"No one has any money to spend here anymore," said an exotic dancer at Williston's Heartbreakers strip club. She estimated that tips had gone down more than 60 percent since last fall.
Until recently, oilfield roughnecks were making more than $100,000 a year on average. Few command those salaries today. Many of those roughnecks used to line up outside Heartbreakers every day for its 4 p.m. opening, regardless of the weather, which plumbs 0°F (-18°C) in the dark of winter.
It was a tough crowd most nights: Heartbreakers installed metal panels over its windows to deflect stray bullets after one patron fatally shot another in 2013.
If frigid temperatures and the risk of violence couldn’t keep them away, the economy can: One recent evening, Heartbreakers attracted only three customers. Since then, the club's owner, Jared Holbrook, has closed Heartbreakers and is planning to reopen the venue in coming days as Williston’s first gay bar.
