I was listening to a podcast that happened to be about the economics of strip clubs. Among the topics discussed: the diminishing appeal strip clubs hold for younger prospective patrons, and the ensuing challenge of reinventing strip clubs for the present moment. They discussed some of the ways that strip clubs have been responding to this challenge – making clubs more upscale and therefore theoretically socially acceptable, installing amenities for the entertainers in the clubs to foster a sense of loyalty, etc. These completely miss the point as far as I’m concerned.
I’ve written lots about how strip clubs are designed for men other than me. I share at least some things in common with millennials and Gen Z folk, in that the aesthetic of strip clubs and their culture – and the various transaction costs associated with strip clubs, both economic and social – put me off profoundly.
I recently wrote about a strip club reimagined along the lines of an airport restaurant with dancers available for selection on tablets but listening to this podcast I had another thought, or rather a series of thoughts. First off, in the current model, a customer’s engagement with a strip club begins with their anticipation of attending. It picks up when they walk through the door. And it ends when they walk out – except in memory.
So many of us nowadays lead much of our lives online and I don’t see a reason why a strip club couldn’t incorporate some of the lessons of OnlyFans and TikTok and build an experience that transcends the time a customer is in the bar.
At my club, each dancer might have an online profile featuring some free content to entice potential clients. It also would include the entertainer’s schedule – and the ability to book her for a dance, or a massage, or some time in a VIP room. It also might offer at least some possibility for personal interaction. There would be some cost associated with this. If a strip club offered me this, I could curate an evening for myself, booking introductory dances with multiple partners, arranging “dates” with known dancers, or maybe even scheduling a private room in advance.
This would, of course, mean the club – and the entertainers – foregoing or maybe diminishing the possibility of upselling that happens in strip clubs with the lubrication of alcohol and drugs, though of course, that would remain possible, and/but… it might produce some new potential paths to revenue enhancement. And with real-time scheduling, an innovative strip club could integrate all this with my previous idea of a tablet enabling patrons to select from whoever might be available at any given time as well.
I, for one, would pay a premium for an interaction with someone I knew, whether from online interactions or previous in-person interactions. And, like many of the kids today, I’d love to be spared the human interaction around negotiating whether to have a dance. Appointments made online! Yahtzee!
There would be all sorts of challenges – including the sorts of challenges restaurants have to deal with when it comes to managing canceled reservations and changes in plans. But surely all of this is manageable.