Lockers are a part of most people's lives
One of the interesting things about lockers is that in addition to being important items for keeping personal effects safe in a number of settings, you do actually see them a lot on TV, particularly in music videos, sit-coms and dramas. Why is this? Well, one reason is because the locker area is where people talk to each other as they either begin their day or end it, whether their day is a shift as a fireman or a session of lessons at school or college. So the locker area is often where people gossip and important social interactions take place between people. Love notes are left and read, assignations are arranged, and angry confrontations happen. Another reason that we see lockers on TV so much is that school lockers are usually arranged against the walls of the corridors between the classrooms. Because big schools have many students, the corridor of such schools will be completely covered with lockers on both sides, so almost any scene in a TV show that's set in a school will feature lockers prominently. Indeed, the music video Hit Me One More Time by the singer Britney Spears features school lockers being opened, posed against and danced in front of for the whole first half. That was shot in 1999 when she was starting out, but the public connection between Britney Spears and lockers continues. In 2008 the troubled pop star posed for a photo-shoot with a locker key dangling from her wrist. Was Britney being absent-minded? Perhaps, but she has her own locker at the health club in the prestigious Four Seasons hotel in Los Angeles. So she may have been using the locker key as a status symbol. Will wearing a wrist-band with a locker key dangling off it will become the next fashion trend? We shall see. So lockers are pretty much engrained in our consciousness, and very much in the public eye. Almost everyone will have used one, or have a key to one in their possession right now. As mentioned before, at schools and colleges, lockers are used to store bags coats and books. In factories you will have a locker for keeping your high visibility jacket and steel-toecap boots, along with your coat and sandwiches. Offices have lockers too, so that office workers can keep their valuables safe while out at lunch or at meetings. Lockers are a vital part of changing rooms of all types of sporting and leisure activity: in gyms, swimming baths, golf clubs, health clubs, football pitches. Because of the wear and tear that they get, lockers need to be able to withstand tough daily use. Many lockers have a baked enamel finish, which is applied over a phosphatised smooth steel surface. Some lockers are made of wire mesh so that you can see all the contents of all the lockers. This is good for security purposes, as you can see if stolen items are in there. That's why these kinds of lockers are used in the changing rooms of places like bonded warehouses that stores rare bottles of vintage champagne, wine and spirits.
