Peek Inside the Club You Can't Join, with Jeff Klein

But I think, you know, the reason I'm saying that is 'cause what's harder is today you're seeing, like, a lot of people trying to go into the membership club business.

Let's talk about this boom because there's a real private club boom now.

Private members-only clubs are on the rise in cities across the US.

There's nothing new about them, especially in New York, and London has...

Like, that's how people socialize, and they were a fixture in social life during the Gilded Age.

But now we're seeing private clubs in places like Jacksonville, Florida, Lexington, Kentucky.

Talk about what's driving this wave, and as you noted, the Soho House is credited with helping spark the private club boom.

It opened its first club in London in 1995 and has more than 46 locations and over 200,000 members.

So, so talk a little bit about why the boom is happening here in this country, and maybe compare it to somewhere like London.

Well, yeah, I mean, I think, you know, clubs are booming because people are profoundly lonely and digitally exhausted.

Technology has connected everyone, but emotionally it's disconnected people from each other, and a lot of institutions that used to create repeated human interaction weakened, like churches, town halls, civic groups, e- even offices after COVID.

And so people are still...

You know, people still fundamentally need tribes and ritual and familiarity and belonging, and clubs are filling part of that vacuum.

The more digital life becomes, the more valuable physical human interaction becomes.

I mean, there's just...

I notice it every day, and I feel kinda lucky.

I always say I'd rather be lucky than smart, you know, because we're really providing a sense of community.

And people are like, "Oh, well, do you think there's too many clubs?" I, I think the opposite.

I think we're gonna notice a lot more clubs in the future, um, and the good ones are gonna understand how to find their niche.

Trying to be everything to everyone, I think, is where these clubs are getting into trouble.

Right, or, or too expensive.

There used to be, you know, various clubs around New York was everyone belonged to one.

Again, in London, everyone has a club and has had it for hundreds of years, correct? There is a sort of a comfort.

And it's not necessarily just for the rich, correct? Not for the super rich, although this tends to be the demo you have.

The, uh...