High priced drinks... A rip off

20 comments

• founder

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  17 years ago

  If you think beers at Strip Clubs are expensive, then you should go to a Major League Baseball game. 16oz Draft Beer: $8.00. Uh, can't I get a 12 pack at 7-11 for that price?
• shadowcat

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  17 years ago

  F: I am glad to see you taking part in the discussions. That makes you more believable and credible than a few years ago. Keep it fun...
• founder

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  17 years ago

  I have a lot more free time now than I did 2 years ago.
• AbbieNormal

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  17 years ago

  Founder, true, but neither the ballpark or the 7-11 have quite the same ambiance.
• casualguy

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  17 years ago

  I like the way it was many years ago when I was about 15 or 16 years old. I was visiting the St. Louis zoo and got thirsty so I temporary left my parents and brothers and sisters to go find something to drink. I really just wanted to find a water fountain but ended up looking all over the place for something to drink. Finally I found a line and they were giving away drinks. They were in big red cups so I got in line and got one and drank it up. I was wondering what I drank since it didn't taste like root beer but had a bunch of foam on top. After telling my older brother he told me I had a beer. Cost: zero dollars. 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.
• casualguy

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  17 years ago

  I have actually been happy on occasion some clubs stop serving alcholic drinks in the upstate of South Carolina around Saturday night at midnight due to some old blue laws. I've had this situation come up. Dancer "can you buy me a drink?" me: "It's after midnight, they aren't serving that anymore." dancer: something like "oh, darn." Better than saying I don't want to buy her a drink and sound cheap. I think selling a small bottle of water with no ice for $3 or $4 is a rip off as well. Platinum Plus in Greenville does that. I try to drink plenty of water before I visit that club. If you get thirsty there, you could easily be out $12 for 3 bottles of water when it's free in most places.
• ummyeah

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  17 years ago

  Forget strip clubs, how about movie theaters? I went to a movie tonight, and paid $4.25 for large soda. That's rediculous, the same drink would only cost me $3 at the local strip club and I certainly didn't have a mostly naked woman grinding on my crotch at the movie theater. Pity really, it would've made for a much better experience.
• FONDL

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  17 years ago

  I never pay much attention to what individual items cost, it's the cost of the whole experience that matters to me. For example, one restaurant may overprice their wines but the food is inexpensive, while the other has less expensive wine but charges more for the food. Who cares as long as the total cost of the entire visit isn't outrageous. Same with strip clubs.
• Book Guy

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  17 years ago

  Naw, I disagree. I want to know the breakdown. I might choose to attend a club that has (relatively) high-priced alcoholic drinks but low-priced extras services, because I would likely not be drinking alcohol if I'm seeking an extras-oriented experience. Or I might choose the opposite, if I knew I wanted to get drunk. Ideally, of course, ALL products and services would be low-priced instead of high, but then that would essentially make this thread moot. 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.
• Book Guy

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  17 years ago

  Casualguy says: "I really just wanted to find a water fountain but ended up looking all over the place for something to drink. Finally I found a line and they were giving away drinks. They were in big red cups so I got in line and got one and drank it up. I was wondering what I drank since it didn't taste like root beer but had a bunch of foam on top. After telling my older brother he told me I had a beer. Cost: zero dollars. " 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?
• casualguy

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  17 years ago

  I do feel like I'm getting ripped off every time I buy a tiny bottle of water at Platinum Plus and it costs 3 or 4 dollars. The last time I was there, they told me they couldn't give away a cup of ice with the bottle. Rip off. They didn't offer to sell me any ice either. I guess next time I get hot, I'll just have to leave early if I want a cold drink with ice. That sucks. 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.
• casualguy

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  17 years ago

  I believe if a club or any place for that matter is selling something at a very high price, either a bunch of people with money really want or need that or else they really don't want to sell it but offer it for those who feel they must have it. 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.
• ThisOldManPlayed1

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  17 years ago

  I'm not all that concern with alcohol prices in a club, as I have learned to 'sip' my drinks. I'd rather see the LD prices lower!! 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.
• DandyDan

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  17 years ago

  This is why I like BYOB places like in Iowa, where you can just go to the local liquor store and buy a sixpack for cheap. Most stripclub beer is just way too overpriced. I find it amazing they have people who go to stripclubs just to drink and not interact with the ladies. My old favorite club is a topless place with beer and they get a lot of guys who go there and just bullshit. It's like the fact its a stripclub is irrelevant to them. I've been to a couple of other bars in this particular town with the strip club and a bottle of Bud is a dollar cheaper at those places. If its me, and I don't want to see topless dancers, I'd be like "Why bother?" Maybe that's why they can get away with it.
• Book Guy

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  17 years ago

  I think we're knocking at the door of another issue. There are essentially two basic categories of income that a strip club can bring to its management and owners. One is from bar sales, the other from "taxation" of stripper revenue (tip-outs, DJ fees, door fees, etc.). Perhaps the ridiculously high water prices are happening at a place that fits one of those categories, for example.
• magicrat

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  17 years ago

  Once at happy hour at PP in Columbia, I asked how much a grey goose was and was told $4 or $5. I ordered one with one the rocks with a twist..waitress said that will be $7. She explained it was more with ice so I guess they are just selling shots at that price during happy hour? That was a new one for me. On the other hand, their beer prices are $2 during happy hour I believe..can't beat that! Oh, and I totally agree about the drink prices at baseball games and movie theaters. But whatareyagonnado?
• Book Guy

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  17 years ago

  Actually, according to one U of Chicago economist (no, not the Freakanomics guy) the price to take a family of four to the baseball game has been steadily declining since the 1900s. Factoring in travel expenses, tickets, hot dogs, souvenirs, the lot, you get lower cost relative to average income now, than then, by a long shot. Highest real costs were in the 1930s and 40s, when baseball was in its heyday as THE pastime of the country -- which stands to reason: owners could charge as much as they wanted, the demand was so high.
• ThisOldManPlayed1

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  17 years ago

  Same as magicrat. While at the PP in Columbia, I also ordered a Grey Goose and Red Bull. She came back with it and a $7 charge! After that, I resorted to sipping longnecks all afternoon and all night long. What a RIP OFF! In the long run, if they lowered their drink prices, they'd probably make more money in the long run, by selling more drinks. The more drinks sold and drank, the better the chances for the girls to make good money. Then again, since when did a SC give a shit about their dancers? NEVER!
• minnow

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  17 years ago

  High priced drinks aren't a deal breaker for me. They are, but 1 means for clubs to squeeze a few more $$$ from customers. According to zbone poll, average respondent spends roughly $100 per visit. So, whats $1 or so extra for a couple of drinks? Much the same rationale that car dealers squeeze a few hundred $$$ more from $20-30K car with dealer extras like pinstriping, scotch-guard, etc. While I'm on the subject of $$ squeezing, song clipping seems to be another ploy, especially with the corporate chain clubs. Lets say that it takes 10 minutes to achieve a certain level of satisfaction with lapdance. So, instead of customer buying 3 unclipped songs(3-3.5 mins), he/she buys 4 clipped songs (2.5 mins) to get same level of satisfaction. Chalk up another $20 for the club.
• Book Guy

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  17 years ago

  Faulty human decision-making. Would you (a) walk across the street to save $10 on a $5,000.oo stereo system and get it for $4990.oo? or similarly (b) walk across the street to save $10 on a $11 newspaperand get it for $1? Most people tend to do (b) but not (a), but it's an equivalent savings for an equivalent effort. 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."