RFID Brews Up Valuable Beer Data for Restaurant

Restaurant companies often mine consumer data to make core decisions regarding how they can serve the specific clientele at each of their town or neighborhood locations, and sometimes whether those demographics will work for their services at all. In many cases, restaurants pay for data that may be based on polls not specific to their restaurant or the locations they are considering.

Oak & Stone has taken a different approach by leveraging passive UHF RFID technology from iPourIt for self-serve walls at the company's first two establishments. The restaurant chain has one establishment in Sarasota, Fla., with a beer wall that, for the past two years, has leveraged RFID technology to provide patrons with self-service capability. The data that the business can gather includes the demographics of beer and cider drinkers, including their age, gender and residential area. This data is linked to their beverages of choice, as well as how much they actually drink of each product.

When patrons arrive at the restaurant, they can simply order food and related beverages in the traditional way: from a food server at a table. Those who wish to sample a craft beer or cider can take things into their own hands by presenting a driver's license and a credit card to a bartender or another restaurant employee. The worker scans the license's bar code, as well as the user's credit card, and then provides a wristband that comes with a built-in RFID tag. The data is stored in the cloud-based iPourIt software, and the user is permitted to pour up to 40 ounces of beer or cider.

The customer can next proceed to the beer wall, which features a row of nearly 60 taps, each of which dispenses rotating American brews. Every tap comes with its own dedicated reader antenna, as well as a tablet-sized display (known as an iPourIt Taplet) in front of the reader antenna. The display lists the name and other information about the specific beer or cider connected to that tap. Most drinks are locally brewed by small craft companies, Seidensticker says.

The beer wall offers drinkers an opportunity to sample a beverage before committing to buying an entire glass, Seidensticker explains. Before pouring a $10 or $12 pint, for instance, a customer could try an ounce and decide whether or not to order more. "The craft beer scene has been booming," he states, and while some restaurants are adding beer walls to their bars or restaurants to provide craft beer sampling and serving, "We decided if we do it, we should go all in."