Ex-barstaff come assistant manager here from a local boozer from many, many years ago.

We had a rule that the barstaff got first dibs on the deals if the smackheads came in with their goodies like you say (meat / coffee / Gillette triple bladers were big sellers…), and only then the customers came second. Crazy how even then your sweet old lady having her shandy top was in that queue 🙈