> > I actually don't agree with you.
>
> And I'll disagree with that.
> Granted that the bartender may not have much/any control over the
> interior design, If I DID I'm sure there's a few things that really
> work.
>
> - Island bars and protruding bars that allow eye-contact across the
> space! Even protruding corners are friendlier places than flat
> mid-bar. It really helps interaction between folk that are half-on
> rather than side-on.
I'm not saying it doesn't help...I'm saying that it doesn't make
conversation/interaction happen. Going back to my example, if I'm stuck in
an elevator or long line, I always start talking to people next to me (but
that's me)...Most people don't.
Gawd knows I'd never be able to find documentation, but a friend of mine went
to another college (one of about 6, weird guy...) where he helped run a study
that actually stuck about 200 people in line and they recorded the whole thing
and watched for conversations, interactions, body language (usually to the
effect of aggrivation), and a few other things. I read the list of
conclusions, one of which was that until people become angry and feel the need
to vent, they wouldn't start talking.
Obviously, in a bar setting with alcohol flowing, the chances both go up and
down depending on how outgoing the customers are. I've watched a few people
become very friendly with a couple of drinks and nothing better to do, and
I've also seen people clam up and be intimidated by the idea of talking to
somebody they don't know. My point is, while you might remove an obsticle (or
rather, made it less of an obsticle), you're still not making anything happen.
> - I love my toys and props, so anything that can be used as a
> conversation starter - a sculpture or other feature - wins.
> However too many items may mean that it ALL becomes background. I
> think the TGI folk observed how some of their decor used to lift the
> atmosphere - but then decided that having 5x as many 'fetures' would
> be 5x as good. Don't think it worked that way.
>
> (I should shut up, I'm partly responsible for
> http://www.coders.co.nz/image-archive/greece/alexanders/alexanders_11.jpg this
> interior design )
I like the idea of toys (hmm, that just sounds dirty) and props. Since our
city got absolutely ZERO attention from alcohol reps, the rare couple of promo
items that did come in were easy marks. Believe it or not, I even got to use
Hpnotiq as a conversation starter for the first month that we had it because
nobody had heard of it yet. Of course, most of this stuff started
conversations between me and customers, not between different customers. Good
for tips since it was usually during slow hours, would have been bad if I had
much of a rush going.
Another one just hit me. I also used to turn the TV to things that usually
got people talking. Obviously sports were an easy mark (at least american
football was, baseball and basketball bombed). I also turned on poker
tourney's (who knew people would love to talk about that). But the channel
that almost always got people talking the most was the Travel Channel. 3
minutes flat, anybody at the bar would have some comment about whatever was
on. No matter how many times that channel displayed the damn Hoover Dam or
displayed a random expensive hotel room, or possibly showed something good,
everybody had to either talk about wanting to go or how great it was when they
were there. Most times I didn't have to get the ball rolling either, but I
did if I needed to.
--
Cody