Every day, I see notices of more adult bookstores (ABS) closing their doors. While some are being swallowed by the large chains, most are small operations going out of business.

There are, in my opinion, several reasons for the recent trend. Of course, the bad economy is to blame for some. You can cut costs and discount prices only so far. As the red ink creeps into the books, the owner must make hard decisions. In addition, the bad economy has emboldened local purists who want to close all ABS. If the ABS is already struggling, the prospect of another lengthy legal battle to keep the store open is a financial impossibility. The legal fees may be the difference in turning a marginal business into a losing business.

Local government (mis)regulation is a factor in many closings. Some localities have instituted permit fees for each coin operated entertainment device (peep show booth). Championed as a tax source that targets an unpopular group (ABS customers), some have raised permit fees to unrealistic amounts to force closure of the booth areas. Some ABS have responded by charging admission fees instead of coin/token operated booths.

Of course, public nuisance laws are a local government's favorite weapons. A file of violations is accumulated against the "offending" ABS; common examples are genital exposure or public sex in the parking lot, contributing to the delinquency of minors (customers tossing sexual explicit material in the parking lot), loitering for sexual purposes inside or outside the ABS (doesn't have to involve money), promotion of illicit sexual behavior (presence of gloryholes), and creating a public health hazard (evidence of semen on booth walls or floor, or improperly discarded condoms). Once the municipality can establish a pattern of violations, legal action can commence to close the ABS as a "public nuisance". It does not matter that the operator is not responsible for many of these actions, the ABS is held responsible for the actions of its customers.

Lastly, the mainstreaming of portions of the adult business is siphoning off ABS business. I can buy certain KY products cheaper at Wal-Mart than from a wholesaler? Family friendly Wal-Mart has even added a few discreet vibrators (displayed as "massagers") to its inventory. Drug store chains are taking over the lube business plus moving into penile pumps and vibrators.

What will the demise of ABS mean to the gay cruiser? As misguided cops clamp down on park activities and highway rest stops, the loss of ABS will further limit gay cruising.

If ABS are a dying breed (I really hope not), how will you adjust to the new reality to get your cruising done?

Interested in your opinions, and comments. Also, let me hear about your favorite ABS that has closed.

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You actually answered your own question: Mainstreaming. Expand the scope beyond ABS to bars and nightclubs/discos, and online cruising sites and you complete the picture. In the last 5 years, what us old timers knew as the "gay community" has fractured and all but completely disappeared. Here in DC there is no such thing as a gay bar any longer. Squealing, drunk hetero chicks and cute-but-dumb-as-a-box-of-rocks metrosexual (but not particularly homosexual) dudes are just as commonplace at any of the "mostly gay" bars or clubs. Even the Eagle has become a complete joke...anyone and everyone can get in. Former gay ghettos have residual or incidental gay residents, but can hardly be considered gay. Once we've made a neighborhood "fashionable" to live in, the heteros surge in on our coattails and that's the end of the story. Since there aren't many "frontiers" left in most cities, we just go to the four winds and land wherever we happen to.

In reality, this is largely what we were marching down main streets and shouting we wanted for the last forty years: To be free to come and go where we please, live where we please, be whom we please, out in the fresh air and light of day. Unfortunately, the "gay identity" (whatever the hell that was supposed to be in the first place) has long since evaporated (or more succinctly, been coopted, hijacked, corrupted, and convoluted so many times since the mid-1980s it's amazing the term "gay" even remains in the lexicon).

While there are still lots of "historically gay" establishments, they are largely irrelevant for the purpose of meeting and associating with others of our kind in the Internet era. Those born since the late 1960s don't have the same appreciation for, or even value, personal interaction the way those of us from before the mid-1960s do. They were all children (or still decades unborn) while we were fighting for our rights. They just enjoy the fruits of our sacrifices and labors by simply pressing a few buttons and Voilá! They are connected with whatever they want. To the younger generations, there is little or no concept of having to go out of your way to someplace secluded or shady to connect. That also means there is no motivation to really get off their asses to patronize, much less defend, such places (or, as we have seen in the last few election cycles, anything else that doesn't have a direct and personal bearing on their immediate gratification).

The "need" for ABS and other refuges for hooking up is relegated to rapidly reducing demographics of either nostalgic or technophobic old-timers or deeply closeted individuals of any age. The classic ABS atmosphere lacks the "coolness" and conveniences today's participants expect. And, the rampant sense of selfishness and entitlement makes the notion of paying to play as old-hat as, well, wearing a hat.

(I'm intentionally not including AIDS as a reason, because, in large part, it's like 1977 again in most places. The youngsters largely consider it "just an STD"; they have no first-hand knowledge of what happened between 1981 and 1986. Even many of those who lived through the worst of it have left the bunkers behind.)

__________________
I have a need for seed!

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Quoting CapitalUncut: "That also means there is no motivation to really get off their asses to patronize, much less defend, such places (or, as we have seen in the last few election cycles, anything else that doesn't have a direct and personal bearing on their immediate gratification)."

You have summed up one of the main problems facing the gay brotherhood, and society in general, today. There is little sense of a common goal. It has all degenerated to immediate "me" gratification. I was shocked that Maine overturned the provision to allow same sex marriages. I spent the first 35 years of my life growing up there. I thought the Maine knack of "live and let live" would defeat the attempt to rollback the law. However, friends tell me that a lot of former "out-of-staters" swung the vote, and the heavy influence of national groups stamping out the same sex marriage right everywhere in the country. As in California, many of the younger gays did not feel concerned about the marriage right because they are not ready to settle down, IMO. Let them wait a few years and see how they feel when their significant other is laying in the hospital and they have no right to overrule the wishes of anti-gay parents who feel death will be God's punishment for "our son's wicked life-style". Then they will realize without that right of marriage, they are regarded by parents as nothing but a temporary guest in their son's life. AND IT WILL BE TOO FUCKING LATE!

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Great post by CU.

Few of us here may still remember the heyday of the 'movie theaters'. Think of the legendary places like the 'The Tearoom' in San Francisco.

Obviously, all of that is now largely a history. Why?

Consumers do object (and they do vote with their feet AND their wallets), to paying for anything that is elsewhere available for "free". Cheap VHS and later on, DVDs of pirated porn made you feel stupid, if you were actually dishing out your hard-earned dough for what everyone else was getting for FREE.

True, not too many people were really going to those movie theaters for the pure joy of watching the cinematic achievements at hand. We all frequented those places for a slightly different reason, didn't we? Yet, you were really nominally paying for watching the movie that you could watch for free, too.

So, many people reasoned, if I had to spend my cash in order to hook up with someone for sex, I'd rather buy myself couple of drinks at a gay bar, club, spa, disco, and attend to the business at hand in the backroom... At least, no one around is really giving free drinks, so buying them makes sense.

Which really gives us a foretaste of the future which is developing before our eyes, now.

All the commercial gay cruising venues really sell is the chance to hook up with someone of your liking, broadly speaking, and have quick, easy and uncomplicated sex on the spot. The market demand for this concept is fairly constant.

Who is falling off the wagon?
Guys who are packaging their offer into the formula called 'pay-for-porn+overpriced lube'. Net is bursting at its seams with free porn, and nope, you won't beat the megachain pricing of lube; internet pricing of toys, etc., no matter what... So, frankly, you are on your way out, into the history books. You have not only lost your competitive edge. You have lost it for good.

Who is riding the wave?
Guys who are packaging their offer into the formula 'you pay for something that ain't for free anyway, and get the chance to hook up, and do it there anyway.'

One of the major gay discos in Europe charges USD $20.00 entrance at the door. Two drinks of your choice (including all spirits and all the basic mixes) ARE included. Few people, very few people are actually dancing. The backroom landscape is tightly packed. We are talking 400-500 people cruising heavily. Loads of young, internet-savy dudes, too. Awesome, awesome action.

Gay Cruises - A vacation will cost you thousands. Fine, no one really gives free cruises, free meals, free vacations away, so you pay for all of that, AND you get the chance to make friends with guys like yourself, hook up, exchange ideas, plans, stories, socialize, whatever...

Spa, resorts, retreats, lodges, etc., Again, they charge you heavily for what is to be paid anyway, since there is really NO Free alternative to having it all, AND you get to have some fun on the spot, too.

I guess, we all see an emerging pattern here, don't we?

KD

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