being a smart cop who did his homework so thoroughly that he usually knew more about the crime than the perpetrator. That approach results in confessions that solve crimes.

      And that’s what makes this book so valuable for restaurant and bar owners and managers: Craig shares the secrets of his success.

      Craig asked me to write this preface as he completed work on this book because I have come to know him as much as I know this book.

      Our writer-editor partnership started just after Craig’s first manuscript draft was complete when he approached me about being the editor for his book. It was a request that made sense because we had parallel careers in the same worlds.

      While Craig was working his way through the ranks of law enforcement, I was advancing from police reporter at the South Bend Tribune to city editor—a job that included hiring and supervising police reporters—to business editor.

      Craig’s communications skills matured during his career, writing easy-to-understand reports about complex cases and testifying before juries in a convincing manner. That made my task, as editor, easy.

      The result is a straightforward style that will help you, his reader, be more successful, and profitable, in business.

      Ray Leliaert

      Editor

      South Bend, Ind.

      INTRODUCTION

      Two of every three new restaurants, delis, and food shops close within three years of opening. Americans with dreams of owning their own restaurant often risk their life savings and their homes to make the dream come alive. With that said, the new entrepreneurs often lose everything in their quest to become successful business owners. The odds are good that they will lose much of their financial security, including the lifestyle they once enjoyed.

      This failure rate, as tracked by federal sources, is consistent with any new business venture. Starting a business and becoming successful is not as easy as it looks, and having employees that steal from you may seal your fate. Becoming a franchisee of a major restaurant chain will not shield you from the employee who wants your money.

      According to the United States Department of Commerce, the food and beverage industry continues to grow. In 2009 the industry boasted just over 863,000 locations. Four short years later the industry employs nearly 13 million people in 970,000 locations across the United States. This growth has driven sales at food service and drinking places to about $650 billion annually. Also driving this growth is consumer spending trends. It has been estimated that Americans now spend almost half of their food budget dollars at restaurants. Based on recent statistics, the food and beverage industry now is the largest private sector employer in the United States.

      Almost ten percent of American workers are employed in the restaurant industry. The employees come from all walks of life. Many are college students, high school students, single mothers, and heads of household just holding down a second job to make ends meet. Unfortunately, the list also consists of parolees, ex-cons, thieves; people who will steal from you given the opportunity. It’s an industry that has a workforce make up as varied as the types of food it serves.

      In such a large industry there is no doubt that a certain percentage of those working folks are looking for an easy scam, a way to make an easy extra $5-$10 bucks, or more. They are hoping to work for a manager or owner who is unfamiliar or uncomfortable with loss prevention, or who just doesn’t care. Since you are reading this you realize that loss prevention is an important aspect of a successful restaurant operation. You are now on course to fully understand loss prevention and how it will affect your restaurant or bar’s profitability.

      16702.jpg

      Restaurant loss prevention and asset protection is my second career. Most of the tools I needed for this position I gained in my first career in law enforcement. I spent 25 years on the Mishawaka (IN) Police Department, a mid-size department in northern Indiana located next door to South Bend. I spent nineteen of those years as a criminal investigator investigating major crimes including fraud, burglary, robbery and homicides.

      After leaving law enforcement I transitioned into an upper management position as Director of Safety & Security at one of the nation’s largest franchisee restaurant companies. The company operates restaurants in six states—but is very unique in that it has exposure in three very different concepts. The largest division consists of one of the nations’ top three quick service restaurant concepts; the second, an international brand casual dining restaurant division, and the last is a theme restaurant concept consisting of ten restaurants scattered about three states. My next career goal was to learn all the tricks of the restaurant thief. I was now responsible for the asset protection oversight for a company that employed nearly 10,000 people at nearly 200 restaurant locations.

      Each concept presented its own set of loss prevention challenges and offered multiple ways to steal company profits. I had to learn the scams, and do so quickly!

      I began reading a number of articles in an effort to learn as much as possible about the food and beverage industry and the methods of its thieves. I was surprised to learn that no loss prevention and investigative guide book was available for restaurateurs or bar owners. That is; a guide to help them through the loss prevention investigative process, and how to bring the investigation to a successful conclusion. Needed was a comprehensive guide that would provide step-by-step guidance on the finer points of how to recognize the scams, identify the suspects, how to conduct a successful internal investigation, and the termination process. That is, a how-to book on how to rid the restaurant or bar of the dishonest employee. There was no such book available.

      One interesting book I found on the subject of restaurant dishonesty was written as a scam bible for restaurant servers and bartenders. It’s a how-to guide written by a couple of bartenders who found humor in telling others how to steal from the restaurant that employs them. The authors provided a disclaimer that the book was fiction and was not meant as a guide to steal. They made every attempt to characterize the book as anecdotal humor about the restaurant industry. If in fact it was intended to be humorous, the punch line is easily missed. There was nothing funny about it. Employee theft in the restaurant industry is a serious problem and is no laughing matter.

      After reading the book it occurred to me that since the dishonest employees now had a handbook on how to steal it was only fair that the managers responsible for stopping them have a guide of their own. There was a need for a guide that would assist them in the process of identifying, apprehending, and prosecuting dishonest employees. That is, a guide that would provide assistance in their effort to send thieving employees to jail for stealing company profits. So, this book, in part, goes out to all those thieving employees who thought they saw a bit of humor in stealing profits from the restaurant that helped them to provide for their families each day.

      This book will identify the scams that are perpetrated daily in the food and beverage industry. But more importantly, it will guide you through the investigative process once you have identified the problem. It’s one thing to know that you have a thief, but knowing how to deal with the problem may be even more important.

      I have written this book in what I hope is an easy-to-read format. I have avoided using mind boggling statistics and confusing police jargon. I have included pertinent police and investigative stories that will drive home the point. I want this to become a manual, a quick reference guide to be used when you encounter or suspect a thief is working in your restaurant. My goal is to take you from simple suspicion to criminal conviction one page at a time. Making your restaurant more profitable is our goal, yours and mine.

      _____ Chapter ONE _____

      LOSS PREVENTION MEETS OPERATIONS

      Becoming a Restaurateur, a Dream Come True

      For some, owning and operating a restaurant is a life-long goal and the culmination of a long career in the restaurant industry. For others, the professional satisfaction comes from opening another corporate run restaurant. Either situation has its rewards and challenges. But the high failure rate can turn a dream into a nightmare and has a devastating effect on many.

      Each restaurant failure has an effect on the economy. The success of a restaurant has a direct impact on the livelihoods of its honest employees. There are many reasons to strive to make a restaurant profitable, the livelihood of its employees notwithstanding. Perhaps this is why some honest employees will sometimes step forward to blow the whistle on those who they feel are jeopardizing their livelihood. When an employee has the courage to do this, stop and listen… with an open mind!

      The restaurant workplace is commonly described as a family atmosphere. This is true even in the corporate owned, multi-store, franchisee restaurant environment. Much time is spent with co-workers and the natural progression is to form a bond with those individuals whom you like and have common interests. A number of personal relationships are formed. An example of this is the significant number of co-worker marriages that have taken place after meeting in the restaurant workplace. This is a common occurrence and speaks to the power of the relationships that can develop between two employees in this type of setting.

      The downside to this is that this type of family atmosphere is not conducive to apprehending the restaurant’s thieving employee. The restaurant manager, both the general manager and the assistants, may have already fallen into

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1