How a wines and spirits shop sells
A wines and spirits shop sells valuable, easily pocketed stock, often late into the night, to walk-in customers and bulk buyers alike. Most of the money sits in a few hundred lines, and one missing bottle of whisky wipes out the margin on a whole carton of beer.
Trade peaks on Friday evenings, at month end and before weddings, graduations and other functions. The common problems are the same in Nairobi, Thika or Mombasa:
- Bottles go missing and nobody can say on which shift.
- Breakages are written off by whoever is on duty, with no one checking.
- The night cashier’s drawer is short, and the owner only learns of it days later.
- Bulk buyers want a better price, and cashiers decide it themselves.
Wave POS is built for the shop counter and the off-licence trade: it does not run bar tabs or table service.
Bottles, cartons and crates on one till
Each bottle is a product with its own barcode, and a carton or crate is a pack that sells from the single bottles in stock. You keep one stock figure per bottle, whichever way it leaves the shop:
| Item | Sold as | Price |
|---|---|---|
| 750 ml red wine | One bottle | KSh 1,100 |
| 750 ml red wine | Carton of 12 | KSh 12,600 |
| 500 ml canned lager | One can | KSh 260 |
| 500 ml canned lager | Carton of 24 | KSh 5,900 |
With 60 bottles of the red wine on the shelf, selling one carton leaves 48. Prices can be entered with or without VAT, and if a few items carry a different tax treatment from your drinks, they can have their own rate; the VAT report totals it for the period.
Wholesale prices for bulk buyers
A wholesale price can apply by itself from a set quantity, or the cashier presses F3 to switch the till to wholesale for a trade customer. Say a 750 ml vodka sells at KSh 1,450, and at KSh 1,350 from six bottles: a customer buying ten for a function pays KSh 13,500 without anyone typing a new price. Kiosks and bars that buy from you every week can have a customer account with a credit limit. The wholesale pricing page explains both options.
Tight control of high-value stock
Count your most-stolen lines often, and make every write-off wait for a manager. Wave POS supports this in three ways:
- Stock takes of one category. Count only whisky and cognac on a Sunday night, or the whole branch at month end. Each count is checked against the stock at the moment it is entered, so the shop can stay open while you count, and differences post only when a manager completes the stock take.
- Adjustments with approval. A broken bottle is recorded as damaged and waits for a manager before it changes the stock. Approved write-offs show at cost in the profit and loss report.
- A ledger for every product. Every sale, return, purchase, transfer and adjustment is listed, so a missing bottle can be traced to a day.
The stock take guide and the guide to preventing shop theft cover the routine in more detail.
Cashier PINs and an audit log
Every cashier switches in with their own PIN, so every sale records who made it, and the till can be locked between customers. Large discounts and price changes need a manager’s PIN, and the audit log shows who did what and when. Roles decide who can void a sale, approve stock adjustments or see reports.
Late-night shifts and shift reports
A shift covers one cash drawer session, from the float the cashier starts with, through cash paid in and out, to a counted close that shows what is over or short. The shift report prints at close, and the shifts report keeps every one for later.
A worked example: the night shift opens at 6 pm with a KSh 5,000 float. At 11 pm the cashier counts KSh 48,350 in the drawer against KSh 48,600 expected, and the printed report shows a shortage of KSh 250. If a cashier leaves without closing, a manager can close the shift from the back office the next morning. Read more about staff and shifts.
If the internet drops at night, the till keeps selling, and the sales are sent in order when the connection returns.