The "Evolution" of Thai & Chinese massage shops

[Omadon2001]

I've been punting for 35 years. It wasn't until a couple of years ago, when I joined this site, that I realised that Thai and Chinese massage shops existed and what happens in them.

So I'm curious. Have they been around long ?

I've just returned from Italy(with the wife do no chance of punting) but, if look, they seem to be everywhere - although some may be legit.

In the UK I feel that they are almost like Greggs or Subway - 2 or 3 in most towns.

When they appeared did some always do extras - or is that a recent thing

[Jonestown]

Did you not notice any Chinese or Thai massage shops in Italy ?

[Omadon2001]

Yes. Bad typing on my part. There were quite a few

[toetally]

The OPs point was that they seem to have proliferated in recent years until they are in almost every town and city. I must say that I didn’t really notice them until I needed an outlet and started to wonder if they would meet my needs. I actually found a review of a local shop on this site and decided to give it a try. That was 8 or 9 years ago and I’ve never looked back. But like the OP, once I started using them I began to notice them everywhere.
I suppose there must be a huge hidden demand for sexual relief without strings.

[SoapyTW]

I might be misremembering, but I dont think there many shops in the liverpool st/aldgate area of London in the early 2000's. They ramped up from 2010 onwards iirc. Loads of them now

[Jonestown]

I'd say there were two phases to the expansion of Chinese shops, the first being when travel restrictions were eased by the Chinese authorities, and similarly UK authorities were willing to grant visas, The second phase came later when girls who worked "on the tools" saw how easy it appeared to open a shop and went indeed went on to open their own outlet, in droves.

[catweazle]

My first ever paid-for experience  was in a massage parlour, albeit with a local lass, in the 1970s.  I think it was a growing area in London, as a way of providing  the service under cover of legitimacy,  and was spreading  across the country.

Then as travel became easier and more commonplace,  people discovered  the Wat Pho trained girls from Thailand  and Boom! the expansion started.

[scutty brown]

With the Chinese parlours there are two main drivers behind it
1) Second/third generation immigrants reinvesting their parents profits from takeaways/restaurants into massage parlours. The Chinese food business has pretty much hit saturation point in the UK and massage parlours are a different business area to work in, still with room to expand.
2) Increased involvement by Chinese OCGs in smuggling illegal workers into the UK, either in containers, or openly as visa overstayers.
There's a big crossover between the two elements, as it's easier for the first group to obtain and repurpose property, often with the girls operating from spare rooms above a takeaway or restaurant. But it's easier for the second group to provide the cheap labour, ready to be exploited. A perfect combination made in hell, with the restaurants and takeaways being used to launder the massage and prostitution takings.
It's regarded as accepted fact by the UK authorities that there is an ongoing co-ordinated push by the Chinese OCGs to expand into the UK massage/prostitution business as far and widely as possible, and has been actively in place for the last ten years or so.

Thai parlours are a completely different situation unlinked to this, though there does seem to have been a trend over the last couple of years for some Thai sites to be sold to new Chinese management

[snaitram99]

"Massage parlour" has normally been a euphemism for a brothel, where in most cases you were highly unlikely to get a massage! If we are talking about Thai and Chinese places with a shop front and a legit clientele (at least for the Thais), I prefer, along with some others, to stick to the term massage shops, especially as the girls themselves refer to them as shops, for places where you can get an actual massage, probably with extras (almost certainly with the Chinese).

Sticking to this basis, there seemed to be a sudden increase in Thai shops in Cardiff about 2015. I have no idea why. The Chinese in this form seen to have arrived later here, although you could find Chinese FS providers who could also do decent massage before that. I am only familiar with South Wales, mainly Cardiff, to some extent Swansea and Newport in this regard, so they may have spread earlier elsewhere. There is a Chinese place in Newport that seems to have links with Birmingham.

[Jomoore]

The spread of these places is, as has been noted, rapid and recent.  I have to say that it's become my preferred form of punting.

What interests me, however, is the distribution, eg, Sheffield has some Thai places but the Chinese presence has, I think, overtaken them in numbers. It may be similar in Doncaster although my knowledge there is more superficial.

However, Leeds and its suburbs seems almost exclusively Thai, and Bradford appears similar. 
Is this coincidental, or is there something driving it in the background?  Perhaps sinister?

Just for the record my preference is for Chinese overall, based on price and availability of extras.

[jseop109]

My impression of the Chinese places (which sometimes even specify "this is not a sexual service") that there's an up-front "legit" charge, some (most?) of which goes to the parlour operator, some to the girl. Then there may be extras once you're inside the room, which is cash in hand to the girl, and this is where she makes her money.

[catweazle]

My impression of the Chinese places (which sometimes even specify "this is not a sexual service") that there's an up-front "legit" charge, some (most?) of which goes to the parlour operator, some to the girl. Then there may be extras once you're inside the room, which is cash in hand to the girl, and this is where she makes her money.

I think that's pretty accurate.  "Door fee" to the management ( with possibly a small  token payment to the girl).  "Extras fees" in the girls pocket.

[Jonestown]

I think that's pretty accurate.  "Door fee" to the management ( with possibly a small  token payment to the girl).  "Extras fees" in the girls pocket.

Prior to covid the girls got 25-33% of the door fee, don't know what it is these days, but for London TCM shops its pretty clear who ends up with the lion's share of money at the end of the day. The only shop I ever heard of who took a cut of the extras got closed down (by the plod ?) pretty quickly.

[Geezer135]

My experience has been Thai's generally provide a better massage but extra's are usually limited to HE and sometimes topless HE, where as the Chinese shops the massage is usually more so / so but more likely to get extra's up to FS. I don't know any thai shops that off FS near me in Surrey.

I also find the more mature lady's tend to give a higher standard massage as opposed to the younger prettier ones.

With the price point in most of these places now being similar to the starting point of a traditional FS provider I think it's largely the thrill of the "Will She Won't She" that takes me to massage parlours and that feeling when the the leg massage goes a little too high or the other triggers that tell you you're in luck.

The only problem with that is every now and then you get a "She won't" which leaves you extremely frustrated. But there are plenty of Thai FS providers who you can go too in a pinch.

[myothernameis]

Did you not notice any Chinese or Thai massage shops in Italy ?

My thought on this, you will find Chinese massage shops, in most holiday resorts, but as for there location, there bound to be at outside from the resorts

[Jonestown]

My thought on this, you will find Chinese massage shops, in most holiday resorts, but as for there location, there bound to be at outside from the resorts

My thought on this is that you will find Chinese massage shops in most significant European cities, and not necessarily hidden away, a stones throw from major railway stations is a sure bet.