Start & Run an Adult Boutique. Karen Bedinger
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I retorted cynically.
I had been thinking about opening my own business for a couple of years. Ideas about the type of business I wanted to open had been bouncing around in my head and included everything from a bakery or floral shop to a private business consulting firm, but I had not yet considered an adult store, so I was a bit taken aback by his suggestion. However, Dan and I had only driven two hours into our eight-hour road trip to Orange County, and since there were no distractions along the boring I-5 freeway, it was hard not to think about his suggestion.
I started reminiscing about the first time we visited an adult store that didn’t make me feel like I had to wear a bag over my head when I left it. It was a store in San Jose that we had been hearing about for a couple of years in an advertisement on the local radio station. The ad explained that the store was a great place to purchase something for your sweetheart and a fun place to go shopping as a couple. It was a few days before Valentine’s Day and we thought it sounded like fun to go there for our date with Cupid.
I did have some misgivings about going to an adult store. We had been in a few adult shops before, and I usually left them feeling like I had to go home, turn on all the lights, and take a shower to wash away the dirty smell and feel. However, we were always looking for new adventures to experience together and this did sound like one of them — so he didn’t need to try too hard to convince me to go. The next day we got in the car and drove south on the freeway for more than an hour to get to the store and see for ourselves what it was like.
The building was split into two separate stores that stood side by side. The one on the left seemed a bit more welcoming than the one on the right, even though it was not much more attractive. It had handpainted billboard signs that looked like they had been put up overnight, that advertised gifts and toys for adults. The building looked like it needed a new coat of paint; the dark purple exterior was peeling and fading and we could hardly see inside the store. I wondered if we had driven for so long in the cramped car for nothing. The other store looked like a typical adult video store with a bright neon sign and blacked out windows. Neither made me want to rush in and browse.
I was still leery to go inside either store, so we chose the shop on the left that looked a little more inviting. To my surprise, we were greeted by friendly and well-dressed staff. I looked around for the grunting, disheveled and smelly sales guy, but to my delight, I never saw one. In fact, the shop was entirely different from any adult store I had previously visited.
There were also none of the other things I was expecting from an adult store: no funky smells, no dirt on the floor, no messy stacks of merchandise, no dark corners, and no loud noises or music playing from an adult movie. Instead, I was impressed by how the store smelled like vanilla, how it was clean and airy, how beautifully the merchandise was displayed, and how busy it was with both male and female customers. Either the store was already very popular or the radio advertisement was really paying off! That was when I knew I had walked into a different type of adult store, because it felt as though I had just walked into any other type of nice retail establishment. If it were not for the merchandise, I wouldn’t have known it was an adult boutique.
The merchandise included a vast array of adult toys with a small selection of lingerie. There was everything from erotic lotion to “back” massagers, and what seemed to us like contraptions meant to either tickle or torture someone. Although the helpful staff explained what some of the items were, I never thought that I would ever come to know what they were all used for!
Since we had such a great experience in the first store, I felt even more adventurous and decided that I was now willing to go into the video store next door. Was I ever disappointed! Because the exterior of the building was similar to the other store, I had expected it to be similar inside. However, when we walked inside the store, I was shocked at how different it was. First of all, I didn’t see any staff right away and when I did, sure enough, it was that unapproachable guy I had assumed would be in the first store we went into! I felt like I had just walked into an adult store stereotype. There was trash on the floor, the lighting was too bright in some places and too dark in others, there was no air conditioning or ventilation. There were no prices on anything, which meant that customers had to brave asking the employee (who was watching a pornographic movie) in order to ask him how much something cost. I quietly murmured to Dan, “Yuck! Get me out of here!” We turned around and walked out.
As optimists, Dan and I tend to look on the bright side of our experiences and that day was no exception. We had a lot of fun and achieved what we had set out to do. It made me feel like we were on one of our first dates again, even though we had been together for so many years. We had managed to spend time alone together doing something exciting and fun. The experience led me to think about all the things that could help sustain a fresh, healthy, intimate, adult relationship.
As we drove home we talked about how neat it would be if there were more adult stores like the first one we had gone into, so that we didn’t have to drive more than an hour to get to one. We lived in a highly developed metropolitan area, yet there were still few adult stores around. We thought these stores would be less likely to concern communities if they didn’t appear so unattractive, and looked more like other retail stores or even had exteriors that were more beautiful than other stores. As we talked about what we liked and disliked about the store, we began to create in our minds the ideal adult store for women as well as men.
In our opinion, the ideal store would be like this: The store would be located on a main street of a town or city. It would have a beautiful exterior and the windows would display tasteful products like pretty lingerie on fancy mannequins, and part of the inside of the store would be visible from the outside so that people would not be afraid that if they entered they would never return to the outside world again! Since window browsers could see part of the inside of the store, we thought that upscale lingerie and other pretty accessories should be displayed in the front of the store, and more racy toys and items should be kept in the back of the store. It would be sparkling clean, comfortable, and well lit; prices on products would be well displayed; and the staff would be professional and helpful.
It seemed a good idea to make a one-stop-shop for all the intimate adult merchandise a person could want. A store with a broad selection of lingerie that included everything from the traditional to the more upscale and racy, along with adult toys, novelties, party supplies, and DVDs. It would be a fun and practical place to go shopping. After all, why did the video stores have to be separate from the shops with other merchandise and why did they have to be so displeasing to the eye? So far, there were many upscale lingerie stores (including two mega national chain stores) nearby, but they did not carry adult toys or DVDs. Lingerie stores were only for adults, so it seemed like a natural continuation of the merchandise to include these other items as well. By partitioning the store so that lingerie was separate from the adult items, one could still attract customers that were only interested in the more conservative or conventional items.
We continued to daydream about the ideal adult store for the rest of the day. However, it still hadn’t occurred to me that I could one day open an adult boutique.
Now, while Dan was driving us to Orange County, the idea seemed to set in my head. I had to admit that it did sound like fun and that all my other ideas did not seem as enjoyable or practical.
Who was I kidding — I was never an early bird, so owning a bakery was probably not a good idea. I also liked the idea of owning a floral shop, but fresh flowers spoil easily, and for that matter, so do baked goods. The retail shelf life of lingerie, on the other hand, is as long as the style is current. When it is out-of-date, a store owner can place it on a clearance rack and still make money on it. Although I wanted to continue to work in the field I received all my schooling in and had worked in for so many years, I also wanted to experience something different, and starting a business-development company just didn’t seem very exciting. The idea of an adult boutique seemed like much more fun.
I wondered if there would be enough business for my shop to make a profit. Thinking about it practically, I knew that there was enough business for almost any kind of product to sell; it’s all about presentation and advertising. After all, the cookie was invented long before Mrs. Fields began selling them. However, at the time I was not sure how many