Do Club Owners Monitor (and learn) from TUSCL?

avatar for harrydave
harrydave
New Jersey
This is kind of a follow-on thought to a couple of other threads that featured dumb ass things that some clubs do. Also, the recent thread on club types shows a pretty high level of agreement on what makes a club preferred (at least by the discussion contributors).

Collectively, we must have a bazillion years experience lurking in the shadows of clubs, and developing an appreciation for what does or does not work. Also, TUSCL reviews and ratings, from a much wider crowd, have been a great resource for me. My friiends think I am clairvoyant (or deviant, or both) when I steer them to a particular club in a city I have rarely visited.

So, do club owners pay attention? I think I might. I know they have some associations and an anuual convention, and some other business improvement stuff. But TUSCL is like a continuous, real-time performance meter. And a great piece of market research.

This is my hope, that more club owners would try to emulate the good clubs. Oh what a wonderful world it would be. ;-)

I mention TUSCL to strippers ("How did you find this place?"). Anybody ever encourage a manager or owner to check it out?

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avatar for Pete22z
Pete22z
17 years ago
I've never had the opportunity to meet one. At my favorite club, everybody hates it when he drops by...it's like Dad is home so all the dancers get real frigid. That motherf***** needs to keep his a** at home. Otherwise I think he does a pretty decent job considering his circumstances.
avatar for ThisOldManPlayed1
ThisOldManPlayed1
17 years ago
I would guess that most club owners don't take the time to monitor this website. I wish they would, in a way, so they could see any complaints being lodged during visits. On the other hand, I'm glad they don't monitor the website, as some of us (me included) go a bit beyond with names and style of LDs, i.e, mileage, etc, and this might get some of the dancers in trouble, which I don't want to see happen.
avatar for casualguy
casualguy
17 years ago
I usually don't try to meet the manager of a club. I guess if I wanted something to change, I could make suggestions. I did talk to one manager before about an issue and he thanked me. When a manager is friendly with you along with the bouncers, it is nice but doesn't seem as anonymous. I have wondered if I'm really anonymous anymore though.

Lol, I met the manager's son once at PP in Greenville. The music was so loud that I couldn't understand a word he was shouting. Finally he asked me if I spoke English. He was passing out tickets to something. I wasn't paying attention to him at first. Then he wasn't speaking loud enough since my hearing had gone partially deaf already that night. I didn't have any desire to speak (or shout) to him any longer. Learn from this site? I'm wondering if they even heard about it.
avatar for chandler
chandler
17 years ago
Here's my considered opinion: not very likely. SC owners and managers I know of wouldn't be interested in what customers have to say unless they are in the club spending money. Even in that case, they wouldn't care about general suggestions to improve their club. They tend to consider customers as either suckers or adversaries, not anybody to to be listened to.
avatar for Yoda
Yoda
17 years ago
No, they don't learn anything. It's obvious if you look around your favorite club that management has absolutley nothing to learn about anything....They already have all the answers!

I do know of a guy who got banned from a club for badmouthing the club and the manager on the TUSCL board for that club.
avatar for DandyDan
DandyDan
17 years ago
I've got to meet three in my time in the clubs. I doubt the one would have, since all he really cared about was alcohol sales. The guy who runs my favorite club, even though he's too much of a redneck for my tastes, seems to be aware of stuff that happens elsewhere and comes up with new ideas all the time. It's clear he is at least aware of some of what happens in East St. Louis, at the least. Whether he knows TUSCL exists is another matter, but he has posted at stripclublist.com, for what that's worth. I don't really know about the last owner I've met, but he at least had a web presence and a lady there was aware of TUSCL's existence.
avatar for harrydave
harrydave
17 years ago
Bones, good points. I guess when I have experienced extras I have left my reviews kind of sketchy, figuring I don't want to get anyone in trouble. But the owners know this shit is going down, so who am I kidding?

Chandler and Yoda, you struck a chord. There is some combination of arrogance and stupidity. You rearely here stories like "management tried this rule, and it didn't work, so they got rid of it, convened a meeting of the strippers and waitresses, asked for their input, and came up with a new rule that was acceptable to all"! LOL! What have I been smoking.

DandyDan, I always thought it was all about alcohol sales in the topless clubs. I figured that what the main source of revenue. So it is doubly confusing when a club has a liquor license and half naked women, and still can't get guys to show up or stay!
avatar for DougS
DougS
17 years ago
I highly doubt that many club owners / managers check this site out, although I'd be the first to highly recommend to them that they did. I've met a few of the owners from clubs that I frequent, and to be honest, they are all from the "old boys" generation. Like was mentioned, they really don't care whether we have a good experience at their club or not, as long as we are bringing in money - which we do. In a club (strip or not), alcohol sales is where the money is at, when talking about clubs that I visit. (of course if they serve alcohol)

Also, I think there is very little chance that these owners have access to a computer - at least one with internet access. They, as a group, certainly don't strike me as being computer savvy enough to hit the web.

Lastly, I DO know there ARE some owners/managers that DO check out the web, however I believe the majority of that group is using the STRIPCLUBLIST.COM site. Why? They can get on and look for free - no need to post reviews to keep their account active, plus they can post comments without anyone seeing the "screen name" of the poster. Of course, as we all know, that OTHER web site is loaded with false comments and is worthless for the most part.
avatar for ArtCollege
ArtCollege
17 years ago
Every now and then I've suspected a review of being planted by management. Rating a 10, the reviewer has not reviewed any other clubs. But I haven't run across any club where this seems to occur consistently. Whenever I see a 10, I click on the reviewer's name to see where else he's been.

As for the club owners using the info from TUSCL, if we stopped having the same old complaints over and over, I'd say yes, they are listening.
avatar for shadowcat
shadowcat
17 years ago
My expierence from my own favorite club is NO. Neither Ken Wood ( the owner) nor Jerry (The general manager) or Aljo (the day shift manager) could give a shit about what the customers think, what TUSCL prints. the dancers or other club employees. Its all about the money.
avatar for chandler
chandler
17 years ago
Harrydave: You know, what really cracks me up are reviews that say, "In case management reads this I have a suggestion to offer..." Yeah, right.

Seriously, if you want to register a complaint, your only real chance is to say it to a manager's face while you're in the club. Even in the 90% of times it doesn't produce any results, at least it feels better than grumbling anonymously online. A couple of times they've been surprisingly responsive for me, although not with any major policy changes.
avatar for jablake
jablake
17 years ago
Hmmm . . . I feel honored after reading these posts. Not only has the owner of Angels (also owner of Secrets a very different culture, btw) asked my opinion, he also asked my friend's opinion. We hit it off it seemed because our favorite dancer at the time happened to be his favorite dancer. The managers over the years have also sought my input.

Yes, if it's all about the money then they should be listening to the customers and to the dancers.

avatar for DandyDan
DandyDan
17 years ago
Harrydave-
I do have to agree that in clubs that serve alcohol, its all about the alcohol sales as far as management is concerned. But if you decide your bar isn't doing good enough with alcohol sales alone and you decide to have topless or nude dancing, you got to do something to cater to the customers who are there for the dancing. That particular club owner who only cared about alcohol sales had his personal favorite dancers who basically ruled the roost and ran off more than their fair share of good dancers. I ran into dancers at other clubs, I mention to them this particular club and they all say they won't ever go back because some dancers are above the rules.
avatar for chitownlawyer
chitownlawyer
17 years ago
After I posted a review for Industrial Strip in Hammond, Indiana, I received a very detailed, responsive e-mail from the manager.
avatar for ThisOldManPlayed1
ThisOldManPlayed1
17 years ago
casualguy - LOL. I met a dancer, who happened to dance in a club her father managed. She still gave me a great BBBJ!!

ArtCollege - I whole heartedly agree with your assumption. I too, believe that there have been instances of owners or managers, even dancers, making posted reviews, especially when you see non-member reviews.

chitownlawyer - please..... fill us in, unless it's client-attorney related of course! :-)

If I owned or managed a club, I'd sign up on this site and be known as a manager or owner of a club, but not disclose which one(s). I can learn to work with guys and gals that are avid clubbers. I think it would only be to my best interest.

avatar for FONDL
FONDL
17 years ago
That's interesting, Chitown, because I had the same experience with IS. And that was a long time ago.

I don't think club managers much care what customers think as long as they are making money. A lot of them probably think that they wouldn't make as much money if they made the kind of changes we'd all like to see (and in some cases they could be right.) I think the problem for us is that's it's too easy for clubs to make money in this business, which causes them to think they know it all.

I once got kicked off of a club's discussion board (Gentlemen's Gold Club in Baltimore) for continually suggesting that they make certain changes (specifically lowering prices on dances during the day shift since nobody was buying any - duh.) The funny thing is that 2 years later they're starting to implement some of my suggestions. Maybe I'll stop in again one of these days. I wonder if my old fave is still there.
avatar for casualguy
casualguy
17 years ago
I did email the management of one club one time and got a whole lot of attention. That was after a dancer picked my pocket and then she ran off before I realized what she just did. If I hadn't felt her hand in my pocket, she might have gotten away with it. I forgot at the moment that I had some cash in that pocket. I was wondering what she intended to do with her hand in my pocket. Maybe if I had on blue jeans I wouldn't have noticed either. I returned to the club within a couple of weeks, told a bouncer that was me who sent the email. He told me the manager wanted to speak to me. I was actually quite nervous at first wondering if the bouncers might try to throw me out for being rude accusing one of their dancers of stealing. Quite the contrary, the manager thanked me, gave me back the money I estimated was missing and was very friendly to me after that. He blamed the dancer for driving away customers and explained the loss of business he was experiencing on her. Customers do get angry and may not return if a dancer is stealing their wallet or cash out of their pocket especially if she just started and the management doesn't seem to do anything or care. Seems kind of funny in hindsight, I was wondering if I was going to get in a fight with the bouncers and be kicked out. I'm still not sure if all strip clubs would be that accomodating.
avatar for casualguy
casualguy
17 years ago
By the way, that time it worked to my advantage to complain to the strip club management rather than get in a shouting match with the dancer. As it was, the only time I saw her face again in that club was when the manager pulled out a copy of her drivers license and asked if this was the girl. He had it right. His investigation he started after my email was right on the money. He didn't know what was going on in his own club.
avatar for casualguy
casualguy
17 years ago
Unfortunately the city had a beef with the club as well and they succeeded in closing it down. Too close to a church with the new laws even though it had been in operation for many years.
avatar for casualguy
casualguy
17 years ago
I suppose a manager could read this but then they might think, we don't have all the information they do. They might have gone to some kind of strip club management seminar where the instructor said, this, this and that works good in a strip club. Then the instructor had all these credentials. It might be just smoke and mirrors but some people pay attention to all that. Of course if someone has a good idea, I guess a smart manager may try it out to see how it works.
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