Topeka too cheap! (frivolous)

[cantdog]

Here's the story.

Manager of closed topless club says Topekans too cheap

TOPEKA, Kan. -- The general manager of a topless club that shut its doors this winter after a nine-month run says Topeka residents proved to be too tight with their money.

Lollipops Gentlemen's Club opened last June in a new 17,000-square foot building, across the street from another topless club. It closed in February, and the property is now up for sale.

The owners, a group of investors from Florida, spent more than $1 million constructing and furnishing the building, and the land and building were appraised by Shawnee County last year at $1.2 million.

General manager Chris Vorhees said the owners hoped to duplicate the success of a similar club in Daytona Beach but found that the recipe didn't work in Topeka.

He said people who came to Lollipops, one of about six similar clubs in Topeka, would watch topless dancers without spending money on them.

"People are cheap in Topeka," Vorhees said from Florida. "They don't want to pay for drinks; they don't want to pay the girls. We couldn't bring in the money to pay the bills."

Vorhees said Lollipops had food, beverages, music, girls, atmosphere and customers.

"We tried," he said. "We had concerts, shows, parties, but they wouldn't pay for beer. We tried to have a good time, but people would stand around and wouldn't spend any money."

He said people in Topeka and the Midwest are more attuned to saving their money. He said people in Daytona Beach don't make the money than those in Topeka do, "yet they will party three and four nights a week."

The Topeka mentality, he said, is to look for deals.

"The first thing they ask the server is, 'What's your special today?'" Vorhees said. "I never heard of a special in the bar before."

"I have nothing against the people in Topeka," Vorhees said. "Maybe the rest of America could learn from Topeka how to save money."

The link is in the "Adult News" section, in the Lit index page. Gave me a chuckle.

 

[TxRad]

A topless bar in the middle of the bible belt didn't make it? Will wonders never end.....

Daytona Beach is a party and vaction town..... Topeka is home..... What were these people thinking..... but then again, there are already six clubs there and they aren't going out of business.... someone should have done more homework on the locale and dependded less on a formula....

 

[Colleen Thomas]

A topless bar in the middle of the bible belt didn't make it? Will wonders never end.....

Daytona Beach is a party and vaction town..... Topeka is home..... What were these people thinking..... but then again, there are already six clubs there and they aren't going out of business.... someone should have done more homework on the locale and dependded less on a formula....

I visited a topless club in Witchita once. Seems the store manager there conducts all his off hours shop talk at it. He was...hesitant to take the Vp's hatchet woman there as you might ecpect, but he had two warehouse specialists, and two vendor reps who were expecting it.

I'm not hugely familiar with them overall, but the difference I saw in tha tone and the ones I have visited in Florida was night and day. Florida was wild, and I guess seedy is the word. The one in witchita was very neat and clean. The girls were less wild, more seductive than really blatantly sexy. And there beers were a buck each. All night. Ten dollar cover to get in, which he picked up of course.

I think the idea there was to get your everyday guys to com ein for beers, and hope they would get happy. Once they did, they seemd to tip pretty well, both the girls and the waitresses. They also seemed..I guess moderate is the word. I saw several have two, three beers and then head home. In Destin or Panama city, if you had dollar beers, you'd go broke.

I think, for the midwest, you have to use a different bussiness model to run a topless club. It has to be more about the place and the regulars have to get comfortable stopping off for a cold one or two after work, just like they would have to get comfortable with a neighborhood pub. You make alot of money off kids and parties I'm sure, but it semed to me, this club's bread and butter were just working class guys. They would pay their cover, have a cheap beer or two, tip a couple of girls and thier waitress and head home.

For a strip club it was really subdued, I mean even the music was played at a tolerable volume, which for me is pretty low. Now it did get wilder aroun dmidnight, but the crowd had changed over to younger guys, like college age, but as wild as I saw it get would be too tame to fly in Destin.

 

[cantdog]

The heartland is just not the same as the edges of America. I used to write off the differences. I mean, if you make up your mind to take note of the things that are different, you can make most places seem a little exotic. But after the first thirty years of news from the center of the continent, and books, films, and whatnot, I do believe there is a fundamental divide. Lake Wobegon is not really about my part of the world.

 

[3113]

Hm...the bar really didn't make use of the local psychology. My father will buy something he really doesn't need and can't use if there's a great deal on it at Costco. But if he feels he's being ripped off, he won't buy something he does need and can use.

I suspect these folk are similar. Make everything seem like a deal, and they'll buy...even if they don't really need it. Make it seem like they're being ripped off, and they won't buy it even if they want it.