QR codes for bars and coffee shops

A bar changes its drinks list more often than a restaurant changes its menu: a seasonal special, a keg that ran out, a price that moved. That is exactly why the printed code on the table should be dynamic — you edit the destination in the morning and every table in the room is correct by opening time, with nothing reprinted.

The six codes a bar actually uses

One code per job, placed where the customer is already stopped: the table, the till, the window, the wall by the door, the receipt, the poster behind the bar.

The drinks list that is never out of date

Keep the page mobile-first and short: categories that fit on one screen, prices visible without pinching, and the specials at the top. Do not send the table code to a PDF — a PDF on a phone is a zoom exercise, and people give up before the third scroll. And leave a printed list at the bar for anyone who does not want to use a phone; the code is an addition, not a replacement.

One code per room is enough if the list is the same. If the terrace has its own prices or its own hours, print a separate code for the terrace — then the report also tells you how the two spaces perform.

Loyalty sign-up in the ninety seconds at the till

The moment of paying is the only moment in the whole visit when the customer is standing still with a phone already in hand. A small code by the till that opens the loyalty sign-up — one field, nothing more — converts better than any poster on the wall, because the wall is read while walking and the till is read while waiting.

The window that fills the quiet hours

Afternoons and Mondays are where the margin is lost. A code in the window, retargeted weekly to whatever you are pushing — two-for-one on filter coffee, the new pastry, Thursday's quiz — makes the glass work while the room is empty. Print the offer in words as well: the words stop the passer-by, the code closes them.

One code for the whole events programme

Live music, quiz night, screenings: print one events code on the poster behind the bar and on the table cards, and retarget it to the current programme page. The guest who scans in March and again in October sees two different line-ups from the same piece of print, and the scan count tells you which nights people are actually checking.

Print widths, and the two surfaces that break scans

Two failures are almost universal in bars. Glossy laminated table cards sit under a downlight or a candle and reflect it straight into the camera — laminate matte, and test the finished card at the actual table in the evening, not on your desk. And a code stuck flat on a table gets covered by glasses, spills and elbows: a small tent or the vertical edge of the table keeps it readable and dry.

Read the numbers like a bar report

Look at the scans weekly: the table code shows which hours people actually read the list, the window code shows whether the offer of the week landed, the loyalty code shows whether the till ask is working. And keep the promise honest with guests: the reports count reads — they never identify the people who scanned.