Ironically, after lasting a year staying open through the whole covid pandemic, corporate close the theaters almost 2 weeks ago after the police showed up and issued citations to the manager and another clerk for "maintaining a disorderly house". Romantix has their lawyers involved for both clerks as well as the store. The police did not go into the arcade nor did they ticket any patrons. I was there (in the arcade) when this happened. It's the weirdest thing. And ironic. The cops stated that there were 60-90 eople a day "back there" and there was sex going on "all the time". If only, right? It wouldn't surprise me if they keep them closed. The theater sales were only 5% of the overall monetary intake, maybe 10% on a slow day. It was just "gravy" for them as far as income.

I've heard of at least one other store in the chain removing the arcade so they had more retail sales area. This is a real need at some of their smaller locations where the arcade took literally 1/3 to 1/2 of the store area. If it's not a money-maker, just like any retail business, it's time for a re-design or re-invent of sorts. Why have an arcade that's only bringing in a hundred a day when you can stock it with literally thousands of dollars of retail merchandise? This wasn't the case 25 years ago, but that was a whole generation ago and things change. Unfortunately sometimes.

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Such a shame. Now the cruising will be forced out in to the dark corners of town and the parks, etc. Boys will be boys. Might as well except the fact and give them a safe, clean and supervised place to get their knobs polished.

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It seems amazing that the theater sales are that small a percentage.

Whenever I have gone in the majority of the people are in the arcade - very few are shopping for toys, etc.

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Each location is different. In ours, there's no arcade just theaters. If there's a dozen guys in there, that's roughly $108 in income. I've seen retail sales approach that number for just a single purchase. I've seen a lot of folks drop 2 or 3 times that in merchandise. Multiply that a few times and it adds up to 4 figures on a shift quickly. Ours sells a lot of sex toys, lube, cleaners (both toy and "VHS" cleaners), rhino pills and such, and even batteries. Those things aren't cheap and it takes a lot of arcade $9 entry fees to match those, and it doesn't happen here in Lincoln. Our other location has been there for years, and has been successful with retail only and no arcade/theater. But that's Lincoln Nebraska. I've seen other shops where the expenditures are vastly different, so it just depends on where in the country you are and how sleazy/active the store permits guys to be, and how many guys are in that area willing to play in the store.

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That is very interesting lonewolf.

I can see where the theater income would be limited - one admission and you can stay as long as you want. There is a porn theater in Hollywood where many of the reviews say it is filled with drug addicts looking for air conditioning who never leave!

But the arcades I would think would be a gold mine. $1 only buys a couple of minutes - keep feeding the machine or get out - use the same videos over and over - so you main expense would be cleaning.

I can imagine the toy sales would be a nice profit - I would much rather go and pay cash and know what I am getting rather than order through the mail. I always think of the cartoon of the box sitting on the doorstep covered in "Dildos R Us" shipping stickers with the caption "they said discrete shipping!"

Luckily out here stores are slowly reopening - some hare reopened their arcades - the theater is still closed. But at least it looks like they will survive. A number of the bath houses have permanently closed.

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I just heard that one of our local ABS that has "theaters" has reopened the theater -

But instead of $12 for the day and you could leave and come back now it is $12 for 3 hours (with an hour in between sessions for "cleaning") but the worst is that they periodically open the door to the theater to "make sure everyone is wearing masks".

If those polices remain I expect to see the theater permanently closed soon.

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That's a stiff price for 3 hours, jonn3, I hear ya! I'm hearing of other places that are using the re-opening as a way to modify pricing--some good, some bad, some indifferent. A couple of the places I frequented in Wichita did that. One kept the daily admission the way it was but added weekly, monthly, and 3/6/12 month pricing structures (if you want to lay out $900 up front for an unlimited use year-long pass). Another instituted a $5/month membership fee in addition to it's entry fee which means the first visit after every 30 days (roughly) means an additional $5 that one time, which is an additional $60 out of pocket a year for those going every month or more. For me, the occasional visitor, it means that I have to basically pay $13 instead of $8 when I go since I'm rarely in town more than once a month. I'm hearing of another theater that went from $10/day with all-day return privileges to $15 a day with no returns allowed.

I have to wonder if this isn't a last-ditch effort for some places to make money before doing away with it all together. Our Romantix has closed the theaters as I wrote above, but I'm hearing that there are at least 2 in Iowa that closed the arcades just from lack of use and the need for a larger retail sales area. The current generation is way less keen on hookup places like this than my generation, who needed them back in the 70s and 80s when things weren't as open as they are now, and online...well that wasn't even a word yet. I hope yours does get to stay open, but I feel your pain on that pricing.

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2 of the bath houses in Los Angeles will be reopening soon (Midtowne Spa & North Hollywood Spa).
Flex Spa reopened a few weeks ago with a capacity limit & lines to get in. They are temporarily closed for 10 days as Netflix is filming a movie there.
Studs Theater (the old Tom Kat--Pussy Cat) in West Hollywood has reopened & is showing regular non-porn movies.
No word yet on when Slammer the sex club will reopen.
Club San Diego has reopened.
CCBC in the Palm Springs area is opened with limited day passes available.

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Unfortunately the Roman Holiday locations both closed permanently during the pandemic.

Studs has reopened with "regular" movies? I wonder how that is going for them! Probably because of concern of an inspection for following social distancing rules and with luck that will end June 15 when most of the COVID rules end.

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Unfortunately I think you are right about it being another step towards extinction.

I hear one of our Romantix has closed the arcade - not to expand the retail - just now a smaller store. But I am sure part of that is the rising rents as the area it is in becomes more trendy.

I know the new generation do everything on their phone - but somehow I don't like the idea of downloading some of the apps and telling Apple "I suck cock" (like they or my credit card would care - but in my paranoia they would be sitting in the back room snickering about it)

I guess maybe if I change the apps name and icon - but I am from the same generation where I don't feel comfortable being open and out...

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