my hatred for Deja Vu owned clubs

16 comments

• CTQWERTY

  •

  14 years ago

  "My planned strip club of USA tour: 2010: Denver, Vegas, San Francisco, LA, Seattle, Vancouver, Austin 2011: San Diego, Charlette, Boise, Montreal, Toronto, Salt Lake City, Miami, LA, Chicago, Denver" Binary, when in San Diego visit Cheetah's. I learned that the hard way having made several visits to the Vu on Midway where I experienced many of your gripes with the chain. Toronto (Cannonball Cabaret) can deliver everything the Sundowner can plus many good-looking gals with full menus of extras available. If you can tough out the horribly cheap and uncomfortable furniture, you'll likely wish every dime you ever spent at The Downer would've been spent at The Cannonball. Chicago and Salt Lake City suck. Save your money for a trip to Detroit.
• georgmicrodong

  •

  14 years ago

  While *you*, and I suspect many of the hard core clubbers on this board, including myself, agree with you, I think it's pretty obvious that the strategy works, at least for a certain segment of strip clubs. If it wasn't working, they would go out of business. The fact of the matter is that a significant percentage of strip club goers are occasional visitors, and don't know that they're getting screwed, and not in the good way some of us enjoy.
• vincemichaels

  •

  14 years ago

  Ditto, georgemicrodong. Just about anytime I've ever been to a Deja Vu, the business practices are about the same. I'm for a independently owned local club where the dancers give value for my money.
• binary

  •

  14 years ago

  thanks for the replies and tips, Jetblue has the thing for the past 2 years where you pay for a all you can fly pass of 30 days for 500 to 600 bucks. i did that this year and experienced things outside of my hometown. there were three places that stood out: in denver: shotgun williy's, in LA: 4 play, and finally in Austin: Perfect 10's. Perfect 10's probably had the best quality of girls and I had a blast there despite it was on a tuesday evening. I had a huge desire to visit Brad's in indiana and some place in Charlotte NC, but we will see what happens.
• samsung1

  •

  14 years ago

  DejaVu clubs typically have been low mileage for me but they feel safe and clean. They also are great at marketing and use plenty of free admission passes.
• Player11

  •

  14 years ago

  I don't belive with those kinda business tactics they could compete in the Houston Area.
• sinclair

  •

  14 years ago

  The Deja Vu/Hustler/Little Darlings/Dreamgirls suck. They are what I refer to as "hustle club". Lots of dancers walking around with the "wanna dance" approach and some are still doing the drink scam where you need to buy a girl a drink for her to talk to you. Dances are upsold. VIPs upsold. Many dancers won't work for them based on the chain's outrageous fees and fines. They are currently using their deep pockets to buy up indie clubs and convert them to chain clubs. It is far easier to renovate an existing club than fight a city council to build a new location.
• samsung1

  •

  14 years ago

  sinclair, one of the independents they bought was kahoots columbus. The club has gone downhill. I used to go every week now only once a month at most. Mileage is downhill, songs are clipped at 3 minutes. I have heard good things about the Hustler club up in Detroit so it goes to show that deja vu can compete it competitive markets. I made a quick visit to the club on a monday night but I do not feel like I can give a fair review on it until I spend more time there but I have read in other reviews/PMs that mileage is up to par with the rest of the Detroit clubs.
• samsung1

  •

  14 years ago

  Deja Vu even has their own wikipedia page: Déjà Vu Consulting, Inc. is a U.S. company which (as of 2006) owns about 75 strip clubs in 16 U.S. states, as well as one club in Toronto and one in Paris. The company is headquartered in Lansing, Michigan; it was founded and is controlled by Harry Mohney, who partners with Roger Forbes and opened his first Déjà Vu strip club in Seattle in 1987. At the time, his main business was the large-scale distribution of pornography. The strip clubs are called "Déjà Vu Showgirls" or "Dream Girls" or (by agreement with Mohney's long-time friend Larry Flynt, who is not involved in the management of the clubs) "Larry Flynt's Hustler Club". Déjà Vu also owns most of the adult theatres and clubs in San Francisco; these however carry different names. The clubs typically aim for a clean and upscale atmosphere and offer fully nude stage dancing as well as lap dances. Many do not serve alcohol, to avoid stringent liquor license requirements. Several clubs have associated boutiques selling sex toys, cigars, Déjà Vu merchandise etc. The chain organizes nation-wide competitions for the "Déjà Vu Showgirl of the Year". Dancers in the clubs have the legal status of independent contractors. Their income results from tips and lap dance fees; about one third of this money is handed over to the house and other employees. In a landmark case in Minneapolis in 1994, dancers at the Déjà Vu club there won the right to be recognized as employees, arguing that they did not have full control over their working conditions. This resulted in payment of back wages and led to similar cases in several other states, often ending in confidential settlements out of court. Repeated attempts to unionize the Déjà Vu-owned clubs in San Francisco (modeled on the earlier unionization of the Lusty Lady peep show there) have been unsuccessful. In 2005 the San Francisco workers sued the company; the suit was settled with the company agreeing to pay hourly wages of $22.50. [view link]
• bumrubber

  •

  14 years ago

  samsung1: Low mileage, safe, and clean? Like DVCOI?
• samsung1

  •

  14 years ago

  bumrubber, also an exception to that statement is the Hustler Detroit club. BJs are possible in the VIP.
• AlienBoy

  •

  14 years ago

  I agree here. DejaVu blows - the drink scam blows, the service blows, the whole attitude blows. It's the "McDonalds" of strip clubs. A crappy burger in a shiny wrapper that makes you sorry you bought it an hour later.
• lopaw

  •

  14 years ago

  I used to feel the same way about the Spearmint Rhino chains, until a fave dancer changed clubs and asked me to visit her at my local SR. After a few visits, and having been treated nicely by the staff, I had a change of heart. The bed dances are the only reason I still check out the DejaVu's here in LA every once in a while.
• binary

  •

  14 years ago

  i am glad that most of you are with me. i think in general, most of us cares about interaction. for most of us that goes to strip clubs often it's not just about the milage in a way. granted, deja vu will have a lot of money to buy out other local establishments, but eventually people will get tired of being treated so sickly that other competition will spawn easily. and girls will go whereever thats booming.
• samsung1

  •

  14 years ago

  it is getting difficult for other competition to spawn because the laws and regulations now are so damn complicated. Before anyone with money could open up a strip club but now it seems like you have to have money and connections. Look at the Hustler club in Lincoln park for example, that had to go through hell before finally opening and that was a chain club with a deep legal budget! I doubt an independent would have gone through all that legal/protesting just to open up their club.
• samsung1

  •

  14 years ago

  binary, check out the TUSCL top 100 list. These are clubs that members have rated as great clubs. It seems like clubs that know how to treat their customers right also tend to know how to treat their dancers right. For example, Living Room is best club in Ohio according to that list and when I talk to the dancers there they all talk about how they love working there because it is so laid back compared to their previous club they worked at where the club took a cut out of each and every dance they sold and tried to find ways to "fine" them for shit like showing up late to work.