Going out Of Business Sale !

[S.D.]

The Purple Palace is finally chucking in the towel :noway2:

I've been there a few times & over the years many a Domme has graced it's Dungeons. (It's in Croydon, bit of a pain in the butt to find)

Anyway "Annie" is selling the whole bloody lot, everything must go, this place is seriously equipped but now it's all up for grabs.

Just thought I'd mention it incase anyone wanted to snap up the odd Fetish prop for future shoots or personal items, there's some Camera & Video stuff for sale there too if you scroll down a bit, I've no idea if it's any good though.

Here's the link:http://www.purple-palace.com/forsale2.htm

:spank:

[Guest]

By strange coincidence, I was there last week with Teresa May.

[SGS]

By strange coincidence, I was there last week with Teresa May.

Blast from the past.

[Atomic Playboy]

what? the conservative MP?

[A Priest]

email sent to max mosely

[Bernice]

Lovely though it is - the gear aint worth shit 2nd hand believe me. I have scrapped two dungeons in the past and most of the stuff got carted off to the skip cos no one wanted it.

[Bernice]

PS - Its blkoody heartbreaking for the Domme believe me - I cried for a bit when my last place was broken up - over £50k of gear went for a song - a few items I kept but it still hurts like fuck. Sign of the time really - recently at least 6 Dommes I have known in the business threw in the towel - Domination is perhaps as past its sell by date ( at least for real sessions ) as glamour pics with beach balls and burlesque.

[S.D.]

I'm also aware of a number of Dommes Bernice hanging up their canes recently, all giving a variety of different reasons, do you put it down to anything in particular ?

I know you said it's perhaps past its sell by date but can you expand a bit on that ?

:)

[mOBSCENE]

PS - Its blkoody heartbreaking for the Domme believe me - I cried for a bit when my last place was broken up - over £50k of gear went for a song - a few items I kept but it still hurts like fuck. Sign of the time really - recently at least 6 Dommes I have known in the business threw in the towel - Domination is perhaps as past its sell by date ( at least for real sessions ) as glamour pics with beach balls and burlesque.

What do you put this decline down to?

[mOBSCENE]

I'm also aware of a number of Dommes Bernice hanging up their canes recently, all giving a variety of different reasons, do you put it down to anything in particular ?

I know you said it's perhaps past its sell by date but can you expand a bit on that ?

:)

Lol great minds and all! I was thinking that domination going out of fashion would be a bit like sex going out of fashion, ie not going to happen!

[S.D.]

Lol great minds and all! I was thinking that domination going out of fashion would be a bit like sex going out of fashion, ie not going to happen!

One of my hunches is over saturation in the market place.

The cost of setting up as a "Pro Domme" is perceived as being cheap nowadays & so set up they do (Free site, quick pop into Ann summers,etc,etc) the problem with this is whilst they don't last long all those small start ups chip away at the established Dommes & take business away from what otherwise would have been theirs.

[mOBSCENE]

One of my hunches is over saturation in the market place.

The cost of setting up as a "Pro Domme" is perceived as being cheap nowadays & so set up they do (Free site, quick pop into Ann summers,etc,etc) the problem with this is whilst they don't last long all those small start ups chip away at the established Dommes & take business away from what otherwise would have been theirs.

Hmm, I see. Could it also be people exploring these areas more within relationships or finding sub/dom relationships easier to find through the net etc? So where once you would have had to visit a domme, now you can just have your own move in?

[Guest]

There aren't actually any more Dominas in the market place than there were, say, five years ago. There's a turnover in the profession of about 20% per year. Your average Domina entering the market today has a run of about five years before she moves on to something else.

The internet is one of the main factors affecting the success or otherwise of Dominas today. It's helped level the marketing playing field. Where ten or fifteen years ago a smaller number of Dominas could do very well from the available magazine and newspaper advertising, now anyone can enter the market, set up websites and promote themselves to the same level as established Dominas.

The effect has been a slow redistribution of business from the long-established Dominas to the newer ones, exacerbated by the fact clients are now more likely to session with a number of different Dominas, rather than remain loyal to one. When times are tough, you rely on your regulars to survive.

This makes it increasingly difficult to make a full-time living from pro-domination. In the past you had some Dominas making a pretty good living, with a larger number adding to their income with maybe just one or two sessions a a week. Now incomes at the top end are falling, but rising at the bottom, which suits the new part-timers and those with low overheads, but cripples those with costly premises and/or who can't adapt to give themselves a competitive advantage.

[Bernice]

What Pandemos said is basically the answer but theres also an element of people doing it now who would have been too shit scared a few years ago of a visit from the plod. Its the same for escorting - a few years ago it was very lucrative - these days every bloody housewife thinks she too can be Bel D'Jour ( who I happen to think is full of shit anyway ).

The problem is that immediate startups with a few bobs worth of gear take business away from the serious Dommes who have big overheads. Long term the subby will be the loser because the big fully equipped dommes and their dungeons will disappear and all that will be left is parlour domination to my mind. Whe the older ones go their skills go too - to get a big skill set as a Domme ( fireplay, breatheplay, shibari, piercing, medical - the list is endless ) - takes a fair amount of time to learn and to equip for and if your just interested in a quick bucj you wont bother - that will leave some of the subbies out in the cold with nowhere to go.

Frankly I think Domination is past its sell by date - maybe thats just me being old and bitter - but I think its probably true enough. Its NOT the same as sex at all. Old school Dommes like me would remember a certain etiquette to it all which has now vanished under the stream of wannabes from the web - with that etiquette the whole scene has collapsed. Its like anything - you chip away at its conventions, its structure and one day theres nothing left at all.

An old gay guy I know says the same for the gay scsne - it was once loaded with its own traditions, views, even its own language ( Polari ) - widespread acceptance has killed off a lot of rentboys and the scene is more 'mainstream' now. Its not a perfect analogy because the gay scene is quite different from Domination.

I'd disagree with Pandemos on the numbers of Dommes. When I started I was pretty much the only one for about 100 miles ( literally ) these days there are 4 all within spitting distance of me. I think a more liberated sexuality bought on by the web has been partly to blame ( if blame is the game ). I do see some sunlight though which is the UK government starting to crack down on lots of thing - where theres prohibition theres serious money to be made for those prepared to take the risks. That wont be me ( I'm too old for all that now and my interest lie elsewhere ) but some of the up and comers might be lucky and make a fair few quid for services rendered.

The wb will go the same way - give it another 5-10 years it will be as controlled as terrestrial broadcasting - it will be the shopping mall for Woolworths, Boots - the medium for Sky and the BBC - everyone else will be regulated off it. Your starting to see that happening now with ISPS whining that its soooo expensive and someone is going to have to foot the bill for all that bandwidth. Hey Ho a cheery though to keep you up in the night ;)