Financial Paradox

If I was going to open a liquor store and could have my choice of locations, it would be in a ghetto.

I think the same logic applies to strip clubs.

Shadow has a good point. Zoning laws are also a factor. In California, many would assume that Bel Air & Beverly Hills would have amazing strip clubs but alas, it's not to be. Now COI and Gardena have much better clubs.

I think slick nailed one of the biggest factors in easy of creation. In nicer areas there will be more people and money fighting the creation of the clubs.

drug money

I agree that Zoning Laws are also a factor. Plus I believe pricing comes from what the market will bear in the metro area & what is available, regarding clubs in near by cities.

Oakland County, immediately north of the county where Detroit is located, is among the wealthiest in the US. I think it has a lot of high tech in the area of automation.

@shadow if you want to make money from alcoholics at rock bottom, you open a convenience store and sell cheap fortified wine. I think in most places that optimizes alcohol per dollar.

Speaking of Oakland-In Oakland,CA, there are NO strip clubs. Oakland is a violent city. Now, across the bay in SF, there are a plethora of clubs and ROB's galore. This one scenario is different because SF is one of the most liberal & progressive cities in our nation.

"Where does the momey come from in these towns to create such a clientele?"

While Detroit has a bad economy and the city is entering bankruptcy, it is surrounded by wealthier suburbs where guys have jobs and money. That's where the clientele comes from.

Lap dances are generally $20 or $25, but some dives have $10 dance days. Detroit lap dances are full contact in private booths. I have heard the rumor that extras can be had in most clubs. The extras can be expensive in upscale clubs like the Penthouse and Flight Club, but extras are cheap in the sleazy dives (cough**Bogart's**cough).

Also dance price is deceiving. I get more in a $25 lap dance in Detroit than in the $10 dances along Brookpark in Ohio. Value is better in the poor cities but the prices might be deceiving. if you get full service in a $25 dance I would take that than a bunch of cheap $5-10 dances where I can't grab boobs or get a BBBJ.

Strip clubs are too legit for Oakland. The lascivious of the region prefer streetwalkers and massage studios full of trafficked women.

Poorer metro areas tend to have more clubs because the constituents are either too apathetic or in dire need of any commerce to put up much of a fight against them. In more well to do areas, there is great opposition to the proliferation of any sort of adult entertainment (strip clubs, pornography shops, night clubs and even liquor stores). In many of the country's wealthiest suburbs, you need to drive 20 minutes+ just to buy liquor.

In ESL, zoning is a factor for sure. An adult-oriented business can be located (usually welcomed) in quite a few areas without difficulty. They are fancy places like Penthouse or Hustler clubs, or the back room of a neighborhood bar. The talent (dancers/prostitutes) live and do drugs nearby either in the ghetto areas, or the economically suppressed areas within St. Clair County, IL. I think many dancers come from the rural areas 50 miles to the N S or E. The money comes from St. Louis, MO, (just across the Mississippi River) where money is generally plentiful.

"I have heard the rumor that extras can be had in most clubs"

LMFAO - Who has been whispering that sweet nothing into your ear?

Fort Mac (FortMcMurray) is Canada's oil sands boomtown.

Population - about 80,000

Demographics - 96% younger than 60 (66% younger than 40); overwhelming imbalance of males to females

Income levels - 56% greater than $180K; with a further 24% at $120K-$180K

Number of strip clubs - 1

Anecdotes abound of escorts making $10K for a weekend of fucking one of these high income single guys. I don't disbelieve those anecdotes.

Zoning laws have nothing to do with it. It's all about the down and depraved.Why do you think the Koreans infest this part of American society?

Because they have Gangnam Style, that's why.

Don't care about the "why" just care about the "where".

Well what about the how and the who and the when?

I'll handle that when I get to the "where". :)

Shadowcat, your comment is conflicting with the argument and doesn't really say much. I wouldn't call it redundant because it is true the ideal place to ope mnemonic a liquor store would be the ghetto, they usually sell a LOT of cheap dollar beers, notably delis. Strip clubs cannot be cheap. And the non dives probably have stricteer dress codes which many ghetto lifestyle folk can't or won't follow (I will exuberantly not wear a suit). And we can already tell it will be far more expensive just to get three lap dances verses drowning your problems in even a $60 bottle of grey goose then 3 ld. Its even worse for thoae who absolutely live on welfare food stamps. So if strip clubs are in the ghetto, the only reason why I see it there is because its the easiest place to out them. Its a bonus when you got your blue collar boys w ho make $15-30/hr come in

In addition to lax zoning laws in impoverished cities and city officials who are grateful for any tax paying business (including strip clubs), don't overlook the role of law enforcement. In some high crime areas, LEO is busy with more serious crimes than preventing consenting adults from having sex in the relative privacy of a strip club VIP. It is possible (however remotely), that LEO's might supplement their meager salaries with a little hush money from the adult businesses.

Besides law and regulation, there might be a more basic economic force of this phenomenon, namely the combination of wealth inequality and monopoly pricing.

For simplicity, let's assume that wealthy people are willing to pay at most say, $450 an hour for the vip room (the common going rate in East St Louis area), and less wealthy people only wants to pay $75 for 15 minutes vip(the best deal in COI area). For the clubber who can set prices, what will he choose? Obviously either $450/hr to target only the rich, or $75/15min for the whole market.

My observation is that economically depressed areas have not only lower average income but also more unequal wealth distributions. In these areas, club owners may simply give up the lower-end market, because the willingness to pay for the lower-end customers is too low to compensate for the loss profits that he can get by charging higher prices and serve the higher-end patrons.

Forgot to mention that ESL area clubs are also highly polarized in to posh clubs like Penthouse and dire clubs like C-Mowe's. That is consistent with the previous theory, with the addition that now club owners self-select into serving only high-end customers and serving only low-end customers. After all, low-end customers' money is still money, and greedy entrepreneurs never leave money on the table.

While I agree with most of these posts about the D, they nearly all are directed at "demand." A critical additional matter is "supply". A depressed economy will produce many dancers who need money but lack access to legitimate careers that pay equivalent wages. Dancers abound in weak economies, not just in Detroit, but across the land.

I lend notes to the Koreans,they have never been late once.

Got to go where the customers are. In wealthier areas, they don't need to pay for sex - the girls are after them.

In a poorer area, options are a lot less for guys not making money, so they go to a strip club.

interesting and some excellent points. Thanks!

Lax regulations is the number one reason why clubs locate where they do. This is a combination of both permissive zoning laws plus the priorities of local law enforcement.

The money is willing to travel. In fact the customers are perhaps a little more likely to go to a place a little further away so as to have less chance of being seen by their immediate neighbors.

Clubs are placed in depressed areas so slumlords have somewhere to blow their cash on the way home from evicting tenants.

Maybe if those areas hadn't followed txtittyfan's financial advice they would be faring better economically?

Not sure why this is a mystery to anyone. Poorer areas are happy to have any businesses in the community, so they will take in strip clubs. I don't know any strip club that exists in an area one could define as wealthy, as all of them are either in poor urban areas, industrial areas, or small towns with few other businesses.

Sunnyvale California has some strip clubs - in other words, right in the middle of Silicon Valley.