strip clubs and gentrification
docsavage
Indiana
In the city I live in, Indianapolis, there has been a decrease in the number of strip clubs as middle class customers with disposable income move further out of the city into outer suburbs. This migration has reversed recently as younger people move to gentrified areas around the downtown area.
I haven't seen any turnaround in the clubs, though, from these potential new customers. These young people might head down to the hipster coffee shop to hang out but I don't see them in the local strip clubs. Is this true about other large cities? If it is, is it because younger middle class guys just aren't interested in strip clubs or is it because the urban strip clubs have adopted a business model that doesn't appeal to them?
I haven't seen any turnaround in the clubs, though, from these potential new customers. These young people might head down to the hipster coffee shop to hang out but I don't see them in the local strip clubs. Is this true about other large cities? If it is, is it because younger middle class guys just aren't interested in strip clubs or is it because the urban strip clubs have adopted a business model that doesn't appeal to them?
15 comments
Now, society has decided that men are inherently evil. Rape culture. Me too. Human trafficking. Toxic masculinity. Anything that smacks of male culture must be shamed and cancelled.
Politicians have embraced this new attitude and are choosing to virtue signal by condemning strip clubs. They pretend that every stripper is being trafficked against her will and every patron is a perverted rapist-in-waiting.
That’s the underlying reason that strip clubs are disappearing.
It’s not usually a selling feature having a strip club around the corner from a home. You don’t see that on many listings -
4 bedroom colonial, 2.5 bathrooms, attached 2 car garage, park like yard, close to shopping, transportation, and strip clubs...
The location might save husbands from drinking and driving, but I doubt the wives would see that as a real benefit.
At one time there were as many as 5 clubs in my small town open at the same time. Pre-COVID or in other words a little over a year ago there was only 1 and it was open sporadically. Open for 3 months, closed for a month. I think their main reasons for closure were 1. Just not enough customers to support 5 clubs (all of which were pretty divey) 2. Not enough dancers. Also not helping all these clubs but one were on the outskirts of town and an Uber to these spots was not an easy task.
I also think a smaller sub set among them might be afraid of talking to women in person about anything intimate. Thus the rise of the whole cam girl thing, which lockdowns really gave a boost too.
About 15 to 20 years ago many of the clubs would get shut down by an orchestrated attack busy bodies harassing the club, writing down license plates of several cars and posted them in local neighborhood flyers, and kept calling the cops for various violations.
Over the last five or so years it definitely has been gentrification. One common trick is to create a law that doesn't allow any adult businesses within a certain distance from elementary schools or day care centers. Then open a new school or day care center within the limits and then try to force the club to close. Club sues due to having been there before the law was changed. Fights it for two or three years, while going bankrupt in lawyer fees, and various fines from spot inspections.
There has been a slow decline. Back in the early 90's there was over 70 strip clubs within an hours drive of where I live. Now there are less than 15.
But in light of stuff like this...
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/09/millenni…
...I’ll come out and say it that relatively speaking, millennial men are a generous enough bunch. Millennials fer sure play less “what are you going to do to EARN this dollar” head games (unlike some boomers I’ve met). They will either spend or they won’t end of story. But too be fair, millennials may just be a younger less experienced group. They may age into assholes yet one day. 😝
As far as I’m concerned, the biggest threat to SCs is local-government – if SCs are left to be they will often thrive – not being familiar with Indy IDK if the SCs have underperformed all on their own causing them to fall-out-of-favor; of if they’ve been hampered via local-ordinances – I assume they may not be as popular b/c they are not as good but that is just an assumption/opinion.
Seems areas with more lenient ordinances the SCs are doing well (South FL; Tampa area; Detroit suburbs; etc) – seems the more rules/ordinances placed on SCs from local-government, the less fun and cost-effective they become (local-governments basically often throw a monkey-wrench into the local-SCs).