Whats the business model for your average 'GoGo bar' in Thailand?

[ghworker2010]

I was with an English friend at a gogo bar in Pattaya recently and questioned how the owners make money. The number of girls there exceeded the n.o of customers.

 

Are they all on monthly salary or commission/ drinks? If they are bar fined they obviously earn the boss money that way. Apart from that how do they make money. Is it solely on drink sales? How much would they earn a month? 

 

Most of the girls are on rotation dancing on the poles. But some just sit in groups chatting amongst themselves. If you owned one of these establishments wouldn't you want the girls to be proactive and chat more to the customers - i.e. get off the fat ass and chat with customers to thus increase drink sales. Some of them look so bored and useless. 

 

I personally don't know how some of these places make money. 

[OneEyedPie]

2 minutes ago, ghworker2010 said:

I personally don't know how some of these places make money. 

That's because they don't.  Some smartarse buys the business and quickly discovers all that glitters is not gold and sells up or ends up skint.  Then along comes the next mug and repeats.  It's a never ending cycle of mugs and smartarses that think they can crack the bar scene.  The only winners are the landlords.  

[dabhand]

Some owners may not even care about how well or badly the gogo business performs. It's a perfect business model for those wishing to launder dosh from other business streams that are rather less obvious and provides cover for explaining a rather impressive standard of living. Nana Plaza and the Boiler Room boys come to mind. I'm sure a few other types of business would be easy to guess. 

[Jane Dough]

Business model...nah

 

Just get models who are into business.

 

Rooster

[ratcatcher]

This business model was approved by a certified accountant.

[RAZZELL]

Most of these places are "launderettes" 

 

 

RAZZ

[brokenbone]

they can make lotsa money if they have lotsa customers,

i know a girl making over 70k in salary + tips + lady drinks

alone, that was 10 years ago, she made 3 years to pay for her education.

the success of a gogo bar is down to mama san,

if she can get the pretty ones and make a sanook atmosphere

[OneEyedPie]

3 minutes ago, brokenbone said:

they can make lotsa money if they have lotsa customers,

i know a girl making over 70k in salary + tips + lady drinks

alone, that was 10 years ago, she made 3 years to pay for her education.

the success of a gogo bar is down to mama san,

if she can get the pretty ones and make a sanook atmosphere

Fair play but this thread is about the owners of the bars and potential profitability.  What the girls make has nothing to do with the profitability of the bar itself.

 

 

Edited May 1, 2019 by OneEyedPie

[bomber]

the majority of bars in pattaya either loose of barely make any money,just look at the state of the the idiots who have a bash at it,the thai land lords just luv a mug and there is non stop production from the line's,usually from the UK

[shy coconut]

4 hours ago, OneEyedPie said:

Fair play but this thread is about the owners of the bars and potential profitability.  What the girls make has nothing to do with the profitability of the bar itself.

 

 

Unless the 70k is making big tips from her customers, the bar is doing ok from her services.

She will only get a small percentage of lady drinks and bar fines, so the bar will get the rest.

 

That's not to say that it is a successful business model, more stating the relevance to the topic.

[mstevens]

The business model is super simple.

 

Bar owner pays rent and electric and sells drinks. Sales of drinks will easily exceed the cost of rent.

 

The staff essentially pay for themselves. They have to get customers to buy drinks for them and pay barfines and the combined income from drinks and barfines exceeds the cost of staff.

 

There are other expenses but essentially, drink sales cover rent and lady drinks and barfine cover staff costs. What's let over is profit.

[cracker1]

I suspect most of these places are "laundering" money and providing a work permit (Business Owner) for the owner.

Profit is never part of the equation.

[5633572526]

2 hours ago, mstevens said:

The business model is super simple.

 

Bar owner pays rent and electric and sells drinks. Sales of drinks will easily exceed the cost of rent.

 

The staff essentially pay for themselves. They have to get customers to buy drinks for them and pay barfines and the combined income from drinks and barfines exceeds the cost of staff.

 

There are other expenses but essentially, drink sales cover rent and lady drinks and barfine cover staff costs. What's let over is profit.

Doesn’t sound like there would be much left over.

[SinCityGr8One]

Laundry services.

[kevin612]

Bar fine is expensive and they make money when they go out.

[bluesofa]

27 minutes ago, 5633572526 said:

2 hours ago, mstevens said:

The business model is super simple.

 

Bar owner pays rent and electric and sells drinks. Sales of drinks will easily exceed the cost of rent.

The staff essentially pay for themselves. They have to get customers to buy drinks for them and pay barfines and the combined income from drinks and barfines exceeds the cost of staff.

There are other expenses but essentially, drink sales cover rent and lady drinks and barfine cover staff costs. What's let over is profit.

Doesn’t sound like there would be much left over.

First of all let me say I'm going back over over ten years.

When I came to live in Thailand permanently, my friend and I were looking for some sort of business to make money to be able to stay here. We looked at many different options, but in the end it was his girlfriend who had been a mamasan in a GoGo bar, said we could make more money running a bar than a guest house which we were looking at.

 

Now I liked being a customer in a GoGo, but had no interest in running one at all.

However, on the basis of what we were told, I wrote a spreadsheet to try and work out if it might be worth considering.

After asking my partner's girlfriend about the amount of bar fines, lady drinks, etc, the girls would generate, plus what the outgoings were likely to be, I put the figures into the spreadsheet.

Initially it looked very good, but being sceptical, I added a further 20% for unforeseen expenses and it still looked good.

 

On the basis of that, I became a bar owner, as I say not as a dream, but as a business opportunity.

We also catered to the 'older' customers, as they were the ones with more money to spend. We played rock music and hits from the seventies & eighties, but not definitely not loud, as we knew it put the more 'mature' customers off. We sat in the bar every night, talking to customers and watching the staff too.

We made more money than I ever imagined, earning more than I'd earned in the UK.

 

I sold up after seven years, as I didn't want to become an alcoholic, like a lot of others I saw in Pattaya.

I haven't been to Pattaya for a long time, I live in Issan, but from what I read there is a serious shortage of customers with (still) too many bars.

 

[Thingamabob]

Used to have an interest in the old Alleycat bar at the end of Patpong 2, Silom end. Didn't make much, but didn't lose either. The point was, it was a real blast. Happy days.

[gamini]

42 minutes ago, kevin612 said:

Bar fine is expensive and they make money when they go out.

a better word for bar fine is "pimping fees' which goes to the farang pimps who own the bars

[ianezy0]

1 hour ago, 5633572526 said:

Doesn’t sound like there would be much left over.

Also forgot protection money

[Nanaplaza666]

14 hours ago, ratcatcher said:

This business model was approved by a certified accountant.

The best place in town , and i am sure that they make good money there. i'm one of the well paying customers , ome of many and if people come there regularly they would know that money goes around there drinks bottles and a lot of barfine ???????? most beautifull girls in the area 

[bluesofa]

12 minutes ago, gamini said:

a better word for bar fine is "pimping fees' which goes to the farang pimps who own the bars

I have no problem people describing me as a pimp, having owned a bar.

However, just to be pedantic, doesn't a pimp receive money for selling sex?

We never received a cut from the girls when/if they shagged customers, as it was up to the two of them and no one else what they did. We received the bar fine which is for the loss of a dancer.

 

[ThaiBunny]

2 minutes ago, bluesofa said:

I have no problem people describing me as a pimp, having owned a bar.

However, just to be pedantic, doesn't a pimp receive money for selling sex?

We never received a cut from the girls when/if they shagged customers, as it was up to the two of them and no one else what they did. We received the bar fine which is for the loss of a dancer.

Basically you owned a bar whose business model it is to facilitate contact between men and women and you're not a pimp if you graciously allow the woman to accompany the man if he pays you a facilitation fee (however you care to describe it "technically")?

[NCC1701A]

12 minutes ago, bluesofa said:

We received the bar fine which is for the loss of a dancer. 

in the real strict interpretation of the law, doesn't the bar fine mean the girl is working temporarily for the customer now, and not you, so you are not directly involved in the illegal prostitution?    

Edited May 2, 2019 by NCC1701A

[bluesofa]

5 minutes ago, ThaiBunny said:

10 minutes ago, bluesofa said:

I have no problem people describing me as a pimp, having owned a bar.

However, just to be pedantic, doesn't a pimp receive money for selling sex?

We never received a cut from the girls when/if they shagged customers, as it was up to the two of them and no one else what they did. We received the bar fine which is for the loss of a dancer.

Basically you owned a bar whose business model it is to facilitate contact between men and women and you're not a pimp if you graciously allow the woman to accompany the man if he pays you a facilitation fee (however you care to describe it "technically")? 

Yes, I did say 'to be pedantic'. I also said I had no problem being described as a pimp.

Doesn't that mean that someone running a marriage introduction bureau is also a pimp, as they charge a fee?

 

[bluesofa]

4 minutes ago, NCC1701A said:

16 minutes ago, bluesofa said:

We received the bar fine which is for the loss of a dancer. 

in the real strict interpretation of the law, doesn't the bar fine mean the girl is working temporarily for the customer now, and not you, so you are not directly involved in the illegal prostitution?    

Edited 3 minutes ago by NCC1701A

I think that could perhaps be true, but I'm not saying that to avoid being called a pimp though.

[NCC1701A]

1 minute ago, bluesofa said:

I think that could perhaps be true, but I'm not saying that to avoid being called a pimp though.

i'm not calling you a pimp.

[NCC1701A]

5 minutes ago, bluesofa said:

Yes, I did say 'to be pedantic'. I also said I had no problem being described as a pimp.

Doesn't that mean that someone running a marriage introduction bureau is also a pimp, as they charge a fee?

 

like Thai Friendly?

[bluesofa]

Just now, NCC1701A said:

6 minutes ago, bluesofa said:

Yes, I did say 'to be pedantic'. I also said I had no problem being described as a pimp.

Doesn't that mean that someone running a marriage introduction bureau is also a pimp, as they charge a fee?

 

like Thai Friendly?

All of them, even there must be ones that arrange meetings with a chaperone. If it ultimately leads to marriage and sex, surely it could be construed a pimping?

[bluesofa]

4 minutes ago, NCC1701A said:

i'm not calling you a pimp.

I love it when you talk dirty!

[watcharacters]

56 minutes ago, gamini said:

a better word for bar fine is "pimping fees' which goes to the farang pimps who own the bars

 

27 minutes ago, NCC1701A said:

in the real strict interpretation of the law, doesn't the bar fine mean the girl is working temporarily for the customer now, and not you, so you are not directly involved in the illegal prostitution?    

 

Thai law addresses bar fines?        

 

What next?