Biggest cause fie decline of strip clubs

I like your guess. Hadn't thought about that conclusion...

This topic has come up before. Some blame the decline in stripclubs to the abundance of free Internet porn, as well as now we have Only Fans to spend our strip club money on, and Instagram to leer at, etc. Others cite the outrageous 21st century costs for parking, lapdances, VIP, drinks at the club, etc, turning off guys.

My guess about strip club decline is retarded--but it's what I believe: today's music is killing our strip club scene. Yes, today we have trap music and twerk music. Today we have stripper music. But IMO, stripclubs were more fun when it had an angle of FANTASY. And back in the day, the music scene had hits that matched with that fantasy angle. Think: Tawney Kitten's iconic dancing on a car in the White Snake rock video of the 80s. The song and music video made girls wanna dance like that and made dudes wanna see that.

When I was coming up and hitting the strip clubs in my 20s, 30 years ago, it was all about dancers having a 3-song set while they were on stage. In my area, the girls had a 3-song set of R&B or neo soul or soul. Other clubs it was techno and definitely hair bands. But the music changed, the lyrics changed, the fantasy was done.

Man, it was so hot to just sit back and watch a 3-song set where a dancer had dope R&B and she's being real seductive, real smooth, sexy, slowly removing clothes, teasing, etc. That was worth a trip to the club. It was something to watch, entertaining. You know that good R&B, that good soul song, that good hair bands rock inspired girls to routines and different pole dances and challenge girls imagination. Good music inspired interesting outfits, dances, routines. When the music changed outfits, dances, routines took a backseat. Different girls took over.

I used to really appreciate a good 3-song stripper set. A girl could really display a part of her personality with the tunes she chose, how she interpreted the song to her routine, etc.

Fantasies in men's heads, imagination in men's heads made stripclubs a different place back in the day.

Ok, so around my way, a popular R&B song in a 3-song stripper set is Janet Jackson's song 'Would You Mind'. Listen to that song. Picture how a stripper would pole dance to that song. Picture what she'd wear. Picture her stage routine to this song. We don't got songs like this nowadays anymore. This vibe is not much around. Guys were going to strip clubs more for this type of vibe, IMO. Bring back this type of tunes, the girls will follow and clubs will return to their heydays.

Your AI response was a decline in the revenue of SCs, not the number of SCs in operation.

The biggest gripe I have heard from girls is that men are not spending money. This is their reason for sitting around on their phones instead of working the room. The rate at which costs have been rising without a relative increase in take home wages is the obvious reason. People have less discretionary income for strip clubs, but still go for the social interactions or to blow off steam.

My first guess to explain anything AI says is that it's hallucinating. In this case, thought, somebody apparently did an actual study.

finance.yahoo.com

Looking at the yearly estimates, the story is a massive crash in 2020, recovery to about 90% in 2021, and no change thereafter. A lot of clubs closed, and some of them never reopened.

I think the full report is behind a paywall, so I have no idea where they got their data, or what they mean by "revenue". I can't imagine how it could be more than a wild guess. Around New England, I assume the main reason to own a strip club is to avoid reporting income accurately.

I'll add

decline of the.quality of the girls. I have no interest in seeing ugly girls or fat girls.

I went out last night. 14 dancers, maybe more. 6 customers max. Two stages. Bidenflation.

Whoever says onlyfans or cam, it's not. Online interaction options have been around for the last 25 years, including periods where clubs and online sites were both growing and lucrative. When the tide comes in, it comes in for both the places with in-person entertainment and the content sites.

My guess is that it is a confluence of factors. For starters, the industry never completely recovered from the Great Recession and the pandemic was the final knockout punch for the weaker ones.

Demographic changes are also playing a role. The population is both aging and moving. Clubs in areas with a decline in affluent members of their local populations seem to be suffering a lot more than clubs in growing locales.

Cultural changes are also playing a role. Younger men don't see themselves in the same provider mentality as us older dudes, making dropping large sums of money on a honey less appealing to them.

And as others have suggested, local and state governments in many areas are doing everything possible to make their locales inhospitable to clubs. They have become increasingly clever with zoning regs and alcohol licensing, making it functionally impossible to open new clubs in some areas.

Finally, if there was one commercial competitor who was also contributing to club declines, IMO it is sugar sites. They all target the same types of guys, affluent provider types who crave in-person interactions. How many guys just on this board have moved a chunk of their spending to sugar babies in the last few years? Seeking and Secret Benefits are far greater threats to strip clubs than a few more content sites, lol.

No simple answer. But Jascoi nailed it.

I’ve pretty much stopped going to clubs because of declining quality.

I don't need AI to tell me why no one goes clubbing in a state where nude clubs are illegal and touching isn't allowed 😂

Just drive to Michigan or West Virginia already and stop asking Siri why Indianapolis sucks

Hey Blah, Where has the price of skiing gone down? I just blew $1K per day on lift tix for 4, plus another $1K per night for a slope side condo.

Other than that, I agree with your theory that tracking technology keeps a lot of guys out of the strip clubs.

^^^ Got it. So this wouldn’t help a family of 4 from Miami who only skis once a year at a destination resort during the week between Christmas and New Years.

One thing I have noticed in my fifteen years of going to strip clubs is that no one experiments with new ideas. They pretty much all do the same thing. The few variations are things like having an upscale club, something that would work in a tourist town but not here in Indianapolis. Most of them even play the same music rather than different formats. Even the same food is served in every local strip club here.

@ rickdugan, I completely agree

@ docksavage, I noticed that too. Every time I go to an urban or lower-end club I hear the same soundtrack. Its honestly not much better even at the more prominent strip clubs.

The pornstar promotional nights are good, but if anything that only attracts a particular PL that was already a regular. I believe the biggest concern is that clubs are simply milking the current base and not really trying to get more customers.

As mentioned the pandemic and its economic aftermath are big factors in why SCs are "not a growth industry" (thanks AI). I think the economics and regulations/local opposition are much bigger reasons than cultural ones for the total number of clubs going down and hence total industry revenue.
In my area a lot of clubs have shutdown in the last 5-10 years and are not being replaced. The pandemic accelerated the decline and "thinned the herd" so to speak in most industries. Business closures and bankruptcies were up in both 2023 and 2024 relative to historic norms. This was true for both small local operations (as most scs are) and national chains or larger corporations. Most restaurants for instance will be replaced pretty quickly, most SCs will not.

I have seen people mention the IRS handles expense accounts differently now. But I don't know the details. When I saw huge money getting spent on gorgeous women, there was a lot of business entertaining going on. Absent the big money, the gorgeous women are no longer performing.

Other than that, I agree clubs underestimate how many customers don't want to be under electronic surveillance.

I think the younger generation's attitude toward sex has changed quite a bit from when I was young. Sex encounters are more casual than ever, and that makes the strip club model a little outdated.

I think the music thing is part of it. Black culture seems to be considered the most sexy by young women, so they consider that sexy music. And a lot of the male customer base only wants to hear so much of that. I can take it for a while, but there has to be some variety. Yes, of course I know Black culture influenced a lot of the music I prefer. But the songs all about "bitches" and "MFers" wear on me. Call me names, whatever, but I have to be enjoying myself to spend money.

Also "employees" (even if they are independent contractors in this case) are currently hard to find in all industries.

Everything is oversexualized nowadays. Back in the 1980's or 1990's, if you wanted to see naked women, you had to go to a strip club. Nowadays, sex is everywhere: free porn online, social media like Instagram/Onlyfans/Snapchat, women dressing like sluts when they go out in public, sugar baby culture, easier access to sex tourism (Tijuana, Thailand, Colombia, FKK, etc).

I think disposable income is down for most people over the last few years. Inflation has risen quicker than most people's incomes. Many clubs have jacked up private dances to $40-60 per song. These prices are are just not worth three or three and a half minutes, which may or may not be enjoyable. A lot of dancers have attitude problems that kill the strip club experience. Instead of working hard for your money, they feel like they are entitled to it. How many times have you had a ho-hum or disappointing VIP session, and then the dancer started begging for a tip afterwards?

American culture has become politically correct and woke. It was once normal for guys to want to see naked women. Now, guys can get shamed as sexist and perverted for normal heterosexual behavior. It used to be normal for businessmen to have meetings and outings to gentlemen's clubs. That kind of thing would now be called 'sexual harassment' in DEI workplaces.

In my opinion there are at least 3 reasons (all of which have been mentioned above):

1. General decline in attractiveness of strippers. When I started going to strip clubs 50 years ago, almost all of the dancers were at least moderately attractive. Way too many fat, unattractive dancers today .
2. Dance prices are too high for 3 minute song. Before Platinum Plus in Columbia, SC closed 15 years ago or so, the dance prices were 2 for $20 and all the dancers were continually busy. Now at $30 and up I see most of the girls sitting in the corner looking at their phones. Somebody should wake up and realize you lower prices, not raise them, when business is declining
3. Rap music. I think clubs would retain more of the free spending business crowd with more rock, heavy metal , etc. mixed in with all that rap . Maybe the girls of today prefer Rap, but I suspect most of the middle age guys with disposable incomes do not.

I’ll add that media and access to it through our phones are contributing to our isolation. Not only are strip club interactions/venues declining, but people in general are hanging out less because it is so convenient to Netflix and chill at home. Millenials which are now age 40 are used to having convenient media to entertain, which is why it’s mostly older guys at the club and even commenting on this site. United we stand, divided we fall—— which I think really is the downfall of our current media state we are in because there is nothing much that is unifying about the messages we see on here or most media outlets. They want everyone against each other so they can sell you something that will beat the other guy.

There are stats out there stating a wave of gen X retirees are moving out of cities to less populated areas to get away from high cost, high tax, noisy places so they can slow down and remember how simple life used to be when growing up. Who wants to go to a club these days with blasting music and beg for someone to give them a half ass lap dance from a not so attractive female?

I mean just yo prove my point, how many times does SkiDumb have to politicize a discussion w/his comments? My guess is at least 2/3rds have an underlying theme as such, like we see above. Why wouldn’t you say inflation and leave it at that, considering trump policies added as much or if not more to inflation? Always distracting messages to create a perception devoid of facts.

I mostly agree with Sinclair here, and Doc Savage makes a good point as well about government entities making it very difficult for new players to bring fresh ideas, to this very repetitive stale environment.

1. Lack of disposable income after 08 meltdown.
2. An entire generation of woke 20/30 YOs that fear in person communication let along in club interaction.
3. Less disposable income and reduced customer base = less money in clubs w/o doing extras = less incentive to be a dancer = less top shelf dancers who could historically could monetize breathing working

Yo mamma.

Bacon!

Strip clubs have always been hit or miss, but I have noticed after the pandemic that they have become miss a lot of the time, whereas before I would have a good run before having a dud visit. These days it is mostly the opposite.

Things I have noticed post-pandemic:

-Dancer quality has declined noticeably, overweight tatted dancers don't make me want to drop my hard earned dough in the club. The whole point of going to a strip club is to see women with above average looks get naked. Nothing kills my night faster than walking in to a club and every girl is physically unattractive. I know I am in the right club when there is a tingle in my pants.

-Attitudes are terrible. Dancers want to put forth the minimum effort and still expect a tip for a shitty air dance. I have also noticed dancers trying all sorts of psychological tricks to wring more money out of patrons. I have had girls say they will only go full nude if you spend minimum 250$ on songs or only go full nude in the champagne room for an hour (in a full nude club), or making all sorts of vague promises about things that will happen if you just spend more money. These days any of these requests results in an instant "NO".

-Clubs are nickel and diming their customers to death. One club where I used to live cover was 25$, a beer is 10$, a wristband to go upstairs to the lap dance booths was 10$. So your in basically 50$ before you have even bought a single dance.

Dances were 50$ per song topless, and for full nude the girls set their own prices usually 70-80$ per song. One girl wanted 100$ per song. This girl was from Eastern Europe and had very good natural looks, but no lap dance is worth 100$ for a 3 minute lap dance to some shitty mumble rap.

So why are clubs declining ? maybe because the only way to win is not to play. If dumping tons of money into a pursuit keeps yielding nothing than its time to put that money towards other things.

Go on the stripper reddit and every 1/3 thread is about how they hate men. Another 1/3 of the threads are how to scam men. And another 1/3 of the threads is them crying because their club is dead and non one is spending money.

For the record I still visit strip clubs every now and than. I just do my due diligence and screen the girls to weed out all of the ROBs before I commit to spending money.

@Someguy: You are on to something with your one thirds explanation for stripper attitudes.

After being in a couple clubs last night, I agree that the overall attractiveness of the dancers is a problem. These clubs used to require an audition before dancers were accepted. I would personally hate the job of telling prospective dancers they were not attractive enough to get naked in my club. But I always appreciated the results of that process when I could look over the club for a perpetual visual feast.

I always bought a lot of dances. But in between, I would admire dancers who were working close by. Last night, the second hand opportunities were not eye catching. I don't know if there are so few dancers applying for work that the clubs don't bother with an audition. But if there are still prospective dancers being turned away, they must be in a sorry state.

If I had to pin it on one thing, I would say it's the death of business travel and entertainment spending over the past 25 years.

Seems like back in the day (like the 90s and before) it was pretty normal and common for businessmen to entertain clients at strip clubs.

So, strip clubs had the advantage of taking in a lot of big business spending, which allowed them to expand and influence the adult entertainment industry, in a way that didn't really happen outside the USA.

Tough economy, less people traveling for business or even going into the office every day (loss of an alibi) and long term covid impact. By covid impact I mean girls found additional income streams, some clubs shut down, and just general slowness to return to pre covid activities.

I am seeing more new girls in the clubs as well as old girls return to stripping. I think the bad economy is driving the reluctant ones back to stripping or bringing in some new girls, which is a good sign for us mongers.

Some of the weaker clubs, definitely in trouble and will go down. The whole thing is gonna slim down. But some spots are really packed to gills when I go, to me some stories of the demise of strip clubs overall maybe greatly exaggerated. People still go to these places.

I do think demographics are going to play a role somewhat. Millennials now almost all 30 and over, that was a big generation, those girls are getting regular jobs now. The new baby strippers are from Gen Z which is a smaller generation.

Also big picture millennials are a more social generation (they moved into the big cities the past 2 decades starting the gentrification thing, aka hipster brooklyn you know all that stuff. Point is they wanted to be with people) Gen Z is a lot different, they are a super anti social generation, living in the online world. It's their neverland. So it might be change on that end. Those girls would probably rather do OF than have to talk with real people in a strip club.

My guess is strip clubs fail because of things like Mate27. If that's what passes for a man nowadays the entire strip club industry is doomed. No whiny, faggot bitches will ever spend enough to keep them in business.

youtube.com

I still blame online entertainment options. Young men have a zillion choices at their finger tips and grew up in an instant gratification era. Porn and OF are part of it, but honestly so is just the fact Gen Z doesn't love leaving the house.

I do agree with this thread that because local politicians don't want to deal with strip clubs, they are basically impossible to open in metros where young people are moving to.

Why would a guy make up a lie to tell the wife, go through hiding a bank statement, drive to the club, drop a couple hundred, and MAYBE see a girl he likes when he can go to Instagram see near naked ladies and jerk his worm on the work bathroom on lunch break for free? *yeah that's a run-on sentence.

Imo it's porn/live cams on mobile devices, and the woke mentality of dancers (i.e. fat, tattooed, bald, etc. While demanding no one body shames them). I also think younger generations don't have the disposable income, and nudity/smut is so easily accessible they don't need to seek it out.

@ Miss Vicious

Even with all the free Internet services we have to provide porn access, many men still want to see and talk to REAL women. I think human nature is undefeated for a reason.

I do agree with what you are implying, as it most likely has eliminated at least 20% of the audience of men who would visit a strip Club (money is one hell of a barrier).

I admit I've cut way back on strip club visits. Even my favorite club I'm only visiting maybe once every two or three months. higher prices are one reason. More rules in the club and the hotel are another reason. third. hassle from the bandits with badges.