State of the Strip Club

avatar for wallanon
wallanon
So if I think back about ten years, I was in the middle of my time off TUSCL but was still in clubs time to time. The decline of US clubs had started by then (and given a boost in the wrong direction by the economic downturn in the late 00's) but there were still strong club towns all over.

What about now compared to a decade ago? What do think the state of strip clubs will be ten years out? Do you think you'll still be in them?

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avatar for goldmongerATL
goldmongerATL
2 years ago
I think strip clubbing is on a one way path out of town, slowly but surely. Are there ANY cities where clubbing is better than it was 10 years ago? Have any of the clubs regularly discussed here opened in the last 10 years? (OK, Vivide in Atlanta for sure)
avatar for SquareCastle
SquareCastle
2 years ago
They are dying a slow death. Seeking arrangement websites and online meetups will soon takeover as these sites are quickly picking up steam. Most clubs are now relying on older age demographics to stay afloat as millennials and gen Z are generally apathetic to naked women and have no desire to spend money in strip clubs. Even older aged “PLs” no longer have the patience for the rigmarole of gathering club intel so they can find a dancer that fits their basic needs. Not to mention, zoning laws and jurisdictional mandates are making it harder for new clubs to open. It’s also hard to generate new business as populations shifts are occurring more frequently due to the economy. We shall see.
avatar for misterorange
misterorange
2 years ago
I can't speak for other areas like Atlanta, Detroit, etc. But ten years ago here in NJ there were only remnants of the wild scene from the 80s/90s era of debauchery, and since Covid more of those places have dried up. The NYC area clubs declined even faster, and crashed hard. These days I don't know of a single NY club that's even worth the time and tolls for me to cross the river. In another 10 years I can't imagine there will be much of anything left at all.

Full disclosure, my observations are based solely on down and dirty sleaze-bars where a full menu of extras is the main reason they're in business. If you're into glamorous stage shows with model-quality girls giving air dances, I'm sure there's still plenty of spots for you to go.
avatar for twentyfive
twentyfive
2 years ago
I think it really depends on what’s happening in your clubbing area, some places like South Florida it’s as good as it’s ever been, other areas not so great, I don’t think there is, or even ever was, a time when it was great all over.
avatar for boomer79
boomer79
2 years ago
There have been a lot of clubs close in good locations in Atlanta. It’s had a different affect on my two favorite clubs. Tattletales has a.ton of girls who want to work there and prices have gone up but at night it’s purely VIP and room fees have gone way up. I do wonder with the number of girls if some aren’t selling. Day shift seems fine.

At Fannies the club is taking a lot more money but it seems like the girls aren’t doing that great. Plus it’s in the ghetto. In the past there were other clubs like Flashers and Oasis where I suspect that I and the gurls would have preferrred. Still it’s awfully expensive for a club that feels like a dive.

Vivide is keeping some aspects of the Follies tradition alive but it’s a step down.

Atlanta is decent but 10-15 years ago it was better. Still I think we have it far better than most.
avatar for From978
From978
2 years ago
It's all Joe Biden's fault. Unemployment for young women is at record low levels, and immigration is a lot harder than it was in the good old days. Women work in strip clubs because they don't have a better alternative. With fewer people blocked from legal employment, what we have left in strip clubs is the bottom of the barrel.
avatar for mark94
mark94
2 years ago
From my perspective, there many more attractive opportunities in Arizona, both in terms of dancers and clubs, ten years ago.
avatar for 5footguy
5footguy
2 years ago
The biggest threat to clubs in the next 10 years will likely be the rise of CBDC (central bank digital currency). We are moving towards a cashless society, one where you can't use cash for payment and all of our digital transactions are not only tracked (as they already are, with credit cards), but can now be restricted (think ESG scores) by a central bank. When a central authority has the ability to say "you can't buy this plane ticket because you own dirty oil stocks and because you go to seedy strip clubs," then clubs will be effectively regulated out of business.

The good news is, there's another few years before this starts to happen in full swing, and cash will still be a thing probably for another 10-20 years. But after that, yeah, enjoy your heavily regulated, government-approved life. Of course, the politicians and very rich will be exempt from regulation (see EU's climate deal), and will have the power and resources to get as much sexual stimulation as they want, but the plebs have rules to follow. Government doing what it does best: hoarding power, taking it away from citizens, in the name of "convenience" and "taking care of" them.
avatar for Mike Rotch
Mike Rotch
2 years ago
Yea more and more I get the feeling the golden years of strip clubs are behind us. There will be exceptions to the rule of course, but in general clubs are on the decline. And it's not so much that young people are not interested, it's more than they can't afford it. Kids these days are so broke, but hey they got a shiny little college degree hanging on the wall.
avatar for docsavage
docsavage
2 years ago
Unemployment is at low levels, but an analysis of labor trends show that high pay jobs are increasingly being replaced by low paid jobs. With inflation increasing the cost of living and fewer good paying jobs available, you would think this would drive more younger women into stripping and increase the supply. However, you also have to look at the demand side. Many male customers now have less disposable income. I've seen a trend where fewer male customers are in the clubs and the ones who show up spend less money.

This trend will likely continue. Many strip clubs are also in cities where crime rates are exploding, leading to an exodus out of these cities. The internet makes it easier to live and work outside of cities. The internet also makes it easier for men to find women without going to a strip club. There will always be some strip clubs, but the golden age of strip clubs is now in the past. I'm 67 so I will have to decide when the combination of my advancing age and declining strip clubs will cause me to quit my strip club hobby.
avatar for Muddy
Muddy
2 years ago
Just going off this site it seems like 10-15 years ago was a golden age for extras in clubs in America. Post recession time. Maybe I’m wrong.

One thing to consider too, unless you’re talking about Hispanics there aren’t quite as many young people as before. Boomers and their children the Millennials are the biggest generations. The youngest millennials are probably hitting what like 30 now so they are probably leaving the stripper careers and on to the next thing. Probably little less to go around.
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drewcareypnw
2 years ago
Here in Seattle, it's better than ever. Lots of clubs, lots of girls, and lots of extras. I am a fan.
avatar for wallanon
wallanon
2 years ago
There's definitely a push to take things off the grid on all fronts, but it's all reactionary. Politicians are idiots because they see a tail and think it's the whole dog. If you're in a pocket of strip club goodness enjoy it while it lasts.

A decade from now I'll still be posting in places like this, but will probably be done with the hobby. After a few decades I'm just about good. Plus I'm definitely in the diminishing returns phase of it all.
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gammanu95
2 years ago
Slowly, sadly, strip clubs are shrinking. When two clubs close, you are lucky if one opens. Of course, there multiple reasons. Camming and sugar-babying are part of it, but there are more that are just generalized in the Gen X, Millennial, and Zoomer generations

Part of the miitary's recruiting difficulty is fewer applicants can pass even basic physical fitness quals. Strip clubs are facing the same challenge. There are fewer fit and attractive young women that men will pay money to watch take off their clothes.

Strip clubbing is and always has been an elective activity performed with discretionary income. Bidenflation is wiping out the entire country's discretionary income. Most of us would choose to have the lights on, food on the table, and fuel in the vehicle than to watch Maserati take off her bikini top.

Thanks to COVID and Fauci, we have an entire generation of young people who do not understand the ritual of going out with your buds to tie one on and enjoy stage shows and table sides. They just missed that crucial formative period because they were not allowed to gather and go out.

Lots of peer-reviewed and qualified research and surveys indicate that young people are just not interested in sex. They simply do not care. I don't get it. Young males aren't seeking it, young females aren't giving it. Is it fleshlight and other masturbator toys? The prevalence and ubiquity of online porn? Overly effective diversionary STD education?

There will always be strip clubs, but I think numbers of clubs, accessibility, and quality (girls, experience, etc.) will continue to decline for the foreseeable future.
avatar for Call.Me.Ishmael
Call.Me.Ishmael
2 years ago
Part of what made strip clubs popular was the subversive appeal, which is slowly going away. I think the other factor is that women have many more choices for sex work that are less public and open to scrutiny than strip clubs. So, stripping is perhaps a last resort after OnlyFans, Seeking, cam work, etc.

I think that strip clubs as we know them are changing and winding down, but won't go away anytime in the near future. I also believe that women will sell their sexual appeal *somehow* for as long as guys are buying, so I'm not terribly worried.
avatar for nicespice
nicespice
2 years ago
Lots of clubs seem to be run by old people who want to sell their facilities, but can’t seem to find a willing buyer who will pay the price they want to sell it at.

The Ricks corporation is sniffing out who they want though. But every time I’ve seen the CEO interviewed, that guy is not somebody who can keep the industry strong. “Let’s appeal to Gen Z customers with loud night club music and crypto” “strippers should cut VIP prices if there is a recession” (not every club in your own freaking chain even allows strippers to set their own prices. And even if they did, why should strippers price it low when the base room+bottle cost are usually expensive 🙄)

Deja Vus seem to be doing their own acquisitions as well, but not as much as Ricks. They do own the Bucks chain though. I get the impression Vus are run more competently, and they have better marketing, but they do have a well-deserved reputation for their brutal cuts. As long as strippers can keep having enough profitable shifts to afford that, I guess power to them. But when that becomes more and more risky…

Also, since it’s been mentioned…millennials and Gen Z have found their way into clubs before and my opinion only, judging from the last 2-4 years maybe, a lot of them are a better behaved cohort than older customers. Probably because unlike old people who have to worry about their retirement accounts, and more prone to a “you have to EARN this money” overcompensating power trip, younger groups statistically don’t have as much to lose. But most of this group won’t turn into regulars, and probably only showed up prepared to spend just for the novelty sake, and honestly I can’t blame them.
avatar for twentyfive
twentyfive
2 years ago
^ the plan is to roll up as many clubs as possible and shut down the competition, it only works in small markets where a few deep pockets try to control the access to the market. Major factor involved in purchasing businesses of this nature is there’s no government that’s willingly working with these types of businesses and the headwinds make investors nervous, limiting their willingness to put large sums of cash in harms way.
avatar for boomer79
boomer79
2 years ago
Nice as far as them talking about dancers cutting their VIP prices at two of my favorite clubs the club has gone up so significantly on their cut and at one of them it’s really hurt the dancers. Really to me clubs need to do more to encourage regular type business on slower days. They’ve increased prices far more than dancers since Covid.
avatar for RiskA
RiskA
2 years ago
In CA the demise of the “independent contractor” in favor of “employee” dancers has had the biggest adverse impact. Competing online job opportunities, be it escorting or mere titillation, are simply easier jobs and “less gross” (to quote one of my now OTC former dancers). The young customers seem to want hopping “spectacle” clubs, not the low-key chat & pound that we grizzled veterans prefer. And true, the further we oldsters move from a CPI-tracking paycheck to living on passive income, the tighter we clutch our inflation & recession-squeezed scheckels. Free enterprise serves the sex trade, government control doesn’t; and right now most of the world seems to think Big Daddy Government is a better answer than market solutions. Ah well, I enjoyed the Golden Age, and I’ll ride out the decline of strip club civilization. I just need to figure out how to get verified by those escort bookers….
avatar for funonthaside
funonthaside
2 years ago
While clubs have certainly changed, I believe the demand will never disappear completely. Sure, for those seeking OTC experiences, guys may cut off clubs in favor of OTC meetups facilitated by phone/text.

For guys wanting just a night away from SO and/or to hang with buddies while admiring titties, there will always be a place for SC.

Even for those wanting OTC experiences, strip clubs allow for face-to-face interaction not feasible with other forms of OTC introductions.
avatar for FishHawk
FishHawk
2 years ago
I first started to go to SC’s in the 70’s. Compared to then clubs are much better in terms of getting up personal with the dancer. Over the last 20 or 30 Years I have noticed much more change depending on area then over time.
avatar for groundball
groundball
2 years ago
Baltimore was *wrecked* by the 2008 financial crisis and I'm not sure the strip club scene was ever going to recover, and the 2015 Freddy Gray unrest was another nail in the coffin. The decline has slowed down more recently, but with companies like Under Armor not as high flying as they used to be I can't see it getting back to the prior level. It seems like for every two clubs that close, only one reopens.
avatar for Brahma2k
Brahma2k
2 years ago
SCs are going absolutely nowhere unless there is a sudden and radical mutation of human evolution. Until that evolutionary cataclysm occurs, Males will go to very great extents for female visuals and interaction including SCs. The only thing that will change is how these sought after female visuals and interaction are accessed as well as its cost. There is less discretionary cash available to the male general public as well as less expensive forms, but less interaction, of access than SCs? Then SCs will consolidate into fewer locations than (fill in year of greater discretionary spending). But SCs will remain abundant based on (see first two sentences above).
avatar for RiskA
RiskA
2 years ago
Interesting post by Brahma2K. I think a “mutation” IS occurring, brought on by single moms & current cultural condemnation of masculinity as inherently toxic. Most young guys I encounter can’t say no to a woman (hence simps) and can’t or won’t take charge; both counterproductive to enjoying a strip club without going broke. Virtual options are preferred, they’re just easier & less risky. Let’s hope the tide turns back.
avatar for chiefwiggum
chiefwiggum
2 years ago
10 years ago, I was dead broke between jobs, thinking about foreclosing on my first condo, and my first business was failing. Back then, I was only going to San Fran and Chicago clubs (really just Chicago as my client and my firm were both heavily affected by downturn). Chicago was noticeably worse, which is shocking because no one thought it could get any worse. Extras had dried up in the greater Chicago area. San Fran was outrageously expensive and MBOT was the only game in town, maybe Crazy Horse.

Things seemed to pick up everywhere around 2016-17 (maybe 2017). Mileage was noticeably higher on standard laps. Girls were up and down in terms of looks, but I just took it as normal fluctuations. In Detroit and Chicago, there seemed to be a lot of turnover.

Then Covid hits and everything is way worse. Clubs are open then close then open on bizarre rules, then close completely. Talent is all over the place. Mileage is way down. As the country begins to open up, prices rise, girls looks seem to drop. IME, Texas took a huge step down, ATL and City of Industry do not live up to the hype. However, South Florida exceeded expectations.
avatar for Tetradon
Tetradon
2 years ago
"Strip clubs" in their current iteration are a largely modern, American phenomenon. I'm sure that the availability of online porn and decline of human interaction has taken its toll and will continue to. In addition, younger generations have lower testosterone (probably as a product of obesity and endocrine disruptors in the environment) and are socially impaired from the virtualization of everything. Despite more permissive sexual mores, younger generations are having less sex than ever. All this puts strip clubs on their back foot.

However, prostitution is the world's oldest profession for a reason. It may change locations, but it will never go away.
avatar for ericinthe206
ericinthe206
2 years ago
I want to see a thread like this from 15 years ago. Were people back then saying the same thing? So often these kinds of things are just nostalgia. But I've only been clubbing post-Covid so I don't know much.
avatar for mark94
mark94
2 years ago
The answer can be pretty club specific. Even in a town as large as Phoenix ( or Atlanta, or Dallas, or Detroit ), the Golden Age was really 1-3 clubs that exceeded expectations. One or two LE raids, or change in ownership changes everything.

It can take 2-4 years before a community, or LE, notices a club is providing too much fun. It’s like whack-a-mole.
avatar for Brahma2k
Brahma2k
2 years ago
@riskA
That’s a fair statement, point taken. But despite the attempted demasculinizing of the young male population, there are actually still millions of young males with testosterone levels above 600 ng/ml. It’s likely nearly half despite the media’s attempt to show only what we ‘should’ see (there’s always been numerous betas). Then there are also numerous tens of millions of us middle aged and older guys who grew up when eye candy in movies, TV, ads where it was (shockingly) understood that is normal male function. But I agree it is hopefully that will turn around.

Arguably Japan has demasculinized their young male population far before it was happening here. There’s still a lot of Tokyo strip clubs.
avatar for lurkingdog
lurkingdog
2 years ago
@Brahma2k - Tokyo DOES have a lot of strip clubs but Tokyo has a lot of other pay 4 play sex businesses that are arguably better for getting up close and personal with women (various massage/spa, BJ salons, peep shows and the like). I don't know where (or if) the demasculinization factor comes in to play.
avatar for sfrsox
sfrsox
2 years ago
Semi-brothels in contact-rich states like FL and TX will be around. But no contact clubs just for watching a stage dance? GOne

You can do chaturbate (or scripted porn) for free. No chance of disease, no worry about a fight or someone pulling in with a weapon, no cover charge, no over priced drinks, no traffic. Time it whenever I want.

Rubbed one out twice just today to a variety of hawwwwwwwwwt latinas. Price - free.
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