Monday, Oct 13, 2008    Text size: 

“Since the market has been going down, our business has been going up — it’s unbelievable,” Sam Zherka, the owner of the V.I.P. Club in New York's Chelsea district, told the New York Times' Jennifer 8 Lee. Zherka said that about 80 percent of his clients look like Wall Street workers. “A lot of guys are losing their shirts in the market, and they are coming in droves.”

Recently the club introduced a new $1,000 lap dance package: a 20-minute lap dance and a bottle of Dom Pérignon in a private Champagne room. And, Zherka said, the customer also “gets to keep the girl’s G-strings.”

The regular charge for a three-minute one-song lap dance at the V.I.P. Club is $20.

“A lot of people are coming in and spending $2,000 and $5,000 and $10,000,” Zherka said. “They are spending like they are making millions and millions of dollars. I don’t know if they are depressed or what.”