Strip Club Listings Count Post Covid/Pre-Recession
Muddy
USA
Just taking a quick count of what we have going on right now. I think while some differ on the why, or the who but most would think we in some rough waters ahead and it might affect the clubs. I'd just like to right down the number we have right now. Sinclair did a couple censuses a decade a part before this.
2008: 2,536
2020: 1,914
Right now I got in 2023: 1718 active listings.
It's not an exact #. I probably missed some spas listed in there. Also some clubs might be closed that are still listed as open but then vice versa as well. Either way just a rough estimate but it shows that Covid probably took down some clubs. Would a big recession do a number on that number? I would think so. Not the big time clubs but all those little clubs that are deserted on a Friday night still hanging on I think might be jeopardy.
2008: 2,536
2020: 1,914
Right now I got in 2023: 1718 active listings.
It's not an exact #. I probably missed some spas listed in there. Also some clubs might be closed that are still listed as open but then vice versa as well. Either way just a rough estimate but it shows that Covid probably took down some clubs. Would a big recession do a number on that number? I would think so. Not the big time clubs but all those little clubs that are deserted on a Friday night still hanging on I think might be jeopardy.
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Would be interesting to see state by state. Are all states seeing less remaining SCs or only certain ones?
Muddy has been to 1,245 of them
Muddy has LDK’d in 749 of them before the first song ended during the lapdance
Muddy has slept in 487 different strip club parking lots from this list.
Long time strippers who worked before and after 2008 have told me in the past that strip clubs never really recovered from the 2008 economic crisis. Since we are now entering another economic crisis, the drop in strip clubs will likely continue. The lengthy Covid lockdowns also hurt a lot of strip clubs and drove some of them out of business. The same was true for other businesses. The Walmarts and Targets that were allowed to stay open survived but a lot of small businesses and restaurants here in Indianapolis and other cities went under.
A third factor in the decline beside the economy and Covid lockdowns is crime. Crime started to drop in the nineties as more criminals were arrested and put in prison. This has reversed in recent years. "Defund the police" means fewer cops to arrest criminals. People now feel less safe in big cities and are voting with their feet and leaving. Chicago and Los Angeles, for example, have lost 200,000 people each since 2020. These are mostly middle-class people leaving. Middle-class males were a good source of income for strippers and them moving away hurts stripper income. Trying to make up for loss of income by raising lap dance prices or being more aggressive in trying to sell them won't work. Some wealthier males are using the internet more now to make contact with women for sexual activities. As the economy worsens, resulting in lower incomes, eventually this sector of commercial sex work will decline too.
Some of these clubs are literally grandfathered in and will close when the current owner dies.
I suspect we’re going to lose many, if not all, of clubs on The Block within the next 5-10 years. The real estate is just too valuable for use as a SC.
As others have mentioned, it’s clear that between significant drop in business entertainment, economic changes & additional Internet options for sexually oriented entertainment, we’re moving to fewer clubs in the future. However, there will always be a demand for SCs. It’s just a matter of when we reach the equilibrium sought by the invisible hand of the economy.
I also think that for younger generations going to a strip club is an old fashioned practice that has not picked up any retro / hipster appeal (at least not yet). Sort of like watching TV via antenna or playing VHS tapes, which loses its retro appeal when you realize that the picture sucks.
In the gentrified areas of Indianapolis, I see large numbers of white young people hanging out in bars and coffee shops. These same young people don't go to strip clubs. I can remember in my twenties and thirties going to strip clubs with friends. The groups of young guys I see in strip clubs now are mostly Hispanic or black with very few whites. Strip club music has moved from white rock to black hip hop since that is what the nonwhite customer base wants now.
This lack of appeal to younger middle-class whites is also behind new strip clubs being blocked by the government from opening, You have always had the rightwing religious fundamentalists opposing them and yet new ones opened. Now you also have younger liberal whites opposing them. They see them as vaguely old fashioned and sexist and exploitative. They are uncool. It's this group that is successfully lending its support to blocking them. This leaves only the existing strip clubs. Those have been harmed in recent years by the Covid lockdowns, increasing crime and a worsening economy.
I’d say that right now there are more profitable ways to invest the amount of money necessary to open a club and generate a profit without all of the hassles needed to make a new strip club work
A specific example of this is online porn, including only fans, etc. This is especially true for younger generations whose social life takes place online.