Opening a new club

mark94
Arizona
After several years, Christie’s Cabaret has reopened in Phoenix. The club has failed in its last 2 attempts. This location has never been successful as an upscale club in a bad location. Go read the reviews for background/history.

They spent $3.5 Million on the most recent renovation. It is now one of the largest, and most spectacular, clubs in existence.

The only problem is they can’t attract dancers since there are few customers. And, the customers won’t go there because there are only 2-4 dancers in a club the size of a 747 airplane hangar.

Does anyone have thoughts on how to jump start a new club without dancers or customers ?

21 comments

Latest

Charles Paisley
5 years ago
There was one dancer in the club today when I was there. She was only there because I asked her to be there. Did 10 dances with her, paid her and I left, then she left. At least I got a VIP card out of it, so I'll never have to pay a cover charge again at any Christie's. So I got that going for me, which is nice.
mark94
5 years ago
I wonder if they’ll honor the card at Christie’s Tempe. Free lunch for life ? And, there is no ID on the card. Sell it on eBay.
mark94
5 years ago
Incidentally, Bill Murray’s appearance in Caddyshack only took a few days to film and was all adlibbed. Fucking genius.
SirLapdancealot
5 years ago
You would think that being close to the airport it would help.
mark94
5 years ago
Phoenix is populated by wealthy old guys from the Midwest whose favorite restaurant is Olive Garden. The Taj Mahal of strip clubs feels like a bad fit.
Mate27
5 years ago
Pool/pond? Pond would be good for you.
datinman
5 years ago
Sounds like they are trying to do a Tootsies or Baby Dolls type club from scratch. If they spent 3.5M for reno, I assume they have some money for advertising. I would think they could get dancers from the Tempe location to take some shifts at the new club. Maybe let it be known that hires at the new location don't have any tip out for the first 3 months.

Alternatively, find and hire dancers that worked at Hi Liter 4 - 5 years ago and then turn a blind eye on the VIP. Where ya at Butterfly?
sinclair
5 years ago
They need to avoid charging house fees to dancers the first six months or so. Or they could go the opposite and pay $100 bonus to any dancer willing to come in the first month or two to build up a stable of dancers. Undercut all of the other local clubs by offering drinks dirt cheap, like $2 a bottle for beer. This will get customers to come in. Once the number of dancers and clientele are up, they can gradually raise prices to what it in their business plan.
twentyfive
5 years ago
It’s kind of weird but sometimes a location just isn’t any good, there are a few spots near here that no matter who goes in and how much money they are willing to spend the venue just fails.
mark94
5 years ago
”then turn a blind eye on the VIP”

They put the VIP area out in the open ( albeit on the upper floor ). This seems like a really bad design decision to me and one that is not easily changed.
SirLapdancealot
5 years ago
"They put the VIP area out in the open ( albeit on the upper floor ). This seems like a really bad design decision to me and one that is not easily changed."

^ @mark that's so bad. That club has an upstairs area that's perfect for VIPs. And in the past there was even a ground floor area that had a translucent glass partition wall that was somewhat private too. To me the main floor is for cheap topless dances and those other areas are places they could easily 'blind-eye'.
SirLapdancealot
5 years ago
^ sorry I just saw the VIP was on the upper floor. Oops.
SirLapdancealot
5 years ago
I never went upstairs there. Is there a way they could partition the openness? With curtains or something?
mark94
5 years ago
I didn’t go upstairs but a dancer I know described it to me while we were there. It looks down on the main floor from the balcony. Completely open, so partitioning would be tough. They have an attendant parked at a podium with an unobstructed view of all the VIP dances.
Papi_Chulo
5 years ago
Not uncommon for new clubs IME to often have issues attracting dancers and/or custies - I guess this may be especially so in an area w/ an already good SC scene w/ established clubs.

IDK enough about what goes on behind the scenes which makes some clubs have a lot of dancers, and other o/w seemingly nice clubs not be able to get many - of course custy-#s/$$$-potential one would assume is the biggest variable for dancers picking a club, but it seems some clubs/management are kinda anal which seems to make dancers not wanna dance there, or the club takes too-much from them.
Papi_Chulo
5 years ago
w.r.t. the VIP setup - I would assume local ordinances often dictate how private VIPs can be and new clubs likely will take less chances and/or they may be checked-up on by the regulators as part of their opening process
Ch3ll
5 years ago
Is this the one across from the mall and Claim Jumpers? I went there once about 18 months ago and thought it was pretty decent, with decent girls.

Anyway, I'd think a happy hour Mon - Fri that's 5 - 10 PM, coupled with 3 for 2 dance specials throughout the night might help with clientele.
SirLapdancealot
5 years ago
"I didn’t go upstairs but a dancer I know described it to me while we were there. It looks down on the main floor from the balcony. Completely open, so partitioning would be tough. They have an attendant parked at a podium with an unobstructed view of all the VIP dances."

^ Something as simple as moveable curtains hanging around the balcony would help with the privacy and entice customers downstairs to wonder what kind of magic happens in the VIP. As she's taken up there, the stripper closes the curtains and all you see from downstairs is her silhouette. And then to round out the privacy the lighting could be dimmed and the podium attendant just makes token glances in the area and ignores what he sees unless it's blatantly obvious.
mark94
5 years ago
The one across from the mall is Christie’s Tempe. This is Christie’s Phoenix, just north of the airport.
san_jose_guy
5 years ago
Always a chicken and egg situation.

SJG
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