POS Feature

Aldelo Express and the Two Drink Minimum

The Two Drink Minimum is a staple at comedy clubs, night clubs, Jazz clubs and bars across the United States.  Its intent is to guarantee a minimum food or drink ticket for each guest and help a venue recover the cost of operations at the same time lowering the entry fee to the club or bar. (Probably helps you laugh a little more at some bad jokes too).  This is enforced by a variety of methods from upfront charges that get you tickets or tokens to trade in for drinks, to ticket requirements built into the point of sale. (This is supported in Aldelo POS for Windows and Aldelo Express for iPad and Android)

So why is this popular in Clubs and Bars? 
Clubs and Bars that bring in entertainment to entice guest still need to pay for the simple things that keep a business running. The brink and mortar building, lights, staff, insurance, city licensing and more all adds up.  Being able to require a minimum number of drinks helps ensure a minimum ticket for each guest.  It also encourages you to purchase addition food, drinks, or services the club might offer since the wait staff is already coming by.  The Aldelo software will help merchants keep track of this requirement by providing a prompt to the server when they try to close out a ticket that the requirement has not been met.  It then their decision if this should be overridden or not.

Why are the drink prices so high?
Not only dues the business need to pay for the insurance, staff and all the things mentioned above, but the entertainment is not free either!  Its not uncommon that a portion (if not all) of the drink revenue goes to the entertainer. Good entertainment cost money and a portion of this cost is passed in the per drink cost at some venues.

Do Non-Alcoholic Drinks Count toward this Two Drink Minimum?
Yes, Venues will allow non-Alcoholic beverages to count toward this minimum as most venues realize not everyone will want to be drink for a variety of reasons and normally venues will have nonalcoholic beverages and maybe even food that will allow them to satisfy this requirement.  In most cases its simply mean to stop people from just coming and seeing a free show that the venue might have a lot invested in. (Remember, good entertainment is not cheap).
 
The Two drink minimum has been around in the US for a long time and is probability not going anywhere soon. As venues continue to search for ways to attract new customer and keep cost down this practice may even see a resurgence as venues reopen after Covid 19