Is the party over for strippers?
David9999
(BEGIN QUOTE)
A long time ago (okay 1996-2001) there was a golden land of beautiful naked women and plenty of men to lavish money upon those women. Strippers could reasonably expect to earn $200-1000 a shift from stage performances and the occasional lap dance. No hustling necessary.
Then came the internet, and with it's cheap (or free) access to porn and online webcam performances. It was no longer necessary for the socially awkward customer to leave the comfort of his own home. This didn't have much of an influence in the early days of the web, as most people didn't have access and/or a computer. So club dancers were able to happily spin about the pole while being showered with money. The country had the greatest economic growth ever in the history of the US and men were very happy to throw money around as if it were flowing from a never ending river.
Then the tech bubble burst in early 2001. Expense accounts were eliminated. Then we were attacked on 9/11. The religious right started cranking up their anti sex machine. Pop culture integrated stripping into movies and music videos. Cultural myths that strippers made millions of dollars every year developed. Girls flocked to the industry flooding the floor every night in the hopes of scoring a high roller. Clubs started charging fees and more fees and more fees, and the girls just kept coming. The competition created a new kind of dancer. The extras girls started showing up, and the clubs let them break the laws. The clubs even thought it a good idea to hire more extras girls and raised the fees even more. All of these things created the perfect storm for the demise of the golden age of stripping.
Today, plain old topless dancing is considered tame and can be seen in just about any house party. Just get a cute girl drunk and she'll run around topless or nude and give free lap dances to the guys at the party as an attention getting device. Even Britney and Paris are happy to show naked snatch for attention. So any value that may have been once attached to a nude show is gone.
Today's 20 and 30 somethings want real action for their money. They want to get off for $200 or less and are not happy with air dances any longer. Clubs everywhere are starting to close their doors forever.
The party is over.
(END QUOTE)
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In regards to the expense account issue, aside from closer scrutiny from auditiors and SEC rules etc, there were also various sexual harassment cases where women executives were dragged along with male managers in the office to entertain and discuss business with clients - to strip joints thus arguably creating the requisite "hostile work environment" - so the male managers had to chose between NOT inviting them out or going elsewhere - and they had to chose the 2nd because by not inviting them out that could also be construed as a form of gender based discrimination. So strip clubs lost these clients in large numbers.
In 1996, the Houston PD vice squad had a major scandal and most, if not all of the vice cops were fired. It took about six to seven years for them to get back up to speed. In the interim, one local strip club was so brazen that it put a couple of mobile homes in the back parking lot and was openly running a 7/24 brothel. After a raid, the mobile homes had to go bye bye. However, the silver lining was that the gals at that joint went from 4's-6's to 7-10's.
Of course, reaching back into the 70's and 80's, some clubs were brothels, they just had stripping in the front, and fucking in the back.
One local club goes through the same cycles over and over. First, they get raided and lose their stripping license for 6 months. Whern they get their license back, at first they have 4-6's, who are cautious. Then the 6-8's reappear and at first there's good mileage, then they just start brazenly fucking everywhere (16-17 year olds sometimes appear). Then, they get raided again.
YES BUZZKILLERS
As for clubs closing their doors, I can't think of any that have done so in my part of the world in the past decade. But I can name a whole bunch of new clubs that have opened their doors. The number of both dancers and clubs is increasing. The opening quote only makes sense if you ignore all the evidence to the contrary.
Note the clubs did have a fair amount of patrons, they appeared to be buying few if any regular dances, but was absolutely no one (except myself) buying VIPs, plus it should be noted both clubs were full of hot women and therefore no shortage of talent
Got your head out of the clouds
You're back down on the ground
And you don't talk so loud
And you don't walk so proud"
I would agree that the result of economic pressure probably shows up at the club sooner than at the gas station or grocery store. (We can only hope that prices do not rise as wildly at the club as at the other two places.....)
As I indicated "Paris" summary is quite perceptive however as for her saying "Clubs everywhere are starting to close their doors forever." - I'm not sure where that's happening. I know for certain that dancer incomes are getting hit hard, of course that's in relation to sometimes obscene pay levels from earlier periods, so with the more top shelf girls at least, there's still alot of cushion before Walmart will start looking attractive.
In some locations its all but impossible to open a new strip club that also serves liquor, so in those cities and towns its very unlikely anyone would shut a strip club down, instead they would just sell the business as it would generally have signficant intrinsic value.