A couple of thoughts over this:
1) to what extent did the rise (and subsequent fall) of the deregulated zone affect parlour trade
2) how much pressure have the chinese put on parlours - especially the thai ones? Red paint attacks have been reported in parts of yorkshire, and a couple of years back we did notice on here a trend for thai parlours in yorkshire to be handed over to chinese management
I dont feel like the R&F of the deregulated zone had any due impact on the parlour trade as in general i thought the girls in the DRZ tended to be more bargain basement with the vast majority of there customers looking for the bargain basement experiences and more to the point, the bargain basement prices
The only contradiction to this IMO was the Nana Thai massage shop which foolishly set up in Holbeck on Domestic street close to the junction of Shafton lane and st Mathews street, i know this place suffered due to the DRZ though today it may have faired better had it remained open... opening in the vicinity of the DRZ and then closing as the DRZ was coming to an end, definitely a good bit of business that was
However i do feel that the ending of the DRZ had and as left a gaping hole in the trade leaving little choice for bargain basement punters which in turn may have helped push up local shop prices as the punters have fewer options to meet their needs
I think that girls choosing to work from home to minimise costs and maximise their income as been the cause of the biggest move from parlours, certainly from the non asian parlours/shops
My non Asian parlour experiences have been quite rare over the last 25 years or so, possibly limited to Angels in Leeds only seeing me a few times, Katy's MR in Donny maybe 3 or 4 visits, with the old Sauna 2000 on Pym street, now Naree being my most visited place with maybe a dozen or so visits so from my own perspective, i havent really noticed much with this
As for the pressure from the Chinese, like many others, i have wondered if the influx of the Chinese agencies may have been putting pressure on many of the shops to close down or sell up, and it had crossed my mind that these groups could have been the source of the red paint attacks but to my knowledge this as not been proven
In many cases on this subject all we have is conjecture, i have heard that some of the victims may know more than as been let on, I do know one Asian Indie whom as been hit with Red paint at 3 different locations believes it to be related to issues she had and as been having with non Thai/non Chinese Asian men but cannot prove it and from my understanding neither can the noddies
I have also heard it said that suspicions lead to non Thai/non Chinese Asian men being behind some of the Hudds red paint jobs but gain unless the noddies catch these then we may not get the true story
Then i have spoken to another provider whom was one of the first to be hit with the red paint, this one told me quite categorically that she is 100% certain that her paint job was related to some issues in her personal life
Again, my original thoughts regarding the red paint issues were that these attacks were organised and as such must have been organised gang related of sorts, be it a protection racket or related to a hostile takeover but i now feel that many of these have been too random and not just limited to one town or city and not just to shops as they have hit indies too so maybe some are just copy cat so again, unless the noddies can catch these people then we are unlikely to ever get to the bottom of it
I think that the Doncaster area may be the area where things could come to light
The Doncaster area for a while has had a mix of established Thai and Chinese shops, with Healing hands on Broxholme and Wellbeing in Balby being the time served chinese shops doing extras and the likes of Retreat, Ladda, Butsakon and others being the Thai shops known for extras, obviously others like Oriental Annie, Natcha, Tara at moorends and others being more recent additions to the area and non of these have had issues
However, like in other areas, we are starting to see the Chinese agency adverts, just like we did in the West yorks areas, so in my mind, if the Donny Thai shops and indies start to have issues then yes, maybe we can see the potential culprits, time will tell
Personally I think the trend in Thai shops being sold and the chinese taking over is more to do with the Chinese being willing to part with the money and much more of it up front, a Thai shop owner will have little or no loyalty to her brethren when it comes to the sale of her shop, she will take the highest cash offer and many of the Thais wanting to take over a shop will often want to pay less than the asking price and also pay in instalments
I personally know two mamasans of thai shops whom bought /took over their shops since covid, (both these are two room shops, with two girls working from there)
One mamasan paid 35% less than the asking price because she had cash and the seller needed the cash quickly, this shop went out on the Thai grapevine and unofficially changed hands in less than a week
The other mamasan ended up paying nearly 50% more than the asking price because she didnt have enough cash up front so she took it on terms with the seller as the seller was not desperate for all the cash up front
The latter of these shops had did have enquiries from the Chinese but this shop was sold on the understanding that the new owner would keep the 2nd girl on and the Chinese were not willing to allow this, this shop as not had any issues with red paint
So in my mind, i think everything is still up in the air regarding the reasoning and the culprits behind the paint issues and as already mentioned, time will tell
