So, while driving to my soccer game tonight, I was thinking about "booking." For those who aren't up on Korean culture, "booking" is where you pay your server to introduce you to someone else, rather than you have to walk up to them with a good intro line. It's big in Koreatown in the Bay Area (the only article I could find on it is here - scroll down to Entry #36)
Anyway, I was mainly thinking about if I owned a club, how I would make this work. From my understanding, K-town is all about appearance - looking like you have money, confidence, and power. But lets say how would this work at a regular college bar, or even a yuppie bar? I'm sure there are tons of guys (and girls) out there who are afraid to make the first move - so would booking reduce this fear? If the behavior is socailly acceptable, and in fact expected at the bar you're at, then would people do it? And how much would patrons be willing to pay? Would a flat fee be the way to go? Or would a pure tip based system work for the servers? Would this system be any better than speed dating? I'm thinking that it would serve a different population than speed dating - which traditionally serves older, more established professionals who don't want to deal with the bar scene. College students, and even yuppies, who still dig bars and clubs, might be interested in booking as it still has some aspects of making the first move, but it lowers the bar, making others more approachable. Or maybe I'm just full of it - but I still think this is an idea that could result in some major money if done correctly . . .
