Clubbing in recession vs thriving economy

What healthy economy?

I'm seeing clubs go downhill and girls making less

I don’t have enough current trips to clubs to make a proper assessment.

We are dealing with inflation and supply chain issues, and we may be reaching a reasonable spot in the Covid pandemic, but I don’t think we are yet in a prosperous economy.

I just heard a girl brag about $900 in a week. Granted ok that was not a top shelfer and I'm in a rather competitive state rn but still that is crazy. Years ago you would never hear anybody brag about stripping all week to get $900. Idk that is crazy to me

And this is not a low cost of living area

You can probably almost qualify for foodstamps at $900 per week. Definitely can't afford rent and transportation with oil going to $100 a barrel this week.

I believe in "a high tide lifts all boats' - most dancers do what they do b/c the $$$ is good - if the premium is not there they rather not be there either - lots of $$$ and spending in the club is what motivates most dancers to tolerate being treated like a piece-of-meat and pretend they enjoy it - I think low-$$$ in the clubs is one of the biggest things that makes dancers not wanna put up with being a dancer - great economic times is when I recall the clubs being at their best often bursting w/ dancers and talent.

@cash my experience with the supply chain is its a reason of the economy. We all suffer from short term memory in America, but I remember when layoffs were daily news in America. Now most people who want a job can find one. Its easy to think otherwise with the news but we have come a long way. And lets face it if most of us arent happy with our current salary its not the govts problem its ours. We would be grinding and not checking sites like this to come up with our next company.

Im actually thinking the "healthy" economy is why so many clubs have gone downhill. Most girls with a few brain cells dont dance anymore. I just checked after posting and the girl who I used to see scurrying around two hole in the walls NJ clubs singing covered frank sinatra for 120 has 500k followers on instagram. I wouldnt be surprised if she's pulling mid six figures through her various pay portals. Blame the oil barrons in Dhubai I guess.

I think what I've seen so far is the new girls aren't thirsty enough to push their mileage up.

Crossing into "this is technically illegal but makes me more money" is a big step for a lot of girls.

Some of this is just the money desire treadmill. A lot of new girls just want to make more than Starbucks or hostessing at a restaurant, enough to work 10-20 hours a week and pursue their passion or school. It's when they get the new car, the nice apartment, want to go on trips that they start needing to juice more money out.

Anyways we are in a weird time across the board. I'm also personally making almost double what I was prepandemic. I do think they money may be a little easy right now for the girls.

I think it's gonna get bad coming up here. How many ways can squeeze Americans. Gas way up. Groceries way up. Housing prices are getting crazy as fuck. Maybe you've seen all cash buyers from California come to a city near you and outbid the ask price over 100k. Cars, I mean wtf is going there? You got one car on some of these lots. I saw a shitty Jeep online for 15k mark up. Autos obviously way the fuck up. Wages likely aren't going to rise at that rate.

I believe Americans on average are looking at about 3K more this year on just basic stuff. That's gonna dip into that fun money well that people use on these strip clubs. I think you'll see a lot clubs go down in the next couple years here, I don't think we've seen the worst of it.

Likely there are pros and cons w.r.t. different economic times – in bad times one can likely get better deals and better attention from dancers; but at the same time there may not be as many dancers or as many hot ones b/c there may not be enough $$$ in the club consistently.

So in my opinion, the past two years has been a wild ride and most of the changes in clubs, as far as customer and dancer behavior, has more to do with culture and how individuals end up dealing with personal stress than mere economic stuff. And also whether recent events brought people closer (especially family) or more isolated and lonely.

Also, I don’t consider the economy the end-all-be-all. I wrote a post about it somewhere. But the gist was that the last time the US had a large sex industry that had more of an emphasis on frivolity and, yeah it’s sex work but we totally don’t do that stuff but then stuff sometimes happens anyways oops teehee, was taxi-dancing. That industry lasted the whole Great Depression and the largest hit to it was the post world war 2 boom and the industry was practically over with by the 1960s.

NJBalla you make several good points regarding the recovery. I hope we are at a better spot. Maybe it’s a spotty recovery? Overall the economy is improving, I agree.

Definitely a dichotomy with the economy. Either your doing much better if you have a decent paying remote work or high demand position as opposed to a service oriented job. It’s the haves versus the have nots. The haves do spend more, and if you don’t have it you can dance in the club.

I'd hardly call this economy "thriving" but if you are in an area with a heavy concentration of certain white collar workers (financial services, technology), you're definitely competing with a lot of guys who are flush from recent large bonuses and pay increases. Also the dancers are younger and newer than they used to be, which is also impacting mileage.

But these things inevitably move in cycles. We saw a similar phenomenon in 2005-2008, right before asset bubbles burst and we went into recession. I frequented a little northeast club and my prospects with a few stupidly hot girls suddenly improved dramatically when the stock and housing markets tanked. Then conditions stayed pretty good for years to come when Obama continued to strangle the economy, but got a little more challenging when Trump improved the economy.

Now, due to pandemic relief, we have a ton of money still sloshing around in the system and asset bubbles due to very cheap money, but it won't last - it never does. Just keep the powder dry for when conditions improve. Sometimes when it happens, it happens fast, like it did in 2008-2009.

My 2 cents. A lot of girls don't approach customers like we used to cuz these days customers don't really come in with intentions of spending unless you wanna bend over backwards for them. No thanks. There is no reason on earth to listen to dumbass bullshit for long to sell basic lapdances. And I'm glad at least most of these Cuban chicks understand that. Only good thing about dancing around them is customers are trained not to expect much or any attention without paying.

There are always people who figure out how to do well no matter what the economy, truth is it's more a matter of putting forth the effort, sitting around complaining about the economy never did squat for anyone.

People have less money whether they make more or less since everything is so expensive and prices keep going up.

What I'm seeing now is girls getting used to making less money.

I think Meat got it exactly right. Based on the countries where I've traveled, economic inequality is way more important than total income. If you have enough rich guys and poor women, the rest is pretty much automatic. I've known dancers who started poor and became rich, and when they did, they stopped dancing, at least until the money was gone.

There are a lot more dancers than rich customers. To say the rich keep clubs open. Or keep hookers in business isn't true

^^ jealous?

^ And exactly who is saying anything remotely like that, you are making up shit out of your ass as usual

Rent, food, and fuel prices are way up. There are no more enhanced unemployment, monthly child credits, or covid payments.

That means far fewer customers with extra money to spend in clubs. It means dancers will be desperate to cover their expenses.

Like all past recessions/depressions, there are opportunities for those with cash.

^Yeah, pray for one of your fellow Phoenix area TUSCL-ers who is already feeling the squeeze of inflation and he has to avoid buying drinks for dancers at all costs, and is crying about it being a scam in a review. It’s brutality. ☹️

Mark what you're saying is basically what Rick and desert scrub say. Exploit and low ball desperate hookers... pussy at bargain prices. What a way to go through life.

@Mark: I hear what you're saying, but keep in mind that it's not the guy with his last Jackson burning a hole in his pocket that feeds these girls. It's mostly guys with white collar jobs and they've been doing just fine weathering the pandemic. Shit in my field salaries have gone up 30%+ since 2/2020 with so many remote work options now available.

When things really get good is during a good ol' fashioned recession. When the stock market and housing values plummet to multi-year lows, so too do the payrolls of these large white collar employers. THAT's when you suddenly find a lot more hungry girls around.

The dancers I've caught up with again that I've known for a while are mostly making less than pre Covid, not many are making more and a civvy job one or two part-days a week is not uncommon. However, the struggle is much more on the expenses side; that side is definitely increasing and by and large they don't have the money management skills to spend less. So adjustments for that will need to work through the system. In some markets and clubs, no doubt, the customer side will bring in more to help bridge the gap. Florida and Texas maybe? I've not seen it much out West

FL and TX are poor states. Low wages etc

Last July Jen Psaki said in a White House press conference that we would have 2.2% inflation now. Instead, it is 7.5%. Inflation is likely to be much higher in the future than most predictions. To end it would require interest rates higher than the inflation rate and the tiny rate hikes planned aren't going to do it.

Extremely high inflation is going to lead to something like Weimar Germany. Planning for tomorrow by saving money and making prudent investments won't work. People will adopt a "live for today" attitude and engage in a more decadent lifestyle. This probably will be good for strip clubs but will not be good for the long-term health of society. People will spend money as soon as they get it or gamble in the stock market casino if they have excess cash. Eventually the stock market will crash. When that happens there will be widespread misery and the rise of extremist political movements, both of the right and the left.

I've been hearing that inflation will come down this year, and thisis form people whom have been critical of the government/fed handling - one financial person said the inflation # would come b/c of the way it's calculated on a year-over-year basis and that inflation has started rising around April 2021 and the way it's calculated the #/calculation would thus decrease (I really didn't follow the explanation but both persons in the interview agreed on this point).

The other reason is as @Mark94 posted, that the government has mostly taken away all the money-giving to people and there doesn't seem to be anything coming down this year like we've had in 2020 and 2021 but don't put it past Brandon to keep spending like it doesn’t matter.

I'm not an economist, and didn't stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night, but with supply chain issues still out there, prices will remain high due to basic supply and demand. Also, oil prices are a big driver on inflation because it touches every aspect of the economy. We see it by paying higher prices to fill up with gas, but business sees it in shipping costs and the price they pay for materials to manufacture goods.

On a year to year basis, inflation might flatten out, but it won't bring down prices.

At the clubs around home I see less guys getting lap dances and more guys throwing $50 or $100 on stage like it’s nothing, especially young guys.

I’ve been to Florida twice this winter and things there felt more like the good old days, you know except with way more extras on offer and a zillion more Cubans.

Inflation is always a monetary issue. Too much money chasing too few goods. The Fed has a choice It can either keep stimulating the economy by keeping rates low and feeding the market with cash ( which pumps up the stock market and benefits the wealthy ) or raise rates and shrink its balance sheet ( which brings down inflation and helps the working class ).

We’ll see which way it goes

“When things really get good is during a good ol' fashioned recession.”

I think that’s where we are headed, at least for the next couple years. The Fed will tap on the breaks, causing a recession. They won’t bring rates back down until inflation is under control.

If they do it right, they will raise rates rapidly, shocking the economy. The pain will last for a year, then we’ll be out of it. More likely, they gradually raise rates, delaying the recovery

Youre a fucking idiot...you claim Trump wkn the election asking for condiments is against freedom people prefer making less money than more and now a recession will be good for us. Did lightening strike your tin foil hat?

Higher interest rates, and a related recession, are the only way to bring down inflation. We can avoid a recession only if we tolerate double digit inflation for the rest of our lives. Those are our only options. Personally, I prefer to endure a recession for a year rather than insane inflation for decades.

Wage and price controls work

^Ummm, no they don’t. Go read a book on economics. Pretty much any one.

No one under 55 in the US has ever experienced high inflation. You’re about to learn a tough lesson. For example, are you curious what will happen to housing prices when mortgage rates reach 7%. If you own a home now, it won’t be pretty.

They do. And they cause an artificial recession which can be controlled.

thanks for the intel gents. You know what it may be on me for some part as well. Remote work is killing my time for extracurriculars and Ive been dating more civvies.I used to migrate between different clubs to find the best value. These days I stick to the same 1 or 2 clubs to visit once a month. The clubs I visit now are the ones who receive the most reviews. Highly reviewed clubs tend to get the highest rollers as they would prefer to spend thier money outbidding other patrons than playing detective to see where the fresh talent is hiding in NJ.

The last time wage and price controls were used in the US was1970. It stabilized things in the short term but had disastrous effect in the longer term.

en.m.wikipedia.org

Yhe economy is all speculative anyways. Raise wages and freeze prices.

While we’re at it, let’s put the government in charge of all economic decisions. That worked out so well for Venezuela, Cuba, and the Soviet Union.

I see what’s happening - remote work and dating civi’s is clouding your ability to objectively analyze NJ strip clubs and the current economic situation! Lol!

I am finding it difficult to get away as well. I’ve been remote for close to two years, and zoom has been a sad replacement for in person meetings. Doing cash flow analysis in my basement office is miserable and far from ideal.

I am hoping there will be a change for the better as the spring approaches.

Mark wants the US to be a libertarian paradise like Somalia

youtu.be