Patron Estimate Question #2

[djdbarton]

First of all, I would like to thank "barworker" for his suggestion to my first question. Now, for my second question:.

Can any bar / lounge owners with spaces ranging from 2000 to 3000 square feet let me know how many people you serve per week (ballpark)? And let me know what kind of establishment you run (ie, sports bar, bar, lounge, etc)?

The reason I am asking is because I want to gauge what range I could hope to fall in for the lounge I am planning. Obviously there will be different factors as to why you have as many people as you do, but I am hoping it will give me a starting point from which to wrap my head around some numbers.

Specifically, I am wanting these ballpark figures so I can make a rough estimate which to use when talking to vendors about projecting costs. (This is all for business planning).

Thanks for any feedback. Cheers.

[David]

We operate a Nightclub. Our square footage is ~ 4000 plus. We usually, on average, get 2800 people a week. Our average expenditure is ~$20 per person. That includes the $3 to $5 door charge. The reason that our average is so high is that we are a higher-end club and sell more top shelf liquors and martini's.

The big difference between your lounge project and our nightclub is this.

People will tend to arrive early at a lounge and pace themselves on the alcohol. They will normally spend a fair amount of money and tip more. They are normally older, 30 plus and don't have the need or want to really stay out late. They are there to meet friends or conduct business. Though they will consume more of the top shelf items, they will drink slower, thus spending less money. The place will look busy, but the sales will show another story. This isn't always true, but in the four to five hours that you hold these people captive, you will usually have the same people for the duration.


Whereas, a nightclubs clientele will tend to rotate throughout the night. The patrons will also arrive later in the evening and only stay if the atmosphere is conducive to a party. It's usually a younger crowd, 21 to 30. This age demo usually has a short attention span and needs a lot of energy and action to keep them entertained. They will tend to spend more money in a shorter period of time. They might hop from club to club to see who has the best party and then return to the club with the most people and action. Or, in most cases nowadays, they will split up and case each club separately. They will call each other via their cell phones and let each other know who's rockin' and who's dropin'. We are open from 4:30p to 2am. We usually see an older, mainly female, group during the 4:30p to 9p time slot. Drinking Martini's and etc. Between 9p and 10:30p those older people filter out and the younger crowd starts to filter in. We normally get the mainstay of our younger crowd between 11p and midnight. It's not uncommon to have 150 to 200 people through the door in the 11p to midnight time slot.

As you can see, there is a lot of Bar Psychology involved here.