Highway service stations and gas stations

Digital inventory in highway service stations and petrol stations - fast, accurate and reliable

You probably know it: the F&B area at highway service stations and petrol stations is extremely complex. Every day, you have hundreds of customers taking snacks, drinks or a hot meal to go. Due to shift work and frequently changing employees, not everything always goes according to plan - and at the end of the month, stocktaking is due. Traditional counting with slips of paper and Excel takes an enormous amount of time. A precise digital inventory, on the other hand, saves you valuable hours and protects you from losses. In fact, an average of 20% of turnover is lost every month in the food service industry due to shrinkage and theft. With the right tools for digital stocktaking in service areas and petrol stations, you can keep track of snacks, drinks, hot food, baked goods, etc. and significantly reduce such losses.

Inventory in the F&B area of petrol stations - what is important

In a modern highway service station, there is a huge selection of F&B products that all need to be recorded. For efficient digital stock control in your service station, you should pay particular attention to the following areas:

• Refrigerated shelves: Sandwiches, wraps, salads, drinks and dairy products are stored here ready to hand. An inventory in the chiller cabinet must keep track of both the number of items and best-before dates.
• Bake store and counter: Freshly baked rolls, croissants and hot snacks (such as liver cheese rolls or sausages) are standard. This area requires a fast, digital bakery store inventory, as the goods change daily.
• Coffee module & to-go station: Coffee machines with milk supply, disposable cups, sugar and hot counters for burgers or pizza - all of these must also be counted. These products are often open or individual, which makes the inventory of snacks and drinks challenging.
  

As you can see, stocktaking here doesn't just mean counting shelves, but recording all F&B areas in a structured way. Added to this is the personnel factor - often few staff and high time pressure. Traditional stocktaking is often left undone because high staff turnover (fluctuation) and ongoing operations leave little room for counting.

Challenges in everyday life

The stressful shift operation of a service station poses particular challenges when it comes to stocktaking. Different employees work on the same shelves at different times of the day, making it easy for counting errors or discrepancies to occur. In addition, shrinkage, breakage and spoilage often occur in the F&B store: broken bottles, theft or expired goods lead to losses that you can hardly quantify without an inventory. Goods with a short shelf life in the chiller cabinet must be removed from the shelves in good time, otherwise they end up in the garbage can as a write-off. Another problem is the limited resource of time: you usually have neither extra staff nor the leisure to spend hours taking stock. As a result, stocktaking is delayed or only carried out superficially - and this is where money is lost.

How BarBrain helps with stocktaking

This is where BarBrain comes into play as inventory software for highway service stations. The app was specially developed for F&B inventory and is a perfect fit for rest stop gastronomy. It works without time-consuming scanning or expensive hardware - so you can get started right away. Specifically, BarBrain offers you the following functions and benefits for digital stocktaking at petrol stations and service areas:

• Simple quantity recording: Instead of laboriously counting each item with pen and paper or scanning each barcode individually, you can use convenient +/- widgets and sliders in BarBrain. You can enter quantities at the touch of a finger - quickly and accurately.
• Intuitive operation - even for temporary staff: The app is so simple that even new employees or temporary staff can use it without a long training period. Everyone in your team can help with stocktaking straight away, which is extremely important in shift work.
• Structure by area: You can digitally map your warehouse as it is on site - for example by refrigerated shelf, counter, bakery, storage room, etc. This clear structure helps with counting and prevents anything from being forgotten. Each department of your restaurant is recorded separately and you end up with a complete overview.
• Offline mode: No WLAN connection in the cold store? No problem. BarBrain works offline, so you can count even in the cold store or back warehouse. The data is stored locally and synchronized as soon as you are online again. This means that your digital stock control in the filling station remains seamless - even without a permanent internet connection.
• Digital snapshot (key date inventory): BarBrain provides you with a finished inventory report as a snapshot on the cut-off date - ideal for the tax consultant or head office. You get a clean inventory list of all F&B items at the touch of a button. The results can be exported or forwarded directly. Important: BarBrain works without live data - in other words, you deliberately carry out an inventory on a key date and then receive a reliable report (instead of automatic continuous recording). This inventory snapshot gives you and the management clarity without you having to manually prepare figures afterwards.

Advantages for service station operators and service stations

Why is digital stocktaking in your petrol station worthwhile? Here is an overview of the biggest advantages:

• Less time, high accuracy: digital tools allow you to drastically shorten stocktaking. A manual inventory at a petrol station can typically take 1.5 to 3 hours - with BarBrain you can do it in a fraction of the time. Many BarBrain users report that they have been able to halve their stocktaking time. Accuracy remains high, as typing errors and transposed figures on paper are eliminated.
• Recognize shrinkage patterns: Regular digital stocktaking means that losses are noticed immediately. For example, you can see if certain drinks are missing from your refrigerated shelves disproportionately often or if a lot of items are left over in the bakery every Friday. Recognizing such patterns means better control: you can counteract theft and reduce write-offs of perishable goods. In this way, you can recoup some of the 20% of lost sales that would otherwise disappear unnoticed in everyday life.
• Better reorder planning: If you always know the current status of your snacks and drinks thanks to digital stocktaking, you can reorder in a much more targeted manner. Shortages and overstocks are noticed immediately. You avoid empty refrigerated compartments for bestsellers as well as overstocking slow sellers. The result: less discarding of expired products and always enough stock for your customers - a real competitive advantage for any restaurant.
• Central overview for multiple locations: Do you operate several petrol station stores or service stations as a franchise? With standardized inventory software for freeway service stations, the head office can also keep track of everything. BarBrain enables standardized stocktaking across all locations. As the operator, you can see the results of your branch and the management can compare and intervene across all locations. This creates transparency and trust - nobody feels like they are flying blind anymore because all the figures are available in black and white.
  

"It used to take over two hours to do the inventory at my highway service station - a real nightmare at the end of the month. With BarBrain, it takes me less than an hour and I finally have an overview again. Even my temporary staff get to grips with the app. In the last six months, our shrinkage has gone down noticeably because we monitor it much more closely. I would never have thought that stocktaking at the petrol station could be so stress-free and quick!"

Conclusion: Less stress, more control - with BarBrain

Whether it's taking stock of refrigerated shelves in a petrol station store, counting baked goods in a bistro or keeping an inventory of all drinks and snacks - with a digital solution like BarBrain, you can now do what used to be a chore quickly and reliably. For you as an operator, this means less stress and more control: you save time, reduce losses and can concentrate on your day-to-day business. A digital inventory for motorway service area restaurants is therefore no longer a nice-to-have, but actually a must. If you want to run your freeway service station store efficiently, BarBrain is the ideal partner at your side - inventory service station made easy, from the refrigerated counter to the coffee corner. Have a good trip and full shelves at all times!