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Has anyone else been a little slower than normal lately?  We thought it was just us, but have been taliking with other kj's, dj's & even other club managers & have been finding that it isn't just us, but it's been less than normal crowds at many clubs lately.  
We decided to talk with some of the regulars that haven't been showing up as often & they stated that because of gas prices, they have to limit their bar time to minimum.  Our average price around here is about $2.48 per gallon - regular unleaded.  I know it has hit my pocket book as my van normally would take about $20-25 to fill back in December & now I am paying almost double.  Figuring this occurs at least 1 time per week, this is an extra $80+ per month just for my vehicle.  My wifes is even worse as she drives a full size GMC P/U & hers went from (approx) $35 to almost $70.  She needs to fill up even more often, so needless to say this cuts into alot of our extra spending cash.
I just lost a club as well - not just karaoke, but they dropped all live music as well as the crowds aren't coming in any more even with the BETTER bands that normally would pack the place.

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gas prices also affect how far from homebase ya can look for new gigs too... having to figure in your gas consumtpion to make it to a gig per week affects how much ya have to charge them... lets see... 150 per show plus another 30/week for gas LOL... sucks big time...

Well that's partly the thinking I have with customers as well.  Do they drive to their normal hang out or do the "settle" for something closer to home or nothing at all?

Good point on the club searching though - hadn't even really thought about that one.

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I think Gas prices are becoming a real business factor to consider , especially if your hosting shows a little distance from your home base.  I'd agree that the crowds have been off a little bit here but I thinks its due to a few differant factors of which gas prices might be one of them.   The weather here is staring to get WARM and that keeps people home in the beginning of the season but in a few weeks they'll all be back.  $2.48 wow ..here its around $2.09.

Yeah well our blessid governor just signed a gas tax bill that will add another $.10 per gallon over a 4 year period with $.03 of that starting in July.  We are already one of the highest gas tax in the states as it is at $.28 per gallon.

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hmm... our gas price right now is 82.4cents/ Litre..... and there's 3.78 Litres per gallon...  so that makes it around $3.11 / gallon...

then ya gotta factor in the exchange rate.... according to the website I went to... that works out to $2.48 US / Gallon

OH WAIT.... 82.4 is what the SIGNS always say... everybody gives 3.5 cents of per litre (so WHY don't they just post the discounted price? Cuz it's STUPID) ok ok..
so lemme figure this out with the REAL price..

82.4 - 3.5 = 78.9 cents / Litre

78.9 X 3.78 = 2.98 CND / gallon

exchange rate coversion - 2.98 CND = 2.38 US / gallon

GOOD GRIEF!! Yeah.... I live in Alberta.... that's where most of canada's oil is produced, SICK ain't it?

*sniff.... sniff* Anyone else smell wood burning? what the hell is that smoke comin outta my ears?

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OH WHOOPS!! perhaps I could answer the actual question? (I got so absorbed in my mathmatics.... foreign concept to me)

YES! they DO affect my goin-out habits! I live about 20 mins outside the city, and I like to go there to my karaoke spot, but we definately have slowed down because of gas prices. We used to go about once a week... maybe 3 times a month.... NOW... I hvaen't been in about 2 or 3 months!

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Quite the opposite for me, if you can believe it.  If I fill up at home, I pay $2.19/gallon (as of this morning).  In the town where my show is, about 25 miles away, there are two competing stations at $1.93 (as of last night).  There are people lined up into the road all day, every day.  It has actually helped my show, because people want to go into that city, hang out, and then fill up on their way home late at night when the lines are shorter.

If anyone ever passes through SE Michigan, let me know and I'll give you directions.

The area I live in is unaffected, now that it's finally done snowing bars are getting alot more business. Snow in April is not fun. Now it's 80 degress go figure. I sent out a statement to all of my bar owners April 1 stating:

Due to the rising cost of gasoline, our rates for karaoke / dj service are increasing by $25. March 31st maked the end of our fiscal year. We thank you for your Business.

It's May now, no one has complained yet, I can see this may be an issue come winter a few of out bars would not be able to afford $225 for karaoke.

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2.09 here a gallon right now.

It depends on the region I am playing.  When playing locally I have about the same size crowd.  The smaller the area, the bigger the increase in people.  If I do a show  in Evansville (biggest city around here) it's a similar crowd as normal.  But if I do a show at a small tavern in Mackey it seems I draw in more people than normal.  I'm guessing people don't want to travel and will just go to whoever is playing close to home, which is sorta good because it increases my base of people that want to see me but can also be bad because they don't want to follow you to see you if you play more than 10 miles away.

The price of gas here is $.929Cdn/lt, $3.51Cdn/US gal which translates to about $2.81US/US gal, half of that is various provincial and federal taxes.  For any out of town gigs we calculate the travelling expenses and add it to the show price.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

Sorry, a little off topic, but just wanted to share....  Check out gas prices in your area @ www.gasbuddy.com...  Its volunteer information, but around here it is accurate.  Pretty amazing the difference in prices between stations!

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Woo-Hoo!!!

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[shadow=tomato]If you want your significant other to pay attention to EVERY word you say::
  TALK IN YOUR SLEEP   [/shadow]  

Why would yoe do three round trips?  You don't  set up, do the show, and tear down in one trip which to me would make more sense not to mention a time and economic saver.

As for the non-smoking I agree, after over a year of non-smoking laws, we've been lucky, we haven't lost any gigs, but attendence is dramatically down from the smoking days.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

Completely agree, leave early enough to set-up & troubleshoot if neccesary, do your show & break down that night.  1 trip!

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           LMAO    


 :no:  :no:  :no:  :no:  :no:

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[shadow=tomato]If you want your significant other to pay attention to EVERY word you say::
  TALK IN YOUR SLEEP   [/shadow]  

It sure has reduced travel between towns.They settle for a lesser show rather than going to another county.

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I've been hearing the same type of quote from some of our regulars that don't frequent quite as often.  Basically they are "settling" for shows closer to home.  They still come out on the weekends.

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