Once my adventurous spirit and thirst for travel brought me to work in an American pizzeria. I ended up in America on the Work and Travel student program, and then I was left to myself.
What is a promoter in an American pizzeria
A job in a pizzeria was offered to me by one of my fellow countrymen whom I accidentally met on the street. He worked there as a promoter and they needed a few more people. $ 10 an hour in 2009 seemed like a great sum for a Russian student.
So the fact that work was not always safe did not stop me.
The job was to distribute pizzeria advertising brochures to hotels. Do not just put them at the reception, but push them under the guests' doors. Hotel security officials didn't like guys like us: if they noticed the promoter, at best they would kick him out, at worst they would call the police with all the consequences.
Regular working day of a promoter
Work began in the evening. Our pizzeria was small, so the owners did everything themselves - they baked pizza, took orders, and transported promoters to hotels. One of the owners and several pizza delivery men took the promoters right from home. We were seated in cars for 4 people. Then we were taken to the points - one per hotel, if the hotel is large, two of us could be entrusted. They were dropped out of the car right outside the hotel with a bunch of leaflets and given about half an hour to work.
Now imagine. You get out of the car like this at a huge famous hotel like the Hilton:
- with a large bag in which leaflets are safely hidden;
- in sneakers because they are comfortable in case you have to run;
- in shorts and a tank top because Florida is hot here too.
You are 19 and you don't look like a Hilton guest at all. You are wildly worried, but you cannot give yourself away, because otherwise you cannot avoid problems with the American police.
As a result, you walk with a confident gait to the hotel. You smile sweetly at the receptionist, greet the guests and go upstairs. There, with trembling hands, you take out a few leaflets from your bag and immediately begin to shove them under the doors of the rooms. Good luck if they go there completely, because if the security is following you, he will not have evidence, and you can pretend that you are just heading for the elevator. While working, you listen to every rustle.
When the hotel is finished, you are taken to the next one, and history repeats itself.
Usually the work took us 4-5 hours a day. Then all the promoters were collected and taken together to the pizzeria. When we arrived, the delivery phone did not subside - orders were received from residents of the hotels we had just been to. This meant we did a great job. After the shift, we ate pizza together at the expense of the establishment, shared funny moments of the day, received a salary, and then the owners took us home. We were very friendly and stood up for each other.
Instead of a conclusion
You ask: "Didn't they ever catch us in hotels and didn't call the police?" Of course they did. Even 2 times. They called the police, took fingerprints, issued an official ban on entering the hotel for a certain period of time. So I got a ban on all Disney territory for 5 years. P.S.: thank God it's already over. By the way, with three such prohibitions, you could well have been deported from the United States.
You ask: "Do I regret?" No, I'm not sorry! It was a wonderful experience. This work allowed us to see the industry of small American business from the inside, to some extent introduced me to American culture, introduced me to wonderful people, with some of whom I am still friendly since. And how much fun it was, how much extreme and emotion was - beyond words.
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