So it’s been awhile since local coffee bars around Tacoma introduced scantily clad baristas into their workforce, and we still aren’t hearing much about regulation on this sort of thing. I guess this has a lot to do with the fact that the trend has slowed recently, rather than the opposite which I had expected. It seemed every non-Starbucks coffee drive-thru was going bikini there for a minute, but that trend looks to be on hold.
Especially given the current, poor economic situation, businesses are trying anything to get your nickel, and half-nakedness is just one of many strategies being deployed. Although I haven’t seen half-naked grocery clerks just yet, I still worry that it won’t be long. Tight Cuts has taken this concept and run with it, providing haircuts with a sexual theme for a premium price. At least they charge that premium.
The coffee stands that bundle sex with their product at no extra charge are really operating unfairly, IMO. What is going to stop every struggling small business in town from putting half-naked people at the cash register in hopes of scrounging up a few extra pennies and staying afloat? Think about half-naked plumbers.. smutty door-to-door salespeople.. decadent doctors?!
Is this really the path down which we are heading? If not, what is going to stop all this nonsense?
I’m certainly not going to stand in the way of progress.
Besides we have the power to choose who we want to see half-naked. The overweight middle aged plumber? No thanks. I think the market will dictate if, when, and who, this trend benefits.
If we start regulating such things, where does it stop? Don’t we already regulate enough morality in this “free” country?
What, you don’t like a little nipple-dip in your joe?
Ruffo, are you some bleeding heart liberal? People are just running amuck with all this nakedness! Where has people’s sense of decency gone?! Everything is always sex, sex, sex, sex, sex… man, I’m gettin’ horny…
This issue is complex. Free markets should generally exist unchecked. The problem here, Mike, is that there will always be young girls willing to be exploited for $10/hour and it WILL be everywhere.
Many of you will be duped into calling for a sexy plumber like the girl on the Beacon Plumbing bus billboards, and when “she” arrives, it will better resemble the scenario to which I alluded above.
A similar phenomenon happened the one time I lowered myself into the murky world of bikini baristas. Not only would I never pay to relive that experience, but I would most certainly pay monthly to avoid it.
Talk about bait n’ switch!
Ok, on a more serious note, you’re right about the issue being complex because it goes far beyond free markets, trends and regulating morality. Sadly it has more to do with the seemingly innate character flaw in people to demand or hold in such high regard those things that are so superficial. There is no depth to the average Joe and the average Joe is the majority, therefore their desires disseminate throughout our society and there is certainly no shortage of soulless vultures ready to exploit their foolishness to make a quick buck. It’s a cesspool, buddy; God help us.
J-Man, out.
Very well stated, J-Man. I definitely smell what you’re cooking. In a perfect world, it wouldn’t be a big deal; in this world, our balance of fair competition in pedestrian retail markets may be in moral jeopardy. Here’s to majority rule, soulless vultures, and the collective cesspool we call life!