O'dellFreeman413
Female Friendly Sex Shops
Circa 1980s-now envision the one lone sex store during my very small hometown. The entire connection with moving in, getting my gag gift, leaving without having to be noticed by any passers-by on the street would be a terribly embarrassing experience for a 19 years old.
Sex shops of yesteryear have proven their trustworthiness of being dismal and dirty. What with their frosted glass windows hiding a dark and smelly interior filled with a lot of hardcore porn. The sleazy men moving in were of the questionable reputation. No woman with a shred of self-respect would ever be caught in such an establishment.
However, you might have realized that the weather is different. Slowly, forward thinking shop keepers have realized in which the buying power is and have been creating a new niche market: women-friendly sex stores.
The first one to open its doors was Eve's Garden in New York-founded in 1974 by women's rights activist Dell Williams. Based on the Eve's Garden website, Williams felt a lot shame walking right into a mall and buying help held vibrator, it propelled her to fight for women's sexual rights.
Then, in 1977, over the coast in Bay area, feminist Joani Blank became dismayed through the lack of resources for women seeking accurate sex information and top quality sex toys. She opened Good Vibrations.
The task in smaller cities was that women prefer to cluster, discuss and get positive reinforcement when trying new things. The old retail model is skewed to men, who don't mind walking right into a sex store alone. And the women were not biting.
The girl solution? She gathered girlfriends in her own family room so that they could buy sex toys at home parties. Sex toy parties act like Tupperware parties except they sell all sorts of adult sex toys and paraphernalia.
Yet over time of seeing the sales skyrocket with the home parties, the sex toy industry realized that women were the bulk purchaser of items. Scrambling within the last five to ten years, every major city has seen a new retail model that has built stores exclusively according to women's preferences.
A colleague of mine, John Ince, author of The Politics of Lust, owns and operates The Art of Loving in downtown Vancouver. His shop is exactly what I would definitely classify because the new wave in sex stores.
The first time I walked into Ince's store, it had been an entirely different experience from the sleazy shop of yore. It has the appearance and feel of the gallery with airy ceilings, big sunlit windows, wood flooring, plants and comfy leather couches. Immediately upon walking through the front entrance, I saw an area displaying tasteful erotic art.
Going up stairs to the right were shelves of sex-positive books. Around the left hand side were sex toy products displayed, which customers were able to pick up and check out. With each product, there was an account of methods to use it as well as a troubleshooting guide to any health issues customers may have. Employees were laid-back and able to answer any queries without judgment.
I spoke to Ince about his business and clientele. He explained 70% of his clientele are women, their mean age which range from 28 to 45 years. John believes that individuals all economic strata visit his shop and spend on average $40 to $60 per visit. Women tend to buy smaller items and, because they get more comfortable, graduate to the bigger ticket items such as The Rabbit (made famous by Charlotte on Sex and also the City).
Education is really a high mandate for Ince, and the store gives 60 to 70 sexuality seminars each year. Obviously, the greater educated a woman is about her sexuality, the more comfortable she'll feel-and consequently, the more likely she will buy sex toys.
If you are still not sure sex shops are for you personally, let's consider what other people are doing. Durex Condom's 2003 Global Sex Survey cited the share of Americans who use vibrators to enhance their sex lives at 49%. The Babes in Toyland website state the number of vibrators sold once they first opened in 1993 to become 500; in 2004, the number rose to 83,250.
Though all of this sex-shops-really-aren't-so-sleazy-anymore progress, the majority of adult toy sales continues to be online. I suppose people appreciate the anonymous, non-stigma attached to brown paper packaging.
In conclusion, the great Vibrations website states: "We anticipate your day when conversing about sex, shopping for adult sex toys and teaching our kids about sex is so easy, so comfortable and so common that we take it for granted." Amen.
