Congratulations on your decision to check coats in a New York bar! We hope the suggestions listed below will help you to get the most out of this exciting career. Let's get started!
1. Get plenty of sleep before your shift. If you work on a Friday, you can expect to contend with the happy hour crowd plus the Friday night crowd. Your shift will probably start around 5:30 P.M. and wrap up around 4:00 A.M. But you won't be done yet! You'll have to wait another 15 minutes or so for your manager to count the money in the cashbox and give you what you're owed ($1 for each coat you check). You'll arrive around 8:30 on a Saturday night because you won't have to accommodate happy hour. Either way, be sure to be well-rested.
2. Wear tight clothes. Not only will this help you earn more tips from tispy male customers, it will help you squeeze between overloaded racks of coats with maximum ease. Another tip: cram protruding sleeves between coats so they don't stick out from the rack. This will give you more space to move back and forth and decrease the likelihood that you'll pull coats off hangers as you walk through.
3. Hang heavy coats on two hangers. If you use plastic ones, a heavy coat will stretch the hooked part, causing the coat to fall off the rack where it will be harder to see (causing you to think you have lost it) or to become tangled up with your feet (causing you to trip and fall headlong into a wall of winter wear).
4. Be prepared! To burn through your line fast, have hangers waiting with tickets already on them. Have the bottom portions of the ticket already torn off (being very careful to keep them in numerical order - mix them up and you won't know whose number goes with which coat) and ready to hand to customers. Also, if you are an English major, practice your math skills, so that when a customer hands you three coats, two bags, and a $50 bill you can make change quickly.
6. Watch out for cheapskates. Allowing customers to put two coats on one hanger takes a chunk out of your income, plus it increases the likelihood that the second coat will slide off the hanger and compromise your impeccable organizational scheme. Insist on one coat per hanger. If the person checks a light sweater and a coat, both theirs, hang the sweater under the coat, putting the hanger through the arms of both. Stuff hats and scarves into the sleeves of coats - they should stay there - and button or zip a coat that looks like it might not stay put to help contain the layers.
7. Be strict about lost tickets. Be sure that the customer knows the official policy: no ticket, no coat. However, be charitable. After giving the customer a very hard time, consent to look for their coat. Ask them for a very specific description, including brand, size, and content of pockets. Make sure they are aware that telling you that "it's a black peacoat" won't help, as you have about 75 coats that match that description. Note: It's ok to be less suspicious of a patron who tells you their coat is from Old Navy (retail value: $40) than a patron who tells you their coat is from Prada (retail value: $700). Expect to be showered with tips when you find the missing coat.
8. Keep your liquid intake to a minimum and take bathroom breaks when you can get them. You'll be busy, and you're not supposed to leave the closet often. When you do, be sure to get the bouncer or the DJ to watch the door for you until you return.
9. Have ready a policy for customers who attempt to woo you. It is suggested that you tell anyone who asks that you don't give your number to people you meet at the bar. Stick to this policy, unless your suitor is very attractive.
10. Stretch before, during, and after. You'll wake up with sore muscles, particularly if you've got a lot of coats and have to resort to acrobatics to reach the top rack, like climbing up and down a chair or balancing on the paint can/industrial-sized can of enchilada sauce that you use for a step stool because the bar doesn't have one. Remind yourself that you're getting paid to exercise.
11. Budget. Expect to make anywhere between $120 and $375 a night, depending on the popularity of the bar on a given night and the generosity of the customers. Your income is a combination of tips, all of which you get to keep, and the contents of the cash box, of which you get 1/3 of the revenue you bring in. If a customer is too drunk to see clearly and tips you with a $20 instead of a $1, it is up to your discretion whether you point this out. Take into account the kindness of the customer and your mood, and remember that any verbal lessons you impart about drinking responsibly, regardless of your eloquence, may be forgotten in the morning anyway. Resist the urge to blow your loot on a cab ride when you stagger into the streets at 4:30 A.M. at the end of your shift.
Happy Coat Checking!
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