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Just went to Soho (London) to get some vids, which i've been doing for over ten years, and for the first time I left very very disappointed, although the feeling had been growing for a few years.

I don't know about anyone else, but the vid shops are dying with the range in the shops very poor or limited. Generally there are only a few distributors, and others have disappeared (e.g. Hustler) or the odd old stuff is only re-selling (e.g. anabolic/diabolic etc and Private). Even the British stuff is getting one sided where many of the new titles i've seen on this board not in any of the shops.

The internet is taking over, no prob with that, but I liked going to the shops and were a great starting point, and I still used to think there was a big future for them, but now I'm not too sure. I miss not having a bigger range to choose from, at present streaming is poor and downloaidn a movie takes way way too long.

I don't know the answer, I just want to see what others think? maybe the answer is for some to close down, and the stuff to be consolidated into one or two stores.

Maybe I'm just looking in the worng shops (e.g. ones in Soho liek the "Soho bookshop" and Private etc), but at present things don't look great for this little business on the street. Tell me if there are any good shops! Americans tell me that in the states the shops are far bigger with bigger more uptodate stock, so why can't that be done here?

Anyone got any answers or opinions on any of this?

Visited well known stores in Chester and Oldham last month looking for anything recent with Keira or Susie Best. Nothing available. One Wendy Taylor, which I'd already got plus an AliciaRhodes ancient release selling cheap in Oldham.

Plenty of US DVDs mainly with unknowns and with heavy anal or DP content.

Why is the British industry not supported by British shops?

They probably make a lot more money selling foreign porn,i expect they buy in at less than a ?1.00 per dvd and retail it for ?20.00+ whereas the British producer cannot compete at those prices, a few years ago before dvd you could go into the Soho shops and there would be loads of Brit porn on vhs ,but because there is so much porn available in the U.S. and on the continent distribitors can buy the rights dirt cheap then manufacture the disk for a few pence and make a good profit and if you dont believe me go to Belgium where you can purchase 10 hour hardcore dvds for less than ?2.00 !sad!

You are spot on.

I was in Soho on Friday evening last week - dropped into Soho Books and a two/three other shops.

I was surprised at just how quiet the shops were. I think Soho Books has a pretty good range but as Ikhan said, some of the British titles mentioned on here were nowhere to be seen - not much from Dolltheatre, for example, which was a pity.

I've been going to Soho sex shops since the early 80s and there has of course been massive change since then. It seems like the internet and legalising porn has really hit the shops.

It'll be interesting to see how things develop over the next few years.

British producers are on a hiding to nothing because of our draconian distribution laws, they cannot sell via mail order and other outlets but can only sell via licensed sex shops, unlike in the U.S. where mail order is allowed in most of the states and in the rest of Europe where its allowed just about every where, which means the sex shops here have a Cartel which is not allowed under EEC laws but also means if you cannot produce at a price that they like then your material will not be going on their shelf!sad!

There's a piece in last month's Mayfair about the death of Brit porn videos. Now, before I get the usual posts involving the death of top shelf magazines (heard it all before, and yet we're still here), please consider the following:

1. You can buy the UK Rights to virtually any US adult DVD for less than five grand.

2. A really good wholesale price paid by a retailer for a single unit British DVD is ?4.

3. The average retail price of an adult DVD is ?20.

4. The producer/director of a DVD wholesaled at ?4 is probably getting ?1.50-2.00 per movie sold.

Now, I'm not an economist, but even I can do the maths there.

The removal of mail order R18 in the UK has meant most producers are seriously feeling the pinch. Those who were sending their own stuff out have seen a massive drop off in profit. That's one of the reasons for Viv Thomas moving his whole operation to Portugal. He can at least mail in non-R18 stuff without breaking any laws.

The problem? Work it out for yourselves. It's not the producers, struggling to put movies together on tiny budgets so they can make a living. It's not the wholesalers, who are doing their best in a crappy market. So who does that leave?

It's supply and demand, though, so if no-one visits the shops, the prices will ultimately have to come down.

But what's particularly evident on this board is that few posters want to pay decent money for porn. Why pay 20 quid for a title when you can buy 10 at a boot sale for the same money? Of course, the fact that none of that money goes back to the cast or crew doesn't seem to register with a lot of people. And that, ladies and gents, is why the UK adult movie business is in trouble.

The retailers don't want R18 on satellite because they'll lose out completely, Tony Blair doesn't want R18 mail ordered; although any argument that children might see it is utterly specious, since anyone with a lobotomy can find free porn online if they spend even 10 minutes on a computer.

The only people who can make a difference are you guys. If you stop buying porn in adult stores, the prices will come down. Simple economics. Unfortunately, that loss of profit by the retailer will never see wholesale prices rise, so producers will still struggle to make a living.

The only way the adult industry (and by that I mean the people who make the movies, not the shops that stock them) will ever enjoy glory days is for R18 mail order and hardcore on satellite. And at the moment, I don't see the current legislation changing for several years.

but my point is also that its not just the British stuff that is low in the shops, they seem to have cut out so much in that there appears to be either only very low grade stuff or the very cheapy distributors.

Hustler, Seymore Butts etc is disappeared, and Diabolic/Anabolic and even Rocco films are going the same way, whilst i'm sure there are others in this direction. Private films are still there but it seems to be either old stuff or the same old old with their films, which is a damn shame as they have a great huge catalogue which includes Castings etc (which you hardly see ever now).

Luckily for the British end there are still good stocks of the legend Ben Dover movies and there is the Rude Britannia range, but diversity should be the key.

the multi-hour compilations are footage they don't have to reshoot with all the expenses of a new production involved. Sounds to me like it might be a good idea for your producers to form a co-op and buy up a place that might be closing its doors and stock only the local product. Have some of the girls show up to do signings on new releases. Everybody gets something out of it.

Being a pornster of many years and also an amateur producer i reguarly visit sex shops here in the U.K. and abroad, and you can buy the Brit films about ?10.00 cheaper on the Continent than you can here in the U.K. but of course this is Rip Off Britain!sad!