I used to think that Fry’s Electronics would be an excellent place to buy porn for those who are just too embarrassed to go into a porn store. Sure, you might have 12 year olds hovering around and giggling, but you also don’t have Julie Ashton’s rubber ass at eye level and SUPER DONGS brushing your legs as you walk down the aisles.
Today it hit me: Fry’s would be much worse. Who wants to show their receipt for ‘Confessions of an Anal Queen’ at the door?
Yes, this is the sort of thing I think about.
Julie Ashton’s rubber ass at brown-eye level
FYP
WIN.
Okay, point the first: Some of us might ENJOY having Julie Ashton’s rubber ass in our faces, and dongs brushing our legs. Don’t judge us.
Point the second: Fry’s stopped carrying “Confessions of an Anal Queen” months ago. I called ten stores and it was all backordered.
Point the third: I was pretty wasted IN college. Ba-dum-dum.
I’m not judging! I just wondered if there was a situation that would help people like the ones who came into Superb who were obviously uncomfortable with everything being all out there.
Why would someone be embarrassed to buy porn and dongs at a porn store? Everybody else there is buying porn and dongs too!
When I worked at Superb video, I had people come in looking for ‘marital aids’ who were absolutely dying of shame. I did my best to try and make them comfortable, but there’s only so much you can do. That’s why I wondered if a place that was less ‘in your face’ like Fry’s would be better. I’d settled on ‘yes’ until my realization today.
Well, if the store didn’t check receipts at the door all, it’d be fine. I can see what you mean, though. Your typical Porn ‘n Stuff™ store is small and very cluttered. They also tend to have posters and cardboard standup displays and merch hanging off every available vertical and horizontal surface, plus a lot of neon colorslike pink, yellow and orange. Add in the multiple video monitors playing every sort of porn you could possibly imagine, as well as some you really didn’t want to imagine, so it’s really sensory overload. Babeland tends not to be so typically porn-storeish, and they seem to do all right.
My ex-BF Chris worked at a porno joint downtown for a while. He was just so skeeved by the constant onslaught of ick-porn.
I think it’s a chicken-or-egg question; do porn stores do that sort of “décor” because that’s what works best, or is it just what they devolve to? It would be an interesting experiment to see what might happen if a store did do its setup and displayed its merch like Target or your typical grocery store.
There’s a place in my town that’s less … in your face. also I think marketed to women(clothes and shoes in front, colors are pastel pink and white.) They’re in a roomy building, well lit, clean, etc. It’d be pretty nice if the women at the counter weren’t always bitches . meh.
I was in the Hustler Hollywood store a few years ago, and while I wasn’t really impressed with their selection, the store was very, very nice. The room with the videos and most of the toys was a bit more traditional porn storesque, and it doesn’t seem like there’s much you can do with that sort of thing, retail display shelving being what it is, and packaging of those products being what it is, with lots of colors and photos. That area will always be too much visually, but at least theirs wasn’t *too* cluttery.
But the front part of the store was your typical upscale boutique-type clothing racks and glass cube display shelving. I remember thinking they had way too much space devoted to stuff like stupid little tank tops with HUSTLER emblazoned on the front, and not enough space to the porn and toys.
Babeland, like mentioned, is pretty decent display-wise, but I can’t STAND the women who work there.
Maybe it’s some kind of terrible cosmic law.
I dunno. I’ve had mixed results with BABELAND. I went in there the first time and got helped like I was royalty. Of course, the women thought i was gay but whatever. The next time i visited, i got ignored! Hit or miss shopping is not the way to build a repeat customer base.
Having worked at one for a few months, I’m pretty much desensitized to everything.
So that’s what’s wrong with you. I wondered.
Oh, like that’s the ONLY thing that’s wrong with me!
And yet there are so many things RIGHT with you!
I wouldn’t mind. But then I have no sense of shame. 😀
There are some of us who appreciate that you have no sense of shame. 😀
don’t show your receipt.
ALWAYS the correct answer. If it’s not a membership place (like Costco or Sam’s) that makes you agree to it as part of the signup process, they have NO standing to do anything if you decline their request to see your receipt, unless they’re interested in ‘false detainment’ charges.
Good to know–I *hate* those receipt jockeys and everything they stand for, which is basically “hey, you have a bag of stuff that you just paid for. Proove it.” If I wanted to steal, it’d be much easier to just cram stuff in my pockets and *not* be hassled on the way out the door.
It’s just like those warnings they stick in front of a lot of dvd movies these days ‘You wouldn’t steal a car. You wouldn’t steal a purse. You wouldn’t steal a dvd. Downloading is stealing.’ YEAH BUT SEE I JUST BOUGHT THIS DVD WHICH IS WHY I’M SEEING YOUR UNSKIPPABLE AD IN THE FIRST PLACE. If I just downloaded everything, I wouldn’t have to see that, either.
I guess the answer is to become a criminal instead of being hassled for being law-abiding.
Who the hell *buys* porn anymore?
Best. Icon. Ever.
More people than you’d think, really.
Anyone dumb enough to buy porn doesn’t deserve to be thought of as a person.
I can’t say that I agree with that. Yes, porn is free and plentiful on the internet, but computers haven’t really made the advance into the bedroom and not everyone is free to watch it in the living room. The other advantage to buying porn is that all ‘actresses’ have age records on file, so there’s never the worry that you’re supporting/watching/downloading kiddie porn. No FBI knocks on the door when you’re rocking a DVD.
I was kidding. 😛 But it really is amazing anyone can make money off of it anymore.
God, with the amount of sales I made every day when I worked at Superb, it makes ME want to open a porn store.