CLUBLAND | Some Good Ideas

I have been staying at some Reciprocal Clubs in Scotland and England, and a couple of ideas make a lot of sense to me:

1. Open. Insert chain goes through the sleeve

of a coat and the loop on an umbrella. Put the

bottom of the chain through the locking hole.

REPLACE A CLOAKROOM ATTENDANT.  Instead, use chains and keys. Some clubs in New York have two cloakrooms or add a cloakroom for special events. Surely one cloakroom could be self-service, for people who are not worried sick that someone will steal their coat (has never happened to me in 50 years of using a New York club). 

Every club of course needs a concierge for people with valuables like a computer in their bag, or a suitcase. One club in New York seems to be  totally trusting about books and book bags. 

2. Lock, after first putting a £1 coin in a 

slot (it can be recovered when the coat is 

picked up).

Here's what a London club does. It has a long wall of coat hooks, and you protect your coat from theft or careless coat pickup by locking the coat to the hook with a chain.

With modern computer advances, there must be a more efficient way of doing this that does not require a coin.

Maybe a credit card could be used to close and then reopen the lock. It would also provide evidence if the club had problems with their system or there was a dispute about ownership of the coat.

3. Take away the plastic key, which

opens the lock on your return.

IPHONE RECHARGING. Another innovation I saw at a London club was the use of an iPhone recharging station. 

It looks like a set of post office boxes but inside each one is a plug to recharge an iPhone. This is valuable for people who can leave their iPhone while they have a meal or a drink, and pick it up recharged on their way out.