It’s routine today for restaurants to put bottles of hot sauce on their tables or in an area where guests can help themselves to condiments. For some patrons, the temptation is too much; they end up slipping the whole bottle into a purse or backpack, figuring it’s no big deal for the establishment to lose a container or two. But those thefts can add up, as Jezabel’s Café in Philadelphia pointed out to Restaurant Business’ own Advice Guy.
Bottles of its proprietary heat infuser were walking off with too much regularity. The proprietors tried providing ramekins of the house mix instead of a whole bottle, but that adjustment proved too wasteful; much of the condiment serving ended up being tossed. Instead, Advice Guy counseled, how about guaranteeing the thieves a mess if they tried to swipe a bottle? Keep putting bottles on the table, but don’t include a cap or other sort of stopper.