People line up to get into the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville a couple hours before it opens each evening. And in the summer it gets hot.
So each afternoon, before the line starts, the staff put out one of those big orange water dispensers on a stool with a bunch of cups…and then go back to work. As thirty or forty people are lining up and baking in the Nashville humidity they can at least stay hydrated.
It’s a great idea…and the Bluebird doesn’t have to do that but they do anyway because it takes care of a problem.
But it could go wrong and it doesn’t scale.
What if a thousand people get in line? The water dispenser would have to be twenty water dispensers and a few employees monitoring the station. Too much work, let’s not do the water thing at all. But there isn’t a thousand people…there’s a few dozen.
The Bluebird is surrounded by other businesses and foot traffic…the cooler will probably get stolen or graffitied or tipped over by teenagers. It’s best to not put it out at all. But it doesn’t get stolen or abused.
What if a weird bug somehow gets in the water and someone gets sick from the Bluebird water cooler? The liability expenses could be off the charts. The historic venue could go bankrupt. But this type of worry only comes from the camp of ‘hey anything is possible’.
Sometimes the present problem needs to be addressed and solved simply by solving it for the present. Not having endless meetings about the what-ifs. Not running through all the hypotheticals. Not putting it to a vote. Not worrying about if it’s a forever fix.
Just take care of it. It might not work for everyone but it works for you. And in your world that might be enough.
So if you head down to the Bluebird this summer…go for the show, go early for the water.
