Interesting thought

I did not mean to diss the waitresses (or waiters); they are definitely in the category of "influiencers".

#OnlyFans of listening bars in Asia and LA / NY

I do not think it would get much traction in bars of, for example, U.S.A. Maybe caffes would be a better choice. There are places called "bars" in their localities around the world where the atmosphere may be a little different from what I have seen in the U.S.A. I have been to such a place named Vinyl and one named Hi-Fi or something along those lines. (I am almost, but not entirely, certain about that name). Both focused on serving drinks and whatever else in a heavily audio-themed environment. I doubt any patron went to the store, literally accross the street, and bought new equipment.

I used to go to a place, neither of those two mentioned above, where owner installed very decent system. Higher level Bowers and Wilkins speakers in all the rooms, whatever was "finer than what you expect in a caffe/bar" electronics, etc. He told me he spent so much time at work that he did it for himself so he could listen to finer sounds. Not for the crowd. Once the place filled up, you could not hear yourself thinking, much less nuances of mids or bass.

@millercarbon when it comes up, I tell the partner in the conversation that being an audiophile doesn’t have to cost a lot of money and if you want, you don’t need any equipment. If all you want to do is go to live shows and listen carefully and appreciate the music you are an audiophile in my book. But if you want to listen to Tidal or Qobuz red book with good but inexpensive chifi IEMs, and a AQ dragonfly on your iPhone and appreciate music and music discovery, then that person is also an audiophile. Of course, if your budget allows and you want a wiz bang system for the purpose of optimizing the reproduction of your music to the best of your abilities and wallet and enjoy music discovery and appreciation, then that person is also an audiophile. There are as we know, many variations around the above and in between. Heck, one might argue that sitting outside and carefully listening to the birds sing is something an audiophile would do.
@chicagoblue1977 and @schmitty1 I am in Chicagoland too. 😀

As far as putting books under the equipment, I have never thought of it as a sign of anything worth mentioning. I am proud to report that it seems that I used to do that before other posters in this thread set foot in an audio store. I used to have a tower (x2) of phone books as my speaker stands for years. Not because of cost (they were free), but because I could not find stands I would have liked. By the way, there was no difference in sound once I installed real stands. It was only harder to dust around them.