Profits are not the favorite conversation topic of Patpong entrepreneurs, classy or otherwise. The barroom scuttlebutt suggests a street-wide take totaling many millions of dollars a month. Such higher margins are pushing up rents and wages and putting the squeeze on the girlie bars. The dominant King's Group has been able to gobble up six of them and a restaurant. Not that an aspiring entrant has it easier.
Foreigners supposedly pay more.
This isn't counting any protection money that may need to be doled out to avoid disturbances. Not anytime soon. But Thailand's taste in nightlife is changing, and any business, classy or sassy, must either deliver what its clients want or die. In the wake of the U.S. downturn, Taiwan faces recession. All Rights Reserved.