[thechat] Stocking the bar

[Isaac Forman]

> I think it's like building a web site.  YEAH THAT'S THE TICKET!

Yeh, you can build the thing and then there's no guarantee that anyone
will show up... ;)
 
> Most people in bars are there to spend, so once you draw in your 
> intended audience, you just want to make it pleasant for them, and 
> they will naturally hang out, drink and spend money.

I disagree with that. From my (limited) experience, I'd say that some
are there to spend, but the majority are just trying to appear socially
competent.

I get people coming in who frantically look around the bar for something
that doesn't sound too childish, too alco, too expensive, etc. For those
people, you're best off stepping forward and making suggestions.
Especially when we get foreigners in (Spanish, Italian, Dutch, etc), I
make a special point of giving tasters of the beers on offer so they can
choose something they'll like. Some of our best experiences on our trip
so far have come through local knowledge -- on our first night in Chile,
Javier took us out to three restaurant/bars and we had a great night.
We'd *never* have managed that on our own (no Spanish, no map, etc). In
Edinburgh, we went to a beer festival with Martin, Kate got tips from a
co-worker on where to go dancing, etc. And in Slovenia, we had relatives
who took us to the national pizza-making champion, and to fantastic
restaurants in the alps. When local knowledge fails, the next best thing
are people who take the first step into offering tastes of whatever's
going. In Madrid, we were caught in a serious riot, and trapped in a
restaurant (literally, locked) for about 2-3 hours. We couldn't
communicate with any of the staff, but they gave us free beers, chips,
slices of fine ham, tapas, etc. I've got a photo of the barman,
Rodriguez, wielding the leg of a pig like a baseball bat. Here it is:

http://bigtrip.org/gallery.cfm?dir=2003%2D03%2D22%5FMadrid%2C%5FSpain

Annnyway, another group of people are those who are there to act in a
social manner while spending/drinking as little as possible. They drink
slowly and try to avoid saying 'no thanks' when you notice their glass
is empty and offer them another drink. They hide behind other patrons,
or leave half an inch in the bottom of their pint glass.


My favourite techniques for encouraging spending at the bar are to (a)
call customers "lightweights" and taunt them into drinking more, or (b)
give them targets, like "only a few more and you'll have drunk us all
out of Bud!" or "last week's wedding went through 5 large bottles of
Smirnoff. Are your crowd big drinkers?"


isaac