High priced drinks... A rip off
shadowcat
Atlanta suburb
I don't think that it is any surprise to any of us about how over priced drinks are at strip clubs. But it is the same thing at Disney Land, a rock concert or any event where you are a captive addience. Last week, while happy hour was going on at my favorite club, I deceided to have a Martini as I was about to go to dinner and it sounded good to me. I hadn't had one in a long time. Normal price for a coke during happy hour is $1.25. Add rum and it goes to $2.75. I ordered the Martini, half expecting the server to come back and ask if I wanted Gin or Vodka but the bar tender knew the difference ( if you want Vodka instead of Gin, you ask for a Vodka Martini). It was good but it was also $6. Does that mean that the regular price is $11 or $12? I asked the server about the price. She replied that if the drink contains more than one kind of booze( in this case Gin and Vermouth) the price doubles. I left and went to my favorie Mexican restraunt. Not a chain but just a family operated restraunt. Always good. I ordered a Margaritta. Just $2. It was not happy hour and the drink contained more fluid ounces than the Martini that I just had. I know that we will continue to pay these high prices but I am glad that my favorite club does not have special dancer priced drinks.
20 comments
I remember around a couple of years ago I visited Heartbreakers in Columbia and they were selling bottled beer for one dollar a bottle. The next time I visited a few months later, the price had doubled to two dollars a bottle. Still not too bad for a strip club.
I do agree that strip clubs often bilk ya on drinks. I think that many of them are simply following the crowd, but some could do a better job of pricing their loss-leaders and reconsidering their business strategies. I figger a relatively well-off middle-class businessman with cash to spend in the range of $500 for a "splurge" is much less likely to dump it in a place that charges $14 for a Jack-and-Coke than in a place that charges $6 for the same drink. Why? Just because, as a businessman, he gets annoyed at "wrong" prices. That means the club can get $500 from him one way or another way (10 drinks plus however much he has left over in lappers; or 5 drinks plus more), but risks not getting anything from him at all if the drinks price is unseemly.
My guess is, some clubs have thought this through. They keep the drinks prices up because they have realized that they'll be getting ENOUGH businessmen to turn over their $500, and meanwhile some OTHER cheapskaes will be lured in to an unhappy relationship with the bartender just by being mildly fooled at the outset. This borders on unethical, in that it is based on surprising the customer with higher prices than expected. I don't generally like it.
I ESPECIALLY don't like it when they charge for water. Tap water or not, they should give that out for free to anyone who has spent more than five minutes in the club or more than five dollars on any dancer. Refusing to, will highly contribute to drunk driving, to irresponsibly intoxicated customer behavior, and to general annoyance. The ice and tap-water ought to flow freely to any otherwise-paying customer.
I generally buy Diet Cokes. Then if I CHOOSE to get drunk, I buy Jack-and-Diet-Coke, usually. Once in a blue moon I sink to shooting Jaegermeister. If I'm going to be tempted to upgrade from the standard $5 soda, then the mixed is probably going to HAVE TO remain at the standard $7. In the French Quarter some clubs want as much as $15, which I perceive as not worth it, and which is therefore likely to curtail my night at a much lower profit for the club, than would a lower Jack-and-DC price.
Wow. Life really was better. High Life. :)
Do you still shave with a Gillette twist-to-open safety razor? Change your car's oil yourself? Mow the lawn with one of those non-motorized gear-sprocket mowers that required you to push-pull vigorously? Use such brands as Shinola, Burma-Shave, Brylcreem, Macasser Oil, Ipana, and of course Moxie?
I do like price breakdowns. I'll plan ahead and avoid if possible the overpriced items and get the more reasonably priced items whether that refers to lap dances or drinks. That's just maximizing my entertainment dollars.
One nude club I visit sells lap dances where you can't touch for $40 a song but they do 2 for 1's every hour. I don't bother. Platinum Plus is just down the road. If you want "free" DVD's or other items, it might not be so bad a deal.
Wendy's and most other fast food places will give away for free or charge a matter of small change for the cup but give you free ice water sometimes in a large cup. To get the equivalent of a large cup of water at some strip clubs will cost you probably around 15 to 20 dollars. Ridiculous. And now you don't get any ice with that.
By the way, a liter of beer at the Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany runs 13 Euro Dollars (about $14.00). I'll be finding out if the price increased at the end of this September.
Oh, and I totally agree about the drink prices at baseball games and movie theaters. But whatareyagonnado?
I'm miffed at the French Quarter's drinks rates. On a long night I'll spend as much as around $50 on drinking (five or eight drinks at $8 when you count tips), which could be $8 at home. That difference is in the range of "big enough to care."