Good Customer/Bad Customer

Things are constantly evolving, even being a regular at strip club changes over time. Recently I've kind of turned into a combination good customer/bad customer. Actually it's more like good customer/annoying customer. When facing the zombie dancer attack (must get dance, wanna dance?) my usual approach to managing dances is no longer working.

Usually I will have a couple favorite girls that I will come to see, instead of just one. This was for mostly practical reasons. If one girl was busy or wasn't working there was somebody else to talk to. When I first started hanging out at the Dolphin (way back when there was only one) I just showed up at the same time. I saw the same girls who usually worked the same shift. Poachers and stalkers weren't really much of an issue. There was a lot more money and the dancers in general were more respectful of each other. Since I was always there at the same time, usually with the same dancers, they all new I was waiting for a specific dancer and would ignore me. A lot of the time, one or both my favorites would be busy while I was there. A fair amount of the time I was at the club I would actually sit alone. This has changed dramatically.

The most obvious reason is that the money has dried up. Competition for customers has increased. The amount of money I spend at the club hasn't changed too much. Initially the amount of money I spent might represent 15% to 20% of a dancer's net take for the night. Now it's probably closer to 30% to 40% of what she'll make. Even more so if I come in on a slow night.
Another dramatic shift is that when I arrive at the club, I will have already been in contact with a dancer who is going to working that shift. With the advent of MySpace, Pdxblackbook, text messaging, and Twitter the amount of interaction I have with dancers outside the club has gone up dramatically. Dancers have shifted to direct marketing. They post schedules, send out broadcast text messages when they are working. I probably average two to three messages a day from girls who are working that night. This had resulted randomizing the nights I go in. I used to go in almost exclusively on Friday night, 6:30pm.

One differentiator of a dancer's character is how she reacts when you tell her you are waiting for another dancer. The more professional dancers will offer to inform the other dancer you are here, and actually do so. I've watch some dancers politely tell me that they'll go notify the other dancer and immediately walk over to a video poker machine and start playing. Apparently the Dolphin is hiring girls from the psychic friends network.

The interim time between the psychic broadcast and the inviting dancer's arrival is where I get into trouble. One effect of stripper social networking is that you begin to establish friendships with a lot of girls. Even if you not getting dances she'll still want to talk to you. Which is a good thing usually, but it can put off the inviting dancer. Without intending to, I end up ignoring the dancer who took the time and effort to contact me. In the grand scheme of things it's a fairly trivial. But why should dancers treat me with respect if I'm not willing to do the same for them.