Bartender

Alex is aware that his career would come to an end when he reaches the age of twenty-eight, when he is already considered ‘old’ in the service industry.

With no qualifications from a higher education institution, no special skill-set, he is pondering about his short to medium term future. Maybe he would switch to another profession, maybe not.

But he does have a clear long term goal. He wants to have his own bar. He knows there is no alternative to survive other than to become his own boss. Besides, bartending is what he enjoys doing the most. He loves the freedom and the rather relaxed atmosphere that bars offer.

He spends a great deal of time and effort reflecting on his profession, the business environment and the industry he is in.

He said the habit of going to a bar is not ingrained in Chinese culture. But as society changes, peoples’ behavior will change accordingly. For instance people nowadays work overtime. They lead a stressful urban life. Afterwork, they may want to come to a bar, sit down, relax, forget about the things that made them unhappy during the day, have a drink and chat a bit with the bartender before they go home for sleep.

“There are two kinds of bars in Hangzhou: ones where people go for the sake of getting drunk; another ones are “red light” bars. Of course, there are a few ordinary bars in between. But there are not that many of these bars.”

To him, “a bar is successful when a customer who doesn’t normally drink, walks into a bar, orders a drink, leaves it on the table for the sake of enjoying the atmosphere.”

In contrast to the overly crowded scene in Shanghai, where demand has almost hit the bottleneck, the Hangzhou bar sector is relatively less developed. He is confident that there is more room for growth and for him to realize his dreams in this city.

It has been a very long time since I last heard anyone in the food and beverage industry said that they love their job. The determination to pursue excellence by front-line folks in the service sector is what sets China apart from other developing countries.