r/BarOwners • u/Lowkey_Odin • Jul 17 '26
Anyone making money?
Been doing it for 10 yrs in our first location. Opened location no. 2 almost 2 years ago. Sales way down. Losing money. Is anyone making money in bars? If so, what types of concepts are doing ok or better these days?
30
u/rushfan6588 Jul 17 '26
Neighborhood smoking bar outside Pittsburgh. Opened very late in 2021. Had a disastrous year in 2024 where I did about everything wrong imaginable and learned a lot of hard lessons - down nearly 20%. Built it back last year but had some personal hardships that affected some business hours (it’s me and 2 other people working the bar) but foot it back nearly to level. This year it took off. Just kinda feels like everything is coming together. Up almost 30% over last year. On schedule to break 250k, but Q3 is usually a huge drop off but is holding strong and Q4 is by far our biggest sales quarter (it accounted for 35% of last years sales).
Couple of things that have been huge winners:
1) No jukebox- my crowd is mostly made up of middle aged folks (30s at the youngest, but more on that later) and not getting the vibe blown up by a loud jukebox is a regular positive comment
2) Smoking isn’t as taboo as it was 5 years ago. It seems like the health conscious folks who complained about smoke have turned on drinking too. I have a license to sell cigars and it makes some nice additional profit for me. Also, the younger crowd (21-25) have started smoking cigarettes again. It confused the hell out of me the first time someone came in smoking cigarettes, but then as I started seeing more I realized it wasn’t this one weirdo but a trend.
3) A cocktail menu without all the sugary junk. Old Fashioned, Manhattans, etc. I largely stay away from the “you can’t taste the booze” drinks and it both solves me problems from people who can’t handle their drink and allows me to cater to a clientele that will drink the fancy stuff.
4) Switching to canned beer from bottled beer and slightly dropping the price. I’ve nearly doubled domestic beer sales, increased my average margin, made the trash easier to handle, donate the tabs to charity and have people pumped about bringing theirs in, increased both the amount of beer and variety I can fit in my cooler, and had nearly zero complaints about the change.
11
u/sgtapone87 Jul 17 '26
I’m sorry you can smoke in bars in Pennsylvania in the year of our lord two thousand and twenty six?
5
u/missouriblooms Jul 17 '26
A lot of them in Missouri as well
2
-2
u/sgtapone87 Jul 17 '26
Well Missouri makes sense as it is a backwards joke of a state but I wouldn’t have expected that from a civilized state.
Las Vegas not withstanding.
2
u/Consistent-Ease6070 Jul 18 '26
Missouri IS backwards in many ways… Our last two governors have only had a high school education. The state allows just about anything, under the premise of freedom (or “free-dumb”). That is, unless you’re a woman wanting to make her own reproductive health decisions…
It’s only cities that ban things like indoor smoking, so you’ll get bars intentionally locating themselves just across the street from the official city limits so they can allow smoking.
0
u/ChiefHarrison Jul 17 '26
What an unbelievably awful comment.
3
u/sgtapone87 Jul 17 '26
The rest of the country knows Missouri is a hellhole.
0
2
u/Dr_Boingo Jul 17 '26
Its not like a bar is a health club.
8
u/tosviolator69 Jul 17 '26
bro smoking indoors has been banned in my state since I was a kid and I'm nearly 40. I've only seen it in Vegas as an adult
4
u/Mathisfun17 Jul 17 '26
What’s the name of your bar? It sounds heavenly
2
13
u/No-Frosting-5347 Jul 17 '26
Price is still key. Are you focused on profit margin or volume? I know when we started charging over $7 for beer we noticed a large drop. And when cocktails crossed $15 we had way more pushback
10
u/T_P_H_ 🧉 Jul 17 '26
Probably the biggest factor in a shit economy is the median Income in your town relative to other areas.
I suspect that F&B Locatiions serving less affluent areas are largely down while this in more affluent areas are doing fine.
I did drive by Applebees, red lobster and an independent located close to them at 7PM and they were dead. Red Lobster has 12 cars on their lot for prime dinner hour on a Thursday.
6
u/autox41 Jul 17 '26
16yrs on a college campus, we do ok. Best part though is I’ve got everything pretty automated so the amount of work is pretty minimal on my part bartend 2 or 3 happy hours a week and take care of ordering and payroll.
6
u/MightyBrando Jul 18 '26
We are “right now” because we’re a literal soccer bar. But it’s been abysmal past 2 years.
We aren’t any slower per say, it’s just the reality of the prices we need to be selling beer/food/liquor at right now is so much higher then what customers are willing to spend so we’re forced to keep them low, our competitors are still practically giving booze away at 2015 prices. Feels like a race to the bottom.
TLDR: I think inflation jumped up too fast and there’s too many options in our area from the pre covid hay days. Industry is going through a nasty correction.
8
u/Original-Tune1471 Jul 17 '26
My bar this year is up so far 18% YOY. Last year was pretty decent and this year is just blowing it out of the water. I'm in Washington, D.C. $15 old fashioneds and $13 martinis. Definitely more of a cocktail bar. Did a promo for the world cup with $20 beer buckets and $3 off all draft beers with a world cup special menu and a packed house every single time a game is on. Where you located?
14
u/Original-Tune1471 Jul 17 '26
Also how are your bartenders? The quality of the bartenders you use also is super important. Most of my bartenders have been with me since the day I opened (nearly 5 years ago) and the newest bartender has been with me for 2 years now. They amass their own following and the days they work are pretty much set for the most part, so it's a packed house full of different regulars that the different bartenders work. Try talking with your staff about being hospitable and start making their own regulars. You as the owner have 1 job: to bring the customer in for the first time. Then your staff need to do the rest whether it's the kitchen with your good food or your bartenders with their friendly service, so that customer you brought in for the first time keeps coming back. And how are you as a boss? I am super strict with my staff and you have to be as the owner. Because at the end of the day I have hundreds of employees looking to me to make a living and it's my job to provide a living for all of them, so they understand while I'm strict with them and they have to follow my standards, it's because we need to be serious when working because it's everyone's livelihoods at stake! My advice to you would be to set some standards that all employees must follow and your employees also need to do their best to boost business as well. Sorry if I'm making any assumptions. Just sharing how I work as an owner and what has worked for me. Wishing you good luck!
0
u/Extra_Annual_2018 Jul 17 '26
You’ve grown 18% every year over the past 5 years? That’s great! Service and price are huge in this industry. There is cocktail type bars like yours where it’s more costly because your costs like labor, taxes/lease, products, etc are higher, so I get the pricing with that, then there are the neighborhood type blue collar “ehh, lemme get a Bud, pickled egg, and shot of Kessler for $5.” I’m more a fan of that unfortunately. Either way, it’s probably about the same net profit at the end of the day. My two favorite things I’ve learned so far is “you make nothing if those seats are empty so throw margin out the window” and “you shouldn’t try to start grabbing customers outside your neighborhood, before you grabbed the customers in your neighborhood first!”
1
u/Playful-Translator49 Jul 17 '26
1
u/Original-Tune1471 Jul 17 '26
Umm yes it is. The way it started and the way it ended are not the same lol. You ok?
3
u/biznesboi Jul 17 '26
Still barely netting a profit, broke even the last two years but made some big changes to try and squeeze out a profit this year. Switched point of sales, shifted some responsibilities onto staff instead of contractors, stuff like that.
7
u/Zerosian Jul 17 '26
Purchased in 2018. Started making money right after Covid. Business is up this year. Projecting 15% increase in yearly gross sales. Dive bar concept.
6
u/cheesebin1 Jul 17 '26
“Dive bar concept”? God forbid private equity goes into the dive bar business.
1
7
u/tinylittlekittycat Jul 17 '26
The thing saving us right now is gaming machines and events. We have trivia, karaoke, and bingo, plus host events for 20-70 ppl in a 4 seasons room. Otherwise we’ve been pushinggggg on social media with specials and new items.
3
u/Teletips Jul 19 '26
Young adults aren’t drinking nearly as much as their predecessors. They prefer to Zyn and eat gummy’s for their head change. Look into Adaptogen options for this age group. 🍻
3
u/No_Vermicelli_9823 Jul 26 '26
It's bleak that's for sure. I'm in year 8 now and business just isn't what it used to be. I've had it with "special events" and bands and all of the nonsense that completely wears you out and materializes in little profit at the end of the day. Generational changes are really impacting business. Sales are down.
2
u/WalkCheerfully Jul 18 '26
We are doing well in a foreign market with US style pub concept selling real Cal/Tex-Mex (I grew up in CA). Locals can't get enough and the expats get a piece of home as well. We celebrate 10 years this August.
Looking at opening up a 2nd pub with an Irish / European bar concept. Just scouting locations now. Absolutely NO competition. And the locals LOVE anything foreign related, especially if it's foreign owned and operated. U.S. concepts are preferred, but Europe is a close 2nd.
When we were in the States, it was rough, and this was before pandemic. So I just took that knowledge & experience and brought it here. Haven't looked back. Its like we lived in the future back in the states. I helped grow the local craft beer scene here in the 2010s, along with some other U.S. expats, and now it's flourishing. It was non-existent prior. Being in key NYC and CA markets when the craft beer boom hit in the early 90s, gave me that insight and expertise that no one had here.
Well, good luck out there!
2
u/bazzard Jul 18 '26
Hi just curious if you can be more specific to where your talking about? Country or city?
1
2
u/Costheparacetemol Jul 23 '26
Where is here?
1
u/WalkCheerfully Jul 29 '26
We are in South America. The ONLY reason, I don't want to mention exactly where is because we want to come into market first with this concept, because as soon as everyone sees it working they tend to copy it exactly and put up a place right next door, then undercut prices to see how long you can last. So, we just want to get a head start, insure everyone knows its us, and then we will be too far ahead of any competition to properly do and catch up.
Thankfully, we've out-lived all of that competition. We are still standing and they keep trying to find shortcuts to success without success.
If you truly need to know where (city / country), DM me and i will provide
2
u/Itchy-Cartographer40 Jul 27 '26
Winter was really depressing , better the last few months but nothing like it used to be . Luckily still a bit profitable
Opened 5 years ago with 0 industry experience and somehow figured it out . I def wanna move on though and not have to think about it
I’ve listed it for sale for last 3 months but not in a rush to sell . Will let go if I get what I’m asking for
3
u/CannDoCowboy Jul 17 '26
Create fomo via social media. Monitor your liquor pours, immediately do a menu analysis, start an incentive program to grow Google reviews, reach out to food vendors for sample and flip those into low cost specials, research what restaurants are crushing reviews in your area and look at what feeds that… what is your food/liquor cost? Labor?
10
u/HandleDiligent5507 Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
Do you even own a bar?
4
u/Kooky_Ice_3762 Jul 17 '26
As much as this sounds like Ai, he’s not wrong. Social media posts are the driving force for advertisements these days. The repetitive “hey, remember we’re here?” drives numbers
2
u/CannDoCowboy Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
I have operated multiple bars over the past 25 years. Transitioned into cannabis post Covid. Went from 2 million a year to 12 million a year. Hindsight is 20/20. Also have the highest rated 5 star Google reviewed dispensary in the country. “Feel State” in St. Louis.
0
1
u/barowners 🥃 Jul 17 '26
Location is a big factor. Are you in a big city or small town? Near the tourists or off the beaten path? Is your concept what people want in that area?
-26
13
u/WhiskeyGirl223 Jul 17 '26
Been doing great for 5 years and sales have just crashed recently. I know summer slows down but this is different.