The Decline Of Strip Clubs Over A Decade: October 2008 To October 2018

How did you get the data for 2008; you had it saved from 10 years ago?

I guess TUSCL can be used for a relative comparison but I would think there are clubs not listed on TUSCL as well as closed clubs that haven't been removed.

And I wonder if the state totals are just strip clubs or are other venues included (modeling studios, etc) - although the non SC listings are probably small.

There are two answers to your question Papi_Chulo.

1. I was another entity before being reborn into sinclair.
2. Most websites have been cached over time.

Interesting

Impressive comparison 10 years later. There is a club in Chicago (the Factory) that is not on tuscl but I’ve never been motivated enough to add it. Agree that some non SCs inflate the totals but suspect that there are a number of other clubs not listed at all.

The Factory was listed, then it closed. It was relisted when it reopened, then closed again. Is is back open?

It was open as of a month or two ago. Guessing it’s still open but not positive

I sometimes cross-check clubs with Google and Yelp w.r.t. whether they are reported closed

Interesting stats. Not a good trend. I wonder what has been happening with underground clubs, but data on them does not exist.

In Arizona, there are lots of reasons for clubs closing. Bad location. Bad business plan. Competition. Bad management. Drugs. Law enforcement.

Mostly, it was smaller clubs closing, but a couple big ones went down. I think the business has gotten more complex, making it almost impossible for a small club to survive.

Do you guys think strip clubs will ever die out permanently?

Assuming the world doesn't succumb to World War III, alien invasion or some kind of antibiotic resistant bacterial disease outbreak, I guess the strip club going extinct should be the least of our worries.

If strip clubs do go extinct let's hope entertainment technology will have advanced enough for us to have a virtual world like in that movie Ready Player One

This is interesting and demotivating.

The Atlanta area has lost 4 in the last 2 weeks due to legal matters and there is litigation going on at a couple more clubs. Black clubs fail left and right for economic reasons but manage to reopen when the next guy with a couple of thousand thinks that he can make it.

I can’t even tell you anymore how many clubs we’ve lost down here in S Florida , just in the last ten years I can think of at least ten clubs that have closed and many different reasons, some legal, some financial.

It seems like the Great Recession really put a hurt on SCs that were barely getting by. Or maybe the combination of slow business and bad business/management decisions was too much to overcome. Pre-recession i can remember at least 3 clubs that were open before being completely closed. But all 3 of them closed well before times got really bad (heart of the recession). There are just a lot of outside "forces" and interests that don't want a strip club open. One club closed a couple years ago because it was too much of hassle to fight the convent that it was next to. Combined with being a overpriced crappy club. That didn't stop another club from opening literally next door to that one though right after.

I guess the good news or silver lining out of it is that most of these clubs that closed weren't that good to begin with, or at least i hope. I know of a few good to great clubs that have declined or even changed management/ownership, but don't know any to have outright closed yet. All i'm saying is that these days i have little to no interest in mediocre or worse clubs and don't necessarily find culling them a negative.

In South Florida local governments in Ft Lauderdale and Boynton Beach went hard after a bunch of clubs, mainly public morals bullshit (that would be political grandstanding) there used to be four or five clubs in Ft Lauderdale now there are none, and south Palm Beach County closed down all except on in Lake Worth, only West Palm beach has a few, and thre or four less than five years ago. To be fair though two of the West Palm Beach clubs that closed were for financial reasons.

This is a really great thread Sinclair. Thanks for the observations.

If I were to guess, it’s because of the decline of the nightclub scene in general. Strip clubs are one part of that.

It’s hard to open a new club or move an existing one. NIMBY plays a part there with communities expanding. So there always isn’t a convenient compromise like putting clubs in light industrial areas on in the town’s edge, anymore. Plus City Council can use zoning and city ordinances to try to block opening a club.

City governments and public at large seem to no longer tolerate the right of clubs to exist on a First Amendment basis. And cities have been learning from one another how to challenge clubs in court while avoiding any First Amendent challenges or protections clubs’s legal counsel would try to use to fight the cities.

Aside from strip clubs I wonder if the trend is the same for other businesses? For example, in my small town there are several more restaurants than a decade ago, but less gyms, grocery stores and electronics stores. We all know the reasons for the declines on these types of stores I listed, but what about strip clubs?

Really doesn’t surprise me, over the past decade now EVERYONE has fast internet (free and or cheap porn), dating apps (now strangers can easily meet for sex), legit dating apps, sugar daddy websites, and canning sites. All things that allow men to “let off steam” and all of which really weren’t around a decade ago. Most were just in their infancy.

One possibility is that strip clubs, like gambling, thrive in tolerant locations. So, maybe City of Industry, Tijuana, and Vegas have an active strip club environment while clubs continue to be driven out of suburban locations. I could easily see that happening. Similar to Red Light Districts.

Hooters is closing restaurants.

vox.com

"Business Insider reported that the number of Hooters restaurants decreased 7 percent from 2012 until 2016. While Business Insider attributed this to Pornhub’s findings that millennials are less likely to search for breasts, there is widespread online speculation that the problem lies not with a decreased appreciation of breasts, but with the fact that the concept of the restaurant is outdated and appeals only to the most boorish of baby boomers."

"Most boring of baby boomers." Reminds me a lot of @Mark94

^^^ that’s interesting because just 2 years ago they were saying how breastaurants like Tilted Kilt and Twin Peaks were doing a great business and lots of families were going to them. I didn’t agree and I was right (at least in my part of the country) because now ALL of those restaurants are out of business save for one shitting Hooters that’s been open for 25+ years.

The more germane question might be- "of all the clubs that have closed in the last 10 years, how many of them are really missed ? I would suspect for the most part, not that much. My examples include 2 Los Angeles clubs (Century, Wild Goose) and 1 Dayton club (Harem). I basically liked all 3, but none were my unconditional go to club. Harem, maybe close in 3 way tie. In the later case, many former Harem dancers simply migrated to my other top 2 choices.

I think prostitution and human trafficking play a role. Money laundering scams and front businesses. Plus just really poor management and lets face it, the work force isn't all that. Im sure drugs play a huge role when it comes to employee attrition rates

These days a lot of the high end girls prefer to do escorting/OTC to dancing. There was a time you could see your favorite porn star feature dancing at clubs. No more. With twitter and instagram these girls can simply post that they will be in a certain city for a week and make enough money to last them for a while.

Kind of but they still have to worry about cops. A lot of hoes will travel during certain events or holidays and work out of a club in that city. But yeah, booking online cuts out the middle man unless they're dumb enough to have an online pimp

I'm just thankful to live in a city with 20 plus strip clubs. I could't imagine living in a state like Vermont that only has one.

Strip clubs are the most expensive form of adult entertainment/service, IMO. Alternatives are disrupting the industry.

Clubs have had a lot of challenges, including an anemic economy for a long stretch, an aging population with more people on fixed incomes and changing cultural dynamics. Add to that cities and towns that have gotten a lot more savvy about using zoning and liquor licenses to prevent new clubs from opening and it is no surprise that the numbers have declined since 2008. Further hurting clubs in certain areas are ongoing population shifts from high tax northern areas to more welcoming southern venues.

But on the flip side, I don't see clubs closing en masse anytime soon. In fact, the clubs in my area have picked up a lot in the past two years due to a combination of more disposable income and population growth. It's been particularly noticeable in the last 6 months, with the clubs as busy as I have ever seen them on what are normally slow nights. We've even had two clubs open up in the past 5 years.

Forces working against strip clubs:

1. Easier forms of sex work evolved with the internet such as camming and becoming a sugar baby. Hotter women can make good money with camshows. They do not even have to get dressed or leave their house. With sugar baby relationships, women can make their income more predictable while dealing with fewer men. We are also seeing websites like Patreon, Manyvids, and other where women can sell nude pictures, videos, and homemade porn for income. Stripping requires buying stilletos, outfits, showing up to work, performing, and there is no guaranteed payout at the end of the shift.
2. Third-wave and fourth-wave feminism. Never in Western civilization have we seen women become so angry, violent, and anti-male. It seems to get worse by the day. Just looking at a women the wrong way can be sexual harrassment. For feminists, strip clubs objectify women and facilitate sexual assualt.
3. The internet made it alot easier for escorts to compete against strip clubs in the United States. Before the internet, one had to dial a phone number or drive up and down track to get some action. Also, an infinite amount of pornography is free on the internet.
4. The world has become alot more promiscuous, and the United States has become alot less puritan over time. Naked women dancing used to be more controversial. Nowadays, young people think nothing of having casual sex. Young women go out in public flaunting their bodies, wearing not all that much more clothing than a stripper.
5. Some strip clubs have been magnets of illegal activity like prostitution, drug dealing, gang violence, and murders. When these incidents happen time and time again at a club, public opinion shifts in favor of shutting them down.
6. Most Millenials' interpersonal skills are retarded due to the presence of technology like Snapchat, Facebook, and texting. They do not know how to interact or talk face to face with other people. This leads to Millenial women preferring to sell pictures and videos and doing camshows over working in a strip club. Many of the young strippers nowadays only know how to socialize with a customer if it is saying, "Wanna lap dance?" or sit in the club on their cell phone or spend most of the shift in the locker room. That is a turn off to customers. There were definately more women with the gift of gab back in the 1980's and 1990's. Also, Millenials are the "me generation". They only care about the money they are getting, not whether they are providing a good experience to the customer. It amazes me how many young stripper will give a horrible lap dance then demand a tip.

I think Canada has seen a larger percentage drop in strip clubs due to prostitution being legal in Canada. Why pay for a string of lap dances when you can get sex for about the same price? Although prostitution is not legal in most areas of the United States, the easy availabilty of sex hurts strip clubs. Why would you pay $500 for a one hour VIP room where you only get to first base or the on deck circle when that same amount of money could get you an hour with a high end escort?

I think strip clubbing is alot like horse racing. Both have their aficionados. As new forms of entertainment have emerged and technology has progressed, both the gentleman's club and the horse track have been on the decline. A day at the horse track was probably a hoot for your grandparents, but younger folks rather be playing video games or fantasy football. Strip clubs probably hit their high water mark in the late 90's or the first decade of the 2000's. That is not to say either will completely die off any time soon. I think Churchill Downs, Del Mar, Kentucky Downs, and Saratoga are healthy and will be around for a long time. But Arapahoe Park, Fairmount Park, Fonner Park, and Hawthorne will likely not be around another five or ten years. In the same regard, strip clubs like Tootsies, Follies, Sapphire, and Baby Dolls are healthy and will be around for a long time. But many rural strip clubs, dives, and clubs offering little value to the customer will be culled in the next five or ten years.

If I had to guess, I'd say there will be 1,500-1,600 strip clubs still operating in the United State in October 2028. If I am still alive in ten years and TUSCL still exists, I may bump this discussion thread with updated figures.