Your comment that ?40 'isn't exorbitant' ignores the proliferation of material available now, compared to 'the good old days'. And the proportion of a weekly wage available as 'disposable income' is far greater now than it was 30 or 40 years ago. If a punter can expect to pay less than ?25 for the same gear online, then I'm afraid the supply and demand economics so beloved of your Good Self mean that many shops will go to the wall.
It's OK, it's 'Social Darwinism' (shuidder....)..........
Who decides the prices?
Re: Who decides the prices?
"a harmless drudge, that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the
signification...."
signification...."
-
Officer Dibble
- Posts: 2372
- Joined: Fri Jul 14, 2017 2:40 am
Re: Who decides the prices?
"And the proportion of a weekly wage available as 'disposable income' is far greater now than it was 30 or 40 years ago."
Which was just the point I was making. Even though a decent porno cost half our weekly income in the good old days we didn't make a song and dance about it if it was 'good gear.' It just seems ironic that nowadays when good porno can be had for comparatively paltry sums folks seem to be whinging and whining about price more than they did back then!
"I'm afraid the supply and demand economics so beloved of your Good Self mean that many shops will go to the wall."
If that be the case, then so be it. Since I don't have a shop I'm just an interested observer. I don't have any particular axe to grind. I was just trying to be rational and to point out that far from 'profiteering' a lot of sex shops might be having difficulty paying their rent. Since I have associates who went down the licensed sex-shop route and a brother who ran 'Ye Old Fashioned Sex Shoppe' for a number of years I do have a smidgen of inside knowledge on the subject.
Those we know who did take the legit licensed route are now regretting their decision. They're not doing much trade on top of which their profit margins are nothing like as favorable as in the past. It's not a question of greed now, it's more a question of being able to pay the rent.
My brother's establishment was one of those well moody 'book shops' with no windows in the least salubrious part of town. It was a good little business in the early nineties. Minimal outgoings and a regular and varied clientele ranging from steel workers to well-to-do gents and middle ranking civil servants producing a respectable weekly income. Everyone was happy. Oh, there wasn't much choice - maybe twenty different pornos under the counter at any given time and many of the punters were simply into obscure magazines that catered for their particular 'thing.' But I guess that was why it was so good. The punters appreciated and treasured the jewels of erotica that came their way via the shop. But things started going downhill towards the end of the 90's - as the internet, satellite TV, and finally R18's put a lot more material into the market place. Visitors to the shop thinned out, till some days no one came through the door at all. When missing regulars did turn up and were questioned regarding their extend absence, it turned out that it wasn't that they were buying stuff elsewhere (although that was obviously a factor) No, the meain reason seemed to be that now that it was much more available, they seemed to have lost their appetite - the old sweetshop syndrome.
In my brother's case it finally came to a head one morning when about twelve Old Bill and Trading Standards squeezed into his shop. They suggested to him that he had been breaking the law ("Goodness gracious Officer, I wasn't, was I?") And then, with a flourish, produced a document - 'Sex Shop License Application' - and advised him to either cough up the requisite ?5,000.00 or get out of town before noon the next day. Now, although my brother is a standup guy, he's no Gary Cooper, and after weighing up the pros and cons (six punters a week to huge fine) he decided it would be the better part of valor to saddle up and call it a day.
Nowadays, there's an abundance of erotica out there and it's simply human nature that if we have an abundance of a good thing we no-longer appreciate it. We take it for granted. We become 'over-faced' and bored. Some here have said (without pondering the implications) that "Yeah, it's great now there's so much choice!" But I sometimes wonder if I would trade that choice for the adrenalin in the stomach excitement of securing a particularly agreeable (if fuzzy) morsel of erotica and rushing home in the anticipation of firing up the old Betamax. After all, it's a hollow victory if most of the things which you are offered to choose from now seem about as stimulating as a damp dishcloth.
Officer Dibble
Which was just the point I was making. Even though a decent porno cost half our weekly income in the good old days we didn't make a song and dance about it if it was 'good gear.' It just seems ironic that nowadays when good porno can be had for comparatively paltry sums folks seem to be whinging and whining about price more than they did back then!
"I'm afraid the supply and demand economics so beloved of your Good Self mean that many shops will go to the wall."
If that be the case, then so be it. Since I don't have a shop I'm just an interested observer. I don't have any particular axe to grind. I was just trying to be rational and to point out that far from 'profiteering' a lot of sex shops might be having difficulty paying their rent. Since I have associates who went down the licensed sex-shop route and a brother who ran 'Ye Old Fashioned Sex Shoppe' for a number of years I do have a smidgen of inside knowledge on the subject.
Those we know who did take the legit licensed route are now regretting their decision. They're not doing much trade on top of which their profit margins are nothing like as favorable as in the past. It's not a question of greed now, it's more a question of being able to pay the rent.
My brother's establishment was one of those well moody 'book shops' with no windows in the least salubrious part of town. It was a good little business in the early nineties. Minimal outgoings and a regular and varied clientele ranging from steel workers to well-to-do gents and middle ranking civil servants producing a respectable weekly income. Everyone was happy. Oh, there wasn't much choice - maybe twenty different pornos under the counter at any given time and many of the punters were simply into obscure magazines that catered for their particular 'thing.' But I guess that was why it was so good. The punters appreciated and treasured the jewels of erotica that came their way via the shop. But things started going downhill towards the end of the 90's - as the internet, satellite TV, and finally R18's put a lot more material into the market place. Visitors to the shop thinned out, till some days no one came through the door at all. When missing regulars did turn up and were questioned regarding their extend absence, it turned out that it wasn't that they were buying stuff elsewhere (although that was obviously a factor) No, the meain reason seemed to be that now that it was much more available, they seemed to have lost their appetite - the old sweetshop syndrome.
In my brother's case it finally came to a head one morning when about twelve Old Bill and Trading Standards squeezed into his shop. They suggested to him that he had been breaking the law ("Goodness gracious Officer, I wasn't, was I?") And then, with a flourish, produced a document - 'Sex Shop License Application' - and advised him to either cough up the requisite ?5,000.00 or get out of town before noon the next day. Now, although my brother is a standup guy, he's no Gary Cooper, and after weighing up the pros and cons (six punters a week to huge fine) he decided it would be the better part of valor to saddle up and call it a day.
Nowadays, there's an abundance of erotica out there and it's simply human nature that if we have an abundance of a good thing we no-longer appreciate it. We take it for granted. We become 'over-faced' and bored. Some here have said (without pondering the implications) that "Yeah, it's great now there's so much choice!" But I sometimes wonder if I would trade that choice for the adrenalin in the stomach excitement of securing a particularly agreeable (if fuzzy) morsel of erotica and rushing home in the anticipation of firing up the old Betamax. After all, it's a hollow victory if most of the things which you are offered to choose from now seem about as stimulating as a damp dishcloth.
Officer Dibble
Re: Who decides the prices?
We see the same picture, then: although I'm actually surprised that so many shops are still in business- the natural boom in retail operations after 'relaxation' was to be expected, but the inevitable crash has taken longer to happen than I expected. Apart from London and a couple of other conurbations it's hard to see how more than outlet per city can survive, especially if it's an independent (that's not to say the present chain-store is much use, though....).
I certainly don't 'moan' about the prices- I'm much more likely to get pissed-off about poor service- but then I just refuse to pay through the nose. If I can't get it for what I consider a reasonable sum, then I do without: which is why, for example, Score no longer get my custom. Their loss.....
And of course, I steered well clear of the knotty 'quality' issue in the above. Frankly, though, when you compare porn to what passes for most 'literature' or 'music' these days, maybe smut isn't doing too badly.
I certainly don't 'moan' about the prices- I'm much more likely to get pissed-off about poor service- but then I just refuse to pay through the nose. If I can't get it for what I consider a reasonable sum, then I do without: which is why, for example, Score no longer get my custom. Their loss.....
And of course, I steered well clear of the knotty 'quality' issue in the above. Frankly, though, when you compare porn to what passes for most 'literature' or 'music' these days, maybe smut isn't doing too badly.
"a harmless drudge, that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the
signification...."
signification...."