A little-known fact about popular bars is that they can create conversation among patrons using the layout of the bar’s walls, chairs, stools, etc. Have you ever been to a bar where everyone is forced to walk through a small doorway to cross between halves of the bar? It always seems to piss you off that you have to wait forever and cram through tons of people, but really what’s going on is that consciously or unconsciously the bar has a lot of people in it because that huge cluster-fuck is there.
People go to bars for social reasons. That is the purpose of a bar. Many people who go to bars are single or if they’re not single they might be “shopping” for a new person to date, and also most everyone is somewhat shy about starting conversations with the opposite sex. This means that when the physical layout of a bar can “force” people to have more interactions with each other, those people are more likely to come back to that bar because subconsciously they’ve figured out that they seem to meet more people at that specific bar. This is a “win-win” situation for the bar owners and the patrons both because not only do the bar patrons get what they want, the bar owners make more money.
This is bar science at it’s finest!
So what are the areas called where the layout of the bar forces people to talk to one another? They’re called conversation stimulators. Savvy bar owners know all about them because they’re a huge source of revenue and longevity for a bar.
I recommend you find these places of high volume and high traffic in bars and plant yourself right in the middle of them. If you can manage not to get “moved along” by a big bouncer with a flashlight, stick yourself right in the middle, and if you can’t, position yourself just to the side of the traffic so that women are constantly coming to you. The strategy here is that when you’re next to a conversation stimulator area, you’re going to have the highest number of interactions with people who have the highest likelihood of being at the bar to be social.
Think about it. One last note though…
Who sits in the corners of a bar away from the busy parts???
People who suck, that’s who. They’re either with a boyfriend or girlfriend or they’re staying out of the action because they’re lower energy level for whatever reason. You’ve also got a bunch of (what I call) “furniture” guys on the outskirts. These are guys who might as well be a lounge sofa because no one notices them and they talk to no one. They just stand there looking at all the other people having fun. I should know, I’ve been a piece of furniture myself at times. I used to just find a comfortable place on the side of the room where no one was making fun of me and watch all the other people while not engaging myself at all with them.
The moral of the story: Be someone who is in the thick of the action by putting yourself in the places where you can have the most number of interactions in the quickest amount of time. In a bar, this will often be in an area of congestion, or what knowledgeable bar designers call a “conversation starter.”