Linking modifiers to inventory stock / 86ing an item across an entire menu

[SlowHandBBQ]

Hello,

We are a BBQ Restaurant that has a pretty extensive menu.  Our biggest sellers are our smoked meats, as you would guess.  But we have a bunch of other items that use those smoked meats IN the item.  For example- we have pulled pork.  We also have loaded fries, a flatbread, meal deals, and build-your-own platters that all have pulled pork as an option.

I can't seem to find any way to have the pulled pork stock linked to the pulled pork option/modifier on the other items.  It would be an enormous timesaver if I could 86/delete the pulled pork "mother" item (I guess that's how you could say it?) and then that would also delete the pulled pork option across the entire menu.

Right now when we 86 an item like pulled pork it takes me nearly 15 minutes of going through the entire menu to 86 all of the items with a pulled pork option individually. Does anyone have a solution for this?

[keicollective]

Tagging a few other Super Sellers in the food industry to see if they have any insight  

@pessosices @ryanwanner @BeChewzy @Donnie-M @artizansty 

[JJ_]

Thanks for this @keicollective

Thank you for taking the time to share your interest in this feature @SlowHandBBQ I recommend you submit a Feature Request here. This will help our product team get visibility on your request. When submitting a request, please make sure to include the desired feature, and provide the details of how this feature will help your business succeed.

[artizansty]

Hey @SlowHandBBQ, just to validate, it sounds like you’re tracking stock levels, and are you wanting to decrement whenever an option for that item (pulled pork in your example) is sold, or are you trying to stop the option being able to be selected when it’s run out across other items?

So we run a cafe during the day that turns into a cocktail bar at night. We had the same issue with mixers that can be added to things like gin or vodka, but that can also be purchased on their own (eg lemonade).

Originally had it set up like what it sounds you have, with a lemonade item which has a price and stock quantity, and a lemonade option on our gins and vodkas that had a price increment but not tied to stock. This didn’t work and threw our stock management out of whack, so we created a “Mixers” display group and there the items in there, and put that display group inside our Gin section, and added the existing display group to our Vodka section, so the flow for staff was essentially:

Choose spirit 

Choose mixer

instead of

Choose spirit + mixer in one item.

This solved our stock issue. However if we had online ordering or table ordering (we don’t) then it would have required clarified messaging on the spirits that mixers were a separate item to choose versus an option of their spirit purchase. If you have either online or table ordering, all I can suggest is being explicit, if it’s even possible for how customers would typically buy your products, this option might be a complete bounce out for you.

The other thing to think about is if you charge for things differently when they’re bundled with other items and have different prices, you might wanna set up automatic discounts to apply when certain products are bought together.

Hope this helps, and definitely throw in a feature request, but I totally understand if you’re a little frustrated when that suggestion comes without something you can try in the meantime to tie you over. Hope the above does help you at least a little!

[BeChewzy]

Hey @SlowHandBBQ this would be a feature request, but something that I have been looking into building into a system myself. Your scenario, like most other restaurants needs a non-sellable item inventory that can be related back to sellable menu items. I run into this with similar products like risotto or shrimp that go across multiple dishes as the main stay or as a side or topping. If you have 15 or 30 min happy to sit down and look at your current setup and see how I can possibly help or build some kind of kill switch through the api calls in the backend.

[Allenbbq]

We need this, too. We would like to be able to 86 modifiers (for example, shredded brisket on a burger or extra meat). Many have dollar values associated. If I run out of shredded brisket, I cannot remove it from the modifiers. Another example is a 2-item meat plate. The options include shredded brisket as one of the items. Also, loaded fries has your choice of meat. I can figure out a way to handle some things - for example, I will design a new menu that starts with the meat, then allows the modifier to be chosen.

Example: Brisket

Modifiers - Sandwich, Taco, Loaded Fries, Plate or side

In that case, I 86 Brisket and now no one can order brisket fries or a brisket sandwich. I cannot 86 "add brisket" to burgers or a 2-meat plate. Also, if the modifiers are on the website, it could be confusing. I wish I could choose to make only some modifiers visible online. This would help this issue, but may also be another issue in itself.

[Allenbbq]

I guess I also have the problem when it comes to loaded fries: If fries is a modifier to each meat and I run out of fries, I cannot 86 the fries modifier. If I have fries with a meat modifier and run out of brisket, I cannot 86 the brisket modifier. 

I guess to make it all work, I just need to be sure to never run out of anything ever!