I was in San Francisco last week and went to two stores there. It's been about a year since I was in an ABS, so I thought it might be fun. Fucking Gross@

The first one smelled like piss in all the booths, and the guy in the next booth was smoking on a crack pipe. I just got up disgusted and left.

The second one was much cleaner, almost all the booths had GHs, but the clientele was just as bad. One guy in a booth next to mine said he wanted to fuck me ass. I asked him if he was ok bare-backing a stranger. He said he was ok with it. I asked him if he was POS and he said he was. So I told him that I wasn't and I intended on staying that way, got up and left.

Gone are the days of discrete meetings in ABS's and humble dudes looking for a mutual jerk or suck.

I remember the days in Upland CA., when you could go to the Mustang and not see any crack smokers or guys willing to knowingly shoot HIV up your ass. The booths were always clean and the place was in good order, with soap and towels in the clean bathrooms, and no sign or smell of urine. the people were mostly respectful and left each other alone.

I think ABS's have rally gone to the dregs of society, at least in the bigger cities. In any event, I'm done. It was days gone by and all things good or bad eventually end.

Be careful.

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I read your observations with interest. While I have been in some ABS where they no longer care and are just trying to get as much money out of the place as they can before closing, I have been in others where management takes pride in providing a quality atmosphere for clientele.
As with most businesses, ABS have been impacted by the economy, a first in the business. Everybody is trying to cut costs. Before, the Clerk minded the store and waited on customers and there was a separate cleaning crew. Staff has been one of the first cuts in belt tightening. The Clerk needs to keep the booths clean, stock shelves and bathroom supplies, keep an eye out for shoplifting, and tend the counter.
Profit margins have been squeezed by the rise of cheap, not always dependable, on-line retailers and the availability of free porn on the net. Local community "do-gooders" smell the red ink on many ABS finances and are working harder to force them out of business. Legal actions seeking closure of ABS are on the rise. ABS owners have tried to mute criticism by eliminating glory holes and tougher policing of the parking lot, two common complaints of community activists.
Couple that with the rise of "me"-ism in this country. Customers don't care any more as long as they get what they want. We put paper towels in the booth area for customer convenience. It is sicking how many will take the whole roll, use a few and throw the unused towels on the dirty floor. They got what they wanted, who cares if others could use it, "me" is the only one that counts. The guys who will spread potential HIV by not testing themselves or not giving a care if the strangers they fuck are safe, as long as "me" gets his rocks off. The guys who buy explicit material and throw it in the parking lot for underage kids to pick up and take home. "Me" does not care if the ABS gets angry parents and local government pressure for allowing trash into youngsters' hands, after all it's not like "me" is going to get in trouble. My favorite is the guy who sits in the parking lot at night trying to snag the potential customers before they go in the store. They either score with some in their car (adding police pressure on the ABS) to deprive the ABS of possible sales revenue, or scare away the straights to again cut into the ABS revenue. If the ABS tries to run them off to save their business, there will be postings on CFS.COM or Craig's List that the store is anti-gay.
Truthfully, I have people who come into the store to look over the merchandise (every magazine, every DVD, every toy has to be handled) and try to sneak into the booth area without paying the minimum if the clerk looks away. Not once or twice, but repeatedly. I have "regulars" who have been coming in here for 15 years, AND HAVE NEVER SPENT ONE PENNY! I'm stuck at the counter babysitting them as the booths get dirty, stock doesn't get put out, and the parking lot fills with trash and riff raff. Many times I have to stay after hours and do all the things I could not get done during the day.
The ABS owner might want to provide a clean store with abundant stock and friendly staff; be is becoming increasingly harder to contend with the decline in business and the rise of the "me".

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I think judging the bookstore world from an experience in San Francisco may be missing the mark. Bookstores are still very popular, but by and large, they are busier in places where the Internet hasn't become the holy grail of finding sex. In that regard, San Francisco would be the center of the new holy grail, now wouldn't it! Bookstores seem to function much better in out of the way places (Horse Cave, KY, Pioneer, TN, Missoula, MT, etc). Sure, there are still great stores in some urban areas, but those are getting harder to come by.

I got a sense years ago that many bookstore owners had weighed their costs and measured their profits and many had decided that guys hanging out for hours in the back of their store, maybe eventually spending a dollar, and all the time being an unwilling party to the possible arrest of the store owner just weren't where it was for their business model. The money to be made was out front with retail customers who actually made purchases and weren't doing things the cops might frown upon (at least in the store).

I also don't understand the 'customer' (a word I use with some skepticism) who actually believe it is entirely OK to stand around in a store -- a business after all -- for long periods of time, with no expectation you need to make a purchase. Barnes and Noble can pull it off, or so it seems, but small businesses like an ABS need customers who will spend money. Here at CFS we deal with a similar issue constantly: customers who think it is perfectly OK to stand around and never contribute and never make a purchase. From that perspective, I side with the store owner.

Having said all that, bookstores have a long history of keeping an establishment that is often nothing close to clean. Clerks are often rude or, if you are 'lucky,' disinterested. Toilets are often closed or dirty. These conditions in a store seem more typical which is precisely why we remember those stores that are otherwise. Add to this customers who often enter these establishments with a lot of baggage. Baggage that includes self-hatred for themselves and their bodies. We don't exactly have the healthiest notions about sex and aging in other parts of our lives. The bookstore is often where our darker demons come to the surface.

With customers feeling like they are being treated rudely and with employees and owners fully aware of the risk to their personal freedooms, plus with bookstore owners aware of how much money people like themselves can spend in legal fees fighting for the right to earn a living, it seems almost pre-destined there will be an unhealthly tension in the world of the ABS. I wish somehow the owner, the employee and the customers could join together in an alliance to work for a better store environment, to work to repeal local ordinances that allow police to bother these stores, and to show the larger community the valuable service a bookstore can and does provide. Hey, I can dream can't I?!

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Exactly, Keith. I know how you must feel. You put together a great FREE website. Your advertisers support your costs hoping your customers support them. You, too, have your hanger arounds who do nothing to support the business, and CFS.Com is a business. Worse yet, you have to contend with those who never help update the postings or contribute to the Forum except to complain "where is everybody?"

We don't always agree, Keith, but I respect the work you do and the quality product you put out. This time you nailed it.

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So you are blaming this guy for doing what? ["guys willing to knowingly shoot HIV up your ass."] Responding to the solicitation you made of him with honesty? I actually find it admirable that he was being totally candid. I guess you have no responsibility at all in this exchange?

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while i havent been to any abs in san fran, i have visited several in the chicago area.I have found some to be on the dirty side while others are nice,clean and have quality people working and as customers.
I think it it all depends on the area you visit.i have had some great experiences and some not so good ones as well.I personally love abs and when i travel im always on the lookout for a good one! have fun guys be safe !!

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Yes, I do, and did by asking him if he were POS. He should be willingly wearing a rubber when asking to fuck people. After all, he's the one infected. And I didn't solicit him. He offered. I declined.

And yes, there are bookstores in rural areas that are better, but even those have more and more of what I call undesirable customers who could care less about anything but themselves. They don't deposite any money in the booths, they stick their bare cock in anything that is on the other side, and let anything stick in them. Total lack of responsibility or self respect. I've just seen that shit more and more over the last 24 years.

I'm not saying anyone else should do anything, just that because of that degradation in customer quality, I'm pretty much done.

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I actually did visit another ABS in Oregon. It's your desirable ruralish store wit an old school feeling. I think Oregon is the state of choice of ABS these days.

I'm also not against ABS not being perfectly clean. Sperm on the floor or walls doesn't really bother me. I mean it's s sex booth, right? But shit and piss? Forget it. There is a difference.

I had a decent time at the Oregon store. But once again, I had an idiot on the other side not satisfied blowing me but just had to try and stick my cock up his ass w/o telling me, or at least slipping a rubber on me.

It's quite amazing too because I know when that crap is happening and I just zip up and leave the booth. In this instance, I was so horny after 30 minutes of him edging me, if he had put a rubber on me, I'd probably have let it just happen. It's just inconsiderate in the least not to do that.

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I remember back in the old days when you went to an ABS and had a clerk yelling at you "drop quarters!!!" - now in SF, you pay to enter the arcade and no one hassles you. That being the case, since we are paying, the places should be clean. I know there are guys who smoke crack and from time to time the place can get messy from over use, but I have no complaints about the cleanliness of the bookstores in SF. I've seen a lot worse, like a place in Oakland where the bathroom apparently hasn't been cleaned since 1989!

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I assume everyone is HIV+ whether they mention it or not and act accordingly. People lie. If I fuck someone I slip on a jimmy without any discussions about health. If someone wants to fuck me, I put a jimmy on their dick and slide it up my ass. No discussion necessary. I carry my own clean up supplies and buy a magazine on the way out.

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