The Web has allowed many businesses to flourish and others to be invented. On the other hand, some have almost disappeared, because the new interaction and delivery channel has made obsolete traditional setups.
We, female fighting fans of a certain age, can remember that a relatively cheap way to watch clips and full movies, was to pay a visit to the specialized peep shows. They were easy to find in big cities: Times Square and 42nd st in New York, rue St-Denis and rue de La Gaité in Paris, Soho District in London, were some of the neighborhoods where half a dozen shops carried the goods. One particular small shop, in a street off the Boulevard des Capucines in Paris, if I remember well, had dozens of tapes and magazines of everything related to female fighting.
Not so big cities also had their women fighting outlets also: San Francisco, in the vicinity of Market St, and Amsterdan in the Red Light District.
It is true that the Times Square in New York, in particular, had its peep shows evicted because of "the Giuliani Effect". But it was just a matter of time to see the Web changing the business and bring down the number of customers.
The general purpose porno shops have suffered as well; however, the ones which carried the female fighting material got a harder hit, and almost all of them have gone away. They could not compete with the home delivery and personal watching possibilities created by the Web. But I will miss them.
Although I have never been Stateside your other recollections of shops in Europe are spot on.Swish Publications had two outlets in Soho some years ago one of wich lasted into the internet age,one of the outlets in Paris I remember all too well as past masters at the art of copying,I once found an item in which I was involved in,on sale there and I was not the supplier.As for Amsterdam I still see a guy from time time who used to come to London due to a lack of material in Holland,so you must have tracked down an outlet that neither him nor I could find.
ReplyDeleteGood to know my memory is not that bad, Ken. As to the Amsterdan store, I found it in the 80´s and never managed to visited it again.
ReplyDeleteIt was a very small place, lost in the middle of houses with prostitutes displaying in the windows. Probably, it has closed down before the Web wave.
Right, in Soho there were the Swish shops, also the publisher of AIA and other fighting magazines, if I am not mistaken.
Thanks for the comment.