Inside the Weird and Lucrative World of Shot Girls

Leave it to the Wall Street Journal to uncover the strange and amazingly lucrative world of shot girls, a booming business that uses sex appeal, outsourcing, and huge mark-ups on low quality products to create revenue. For those who don't know, Shot Girls are often attractive, young females who usually ply their trade in male dominated bars, pushing cheap and watered down Jello shots, Redheaded Sluts and Buttery Nipples to semi-drunk guys who think that buying 20 rounds and dropping big tips will lead to a passionate love affair. The modern shot girl probably originated where most great ideas start, the strip club, but has spread throughout the midtown frat bar scene thanks to two former investment banking analysts who noticed a hole in the American, red-blooded male drinking market.

In 2007, Bryan Auld and Dominic D'Aleo realized they could make money by having scantily clad women push watered down drinks on horny men. They also realized that the women who held these jobs back then were disorganized and mistreated and their services would improve the lives of the shot girl, so they should be considered social entrepreneurs. The dynamic duo now maintains its own stable of shot girls that they outsource to bars like Turtle Bay and McFadden's, pushing drinks that cost $.15 to make and sell for $3 - $4. The cash is split evenly between the bar and company after the shot girl gets tipped out.

And let's talk about that. The Shot Girl gets $.25 for every shot sold and can make anywhere from $300 to $600 a night in tips, if they follow their bosses list of 10 best practices of the trade. The examples are kind of complicated so try to stay focused here:

· Do not spend too much time with a patron or group of patrons.
· Always be the friendliest girl in the room.
· Remember, you aren't selling cheap liquor, you are selling flirtation.
· Never give up.

The Shot Girl is also full of random sports trivia questions and carny-like tricks to force you to hand over money for a drink you don't want. For example, when customers refuse Shot Girl Kristen Peirano's advances, she bets them that if she has the bigger hands, they have to buy shots. Peirano then pulls her freaskishly huge hands out to win a rigged bet, something just as corrupt as the ring toss at the State Fair.

So what did we learn. First, Shot Girls make money by flirting, so buying drinks and leaving big tips will probably never lead anywhere else. Second, the shots they are selling are more watered down than a tequila slammer at Senor Frogs in Cancun. Man up and buy a whiskey. Finally, Shot Girls are more devious than carnies and should never, ever be trusted.
· The Friendliest Young Woman in the Room [WSJ]
· Inside the Sad World Of Nightclub Bottle Girls [~ENY~]