By James Attwood @ Bloomberg.com
March 14 (Bloomberg) — Bikini-clad pole dancers, mini- skirted hostesses and a deal on foreign exchange await customers at Passapoga, a Santiago nightclub, who pay with U.S. dollars.
At banks and foreign-exchange bureaus, $1 fetches less than 430 pesos. Passapoga pays 600 pesos.
“This campaign has had considerable success,” said Jaime Retamal, 55, the club’s manager. “Customers come from all over, but a lot from the U.S.”
The dollar has lost a quarter of its value against the peso in the past three years, increasing U.S. travelers’ expense for hotels, taxis and restaurants in Chile. Passapoga is discounting the exchange rate to discourage Americans from cutting back on nightclub visits.
Drinks and exotic dances cost customers the same price in dollars as in 2004, when the growth of manufacturing in China and other developing countries caused demand for copper, Chile’s biggest export, to surge.
Boosted by exports of the metal, which reached a record $8,820 a metric ton on March 6, Chile’s trade surplus widened to $24.5 billion in 2007 from $9.6 billion in 2004. Along with interest rates at a six-year high, that increased demand for pesos.
So far this year, the currency has risen 15 percent against the dollar, the biggest gain among emerging-market currencies. On March 11, it reached 427.40, the highest since November 1997. It closed at 432.85 yesterday.
$23 Drinks
Passapoga’s special exchange rate means a 14,000-peso drink with one of the club’s 50 hostesses costs $23, instead of $32 at the market rate.
Patricia Kart, a Passapoga hostess for 2 1/2 years, said workers agreed to the plan even though it reduces their commissions. The promotion is bringing in more customers, she said.
“We have to take what the house gives us, and our job is to do what it takes to make the clients happy,” Kart, 28, said in a telephone interview from the club. “They are very content.”