Is the traffic and the strip clubs a lot more crowded where you live at?

Things are dead in ESL clubs. For what it's worth, dancers blame the economy and recent statewide anti-smoking ban. However, the local prosecutor said flat-out that the ban is ambiguous and otherwise poorly written, and has advised LE departments in the county that if they issue any citations, his assistants have directions to dismiss them on request. And the only change I've noticed re smoking is that the number of ashtrays is down by half, and they no longer contain boxes of matches...you have to ask at the bar. The dancers have not yet heard about the ban.

Over the years, dancers have told me that the end of the post-Christmas slump is when employed workers get tax refunds. As I understand it, the IRS was late in getting the tax forms out this year due to last-minute changes in the alternative minimum tax. The 2007 tax forms/instructions were supposed to come out during the first week of February, so electronic filers should be getting refunds in a couple of weeks. I'll be interested in seeing if that causes things to perk up...also interested in seeing how much of the "stimulus" ends up being truly "stimulating" by being spent in sc's. I won't be getting one myself, but if I did, it would go to stimulate the Mexican economy.

In the northeast USA, relative to the real estate super-bubble between 2000 and 2006, there's been huge decrease in residential construction, new houses and additions etc - and its very easy to notice. This alone (aside from other economic factors) means a large amount of individuals unemployed and disemployed with lots of time to kill with a near perfect excuse provided (for married etc) to out on the town somewhere, whether construction, mortgage lending people, real estate people and so forth. It so happens that strip clubs are relatively low cost entertainment if one avoids private dances and if one can only pays the cover (not common on many day shifts anyways) or has to buy a drink or 2 under the min

So what I've noticed is customer traffic relatively high in certain clubs but few buying dancers, so the clubs seem to be doing minimally OK but the dancers taking the hit.

I agree with David9999 - in North East Ohio, SC attendance is only down a little, but the money spent per customer appears to be down moderately. (My source for this: dancers that I talk with at about 8 different clubs.) A lot of the dancers seem to be working more days and more hours because the money is down, but this is just self-defeating. Aren't you noticing that your favourite club seems to have more dancers that it did a few years ago ?

I haven't really noticed more dancers. A couple of weeks ago one dancer in one club told me "there aren't enough dancers here tonight." I agreed with her. I would have spent more but only had one dancer ask me for a dance the whole night. The club was a lot more crowded than normal even though that seems to be getting more normal. I might try out the other Platinum Plus club in Columbia sometime to see if that club is super crowded or not. If I have to stand up half the night due to a lack of seats, I don't care for that too much.

Not enough dancers was not at Platinum Plus by the way. Since I'm trying to not spend as much, the bigger crowds make that easier except for 2 favorites who know me at one club.

Last Saturday when I went to both of my favorite clubs, they were both far more crowded than usual. The one club in small town Iowa was far more crowded at 9pm than I've previously seen it at that time. I got a dance with my favorite, but only one of the others came around. Usually, everyone will come around eventually if your there long enough. At the other club, much closer to my hometown of Omaha, they had the 9th stage in action as I arrived, after 1AM. I have only seen that in use twice previously.

Sometimes, I wonder if strip club attendance isn't just plain randomness, because I could do the same itinerary this Saturday, and about half the people would be at those two places.

Well, I travel a lot, so I have some "homes away from home". One phenomenon I've noticed in 1 major city is that having higher prices to start with coupled with nickle/dime add ons can reduce customer headcount, and ultimately, number of dancers per shift.

The scenario: Club A has 2 tier pricing system & has for a long time. Dances are $10 more expensive at night, with VIP 3 songers being $20 more expensive night vs day. Meanwhile, Club B has same prices day or night. The point isn't to make an apples to apples comparison, because there are some differences in mileage, privacy tradeoffs. Bottom line- Club A dances for most of recent history were $10- $20 more than Club B for same type of dance. I won't go into VIP differences here. Despite differences, Club A generally had twice the number of dancers or more on night shift vs. day shift.

Now, in the past yr, Club A has jacked up the prices by $1 per dance. So, $30 & $40 topless dances are now $31 & $41, resp. I think that act, coupled with higher price diff. has caused a drop in night shift patronage. A perusal of club website shows an average of 9.6 dancers on day shift, 13.4 on night shift. (I didn't factor in the 1-3 dancers on swing shift, they can pad both shifts counts).That is a 1.4:1 night/day ratio. Club B's most recent hotline has 10 dancers on dayshift, 26 on night, a 2.6:1 ratio. Callls on other dates have yielded roughly similar ratios, and I suspect, is more in line with most other clubs(eg, having twice the number , or more, on night shift vs day shift.

I only have a sample of one. On my recent weekday afternoon club visit with Wondergirl, I thought the place was busier than I remembered it from previous visits several years ago at the same time of day. I mentioned this to one of the dancers, and she replied that it was less busy than usual, that it had been much busier the previous afternoon. Lots of customers were buying private dances too. So at least one club in the suburban Philly area seems to be doing well.

My observations about construction in my area are that new high-end new housing construction has slowed considerably, but more moderately priced stuff is still being built and remodeling is booming. Nonresidential construction also seems to be doing very well. A huge new mixed-use development (housing, retail, offices) is just getting underway near me. Highway construction is also booming in my area - there are major projects everywhere.

I recently completed a trip on our interstate highway system and the number of trucks on the road, which I've found to be an accurate indicator of current economic strength, seemed to be about normal. I also noted in this morning's paper that January retail sales had rebounded from December's weakness.

One funny sidelight to that trip - I stopped at a Dunkin Donuts and the 3 young girls behind the counter were talking about an upcoming visit to a local strip club. One of the girls (the best looking one) was asking everyone in the store if they knew the age requirement for the club - she wanted to go with her friends but wasn't yet 21. Not the conversation one expects over breakfast. But it put a smile on my face.

If she's not 21, I know of one strip club she could visit. However they made the guys take off their shirts and put on solid pink shirts. Now if she looks good, I wouldn't mind watching her take off her shirt.

I think I'm going to stay home for awhile so I won't know if the clubs are crowded anymore or not.