Default ice barrier between strangers can wreck business at bars and restaurants.

[traveller]

So, let's say you go to this great bar, and you go and visit this great bartender, Pat. You order drinks such as juice and water, even a few cheeseburgers, you have conversations with Pat, and so do many of Pat's other regulars. You even take a few fun selfies with Pat. And Pat gets a ton of large tips from regulars.

But one day, you go to that bar, and you see a stranger behind the bar, taking orders for drinks and food. You wonder what happened. You ask where is Pat, and you get the most dreadful reply in the world of nightlife;

"Pat does not work here anymore."

Your feelings are crushed, and then you finish your drink, pay your tab without a tip, and then leave with no thoughts of ever coming back. Three weeks later, and you see the regulars that used to visit Pat going to other bars. Or you see that Pat is working at another bar and that's where you and everyone else goes now. Five months later, and you get word that the bar Pat quit working at has closed it's doors. It closed because, when Pat quit, many regulars stopped going there, the place lost business and a lot of money because nobody was ready to break the ice with a stranger bartender, and the place couldn't stay open any longer.

In other words, when Pat quit working there, people that used to go there say; "That place ain't nothing but strangers now! Pat don't work there anymore, I ain't going back to a place that has gone right back to being nothing but strangers and their impenetrable, insurmountable walls of default solid ice!" And they don't go there anymore, either, and the bar (or restaurant, or "bar and grill" spot) loses a lot of business, and they lose business because Pat does not work there anymore and the regulars stopped going there due to the default ice barrier that exists between them and the new bartender that replaced Pat. And when that happens, the place loses customers, and when it loses customers, it loses money. And regulars (people that go there on a regular basis, whether it be weekly or even twice weekly, usually to visit the same bartender or server that works there with whom they have formed a connection), they bring in the lion's share of money and business to bars and restaurants.

That type of scenario happens all the time. People go to bars to socialize and make friends and feel a sense of belonging. Many people become attached to particular bartenders and then go to visit those particular bartenders. As long as those particular bartenders remain working there, the place makes money and does business. But once a bar gets rid of any of those particular favorites or one or more of them quits there, the business there can literally tumble.

There is a default ice barrier between all strangers. And that includes between patrons/customers and all stranger bartenders and all stranger servers at all bars and restaurants. When a stranger takes over behind the bar, the former regulars don't know who the new bartender is. They don't see any capability of fun, they only see a business person who wouldn't interact with them unless it's strictly business-related. In other words, all they see is a wall of solid opaque white ice. And then they leave, and for many of them, it's many months, sometimes up to a year or two, before even one of them comes back. The Indigo Room bar in Downtown Fort Myers never has any bartenders working there for any longer than 7 weeks maximum per individual bartender, hence the Indigo Room is completely dead and quiet as a cave, even during snowbird season, except on Friday nights and Saturday nights, and nobody ever goes there at all during the day. The constant turnover in bartenders there every 7 weeks is what keeps everyone away, snowbirds included, especially during the day.

The default ice barrier that exists between strangers can do serious heavy damage to customer service industry businesses such as bars and restaurants and can cause business at bars and restaurants to fall. Another thing that can drive old time regulars away even harder is if the new bartender is unattractive, especially if the new bartender is a senior citizen or even overweight, morbidly obese especially. Male regulars are also heavily driven away if their favorite bartender or server that quit was a woman and the new one that replaced her is a man. Numerous bars have even closed down for good after a favorite bartender, or multiple favorites, stopped working there and the regulars stopped going there.

Also, younger guys in general are not attracted to senior citizen/elderly female bartenders and servers. Guys that are in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, they don't usually like being served by some 70, 80, or 90 year old bartender or server that is all grayed and wrinkled by old age. The vast majority of younger guys want to visit female bartenders closer to their own age. Many guys also refuse to be around female bartenders that are morbidly obese and looking like they belong in northern Wisconsin or Alaska. They don't want to be around some 300 or 400 pound Jabba the Hutt that makes the place boring and un-entertaining.

Additionally, many guys don't like being served by all male bartenders, hence they avoid bars where the entire crew is a sausage fest and looking like a gay bar.