written july 14th, 2008
Please know that I am the last person to be called cheap. But someone has to draw the line somewhere. I’m tired of paying at least $50 before I can step foot inside of a club. Back in New York, I expect to pay $20 to get inside of the club because we used to waltz up in there 1am-2am, when the club closes at 6am. Free before midnight, $10 before 1am. Never worried about paying for parking because parking was free or we just took a cab there. And if we did pay for parking, that’s because it’s this thing called VALET and someone parked it somewhere in the back of the club, where they have security cameras. Never worried about drinking Hennessy all night long because it was $5 for a shot. Never worried about paying $750 to sit down when you got tired because there were seats lined along the wall. VIP was the area that played different music, with your own bar and more comfortable seats (ie: couches & sofas). The men were more friendly and less intimidated to approach you.
Let’s forward to the present tense now and let’s speak on Atlanta. Where on your way to the club you’re burning about $4.35 per gallon of gas. Where these displaced Hindus, with a fake company t-shirt, props a $15 parking sign right in the Bank Of America parking lot after 10pm. Where if you tell them “I’m not paying you $15 to park here because you don’t own this parking lot.” their response is “Well, we’re going to put a boot on your car.” and then you say “Boot my dick.” and drive off to find a parking spot 3 blocks away. Where you need to print out an email flyer just to get inside free before 11pm. Where even though you get there at 10:30, you’re standing in line until 11:05 and then they start letting people in. Where by that time, you’re paying $20 and it’s not even 11:30 yet. Where shots of Hennessy is $12 a glass. The same price as the actual bottle. Where if you get tired, the only place to sit, for free, is on the toilet. Where if you want an actual chair to sit on, you need to pay $50 to enter the VIP section that’s exactly the same as the club, but with seats and a table. Where as soon as 12 midnight hits, they shut off the air conditioning. Where you have about 10 grumpy men, dressed in black, standing about 6 foot high and 220 pounds, waving a flashlight vigorously in your damn face because you’re “taking too long” to walk from point A to B. Or because you’re simply standing too close to the only empty space in the room. Where the men are more conceited, timid or just flat out gay. I want a damn refund.
The major issue I have is the whole standing in line thing. Sadly enough, that’s the only time I truly pay out of pocket. Only if its no more than $20 to get inside. No grown ass woman should be outside, after midnight, waiting in line to go enjoy herself. Usually I’ll just pay the extra to swing right inside. It all depends on the price though. If I get there at 11pm, and the free line is 200 people deep, yet the VIP line is $20 with only 10 poeple in it…I’m hopping on the VIP line. But then when I get inside, it’s damn near empty. So I’m like, why the fuck do you have the whole club outside waiting to get in? These establishments do this for 2 reasons. 1) because they want onlookers to think that’s off the hook tonight and 2) the longer they prolong people to get in for free, the more chance they have to make them pay because their “free time” is up. Once, there was a time where they had 3 different lines. One line was the free-$20 line, in which there was about 100 people on it. Then there was a VIP line for $40, where there were about 30 people on it. And lastly there was an Instant Access line, where no one was on it because you shoot right inside and they charged $60 for females and $80 for males. That was insane! People pay the same amount for a Kanye West concert. So imagine almost spending $100 before you even get inside a club where all you’re gonna do is dance & sweat on your feet all night long. You’re not even offered a damn chair or a free bottle of water.
These comparisons & situations are not a figment of my imagination. They are alive and well. There’s no reason why it’s imperative to pull so much out of pocket just to sweat amongst people for 3 hours. It’s inhumane. Regardless of how much money you make. Senseless spending is what I call it. Why should I pay you $10 to park my car in a Wachovia parking lot when 500ft away I can parallel park it for free? It was revealed to me that these business are also in cahoots with the parking companies. They give them a percentage of what they earn from the night before. The only way you can avoid this is by going to the lounges/clubs that are set up in a shopping center. Because they have about 15 business in there and it’s almost impossible to charge someone for parking. I have seen cases where they pull this off however (ie: Dreamz, Club Essos). And the sad thing is, it’s mostly black establishments that do this. No one wants to worry about spending too much money after having a stressful week at work. No one wants to worry about being harrassed for $10 to park your car in an insecured place. No one wants to worry about standing in line for an hour, just to pay $30 once you get to the front. Bad enough we have to deal with the $2 gas hike, that may never go down, so why do we have to deal with these rip off rates JUST to have a good time?
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