paul smith's Snaps & Bytes e-home
May 2004: PAUL SMITH'S DEVIANT'S DIARY - Personal Service not Personal Services or Confessions of a Sex Shop Worker or Adult Store Ups and Downs.
Miss X is a twenty-something year-old woman who runs an adult store. Her identity has been disguised on her request. Although these are her words, an actress has retyped them. She gave me the following interview over a diet coke in her local pub. Imagine it with a background burble of snooker, darts, Sky Sport channel and other peoples chit-chat.
PS: How long have you been in adult retail and what brought you into it?
MX: I've been the Manager of the shop for a couple of years. I got the job through an advert in my local paper while I was working in a department store and doing Anne Summers party organising at weekends. I wanted a change and thought this sounded like a laugh and a bit of a challenge. I was right. It's been both.
PS: So what do you actually do, and what does your family make of it?
MX: I take care of the day-to-day running of the shop. I open it up in the mornings, look after the stock control, reordering and sales. Cleaning…everything really. My family aren't local, so I've not really told them too much about it. My granny thinks I work in a pound shop, hehehe! Different sort of pounding eh? My dad's visited and thought it was funny. I think he was a bit worried about my safety but I showed him the panic button and he was fine. My partner's been very supportive too, which is cool.
PS: Ever needed to use that panic button?
MX: No, I'm pleased to say. The only time I've got close is when we had a woman customer go berserk in the shop. I think she was on drugs. She was demanding we burn all our stock and kicking things over. I was very pleased a male customer was there to help me get her outside. I've been lucky. I've not had too many nasty experiences. I tend to get behind the counter when someone comes into the shop I don't like the look of. I've been touched up a few times and been exposed at. What is it with blokes? This is a sex shop, not a knocking shop. I bet they don't do that when they're shopping in Safeways.
PS: Do you mean getting their meat out in the meat department?
MX: Hehehe! Something like that. Anyway, I'd like a sign up saying 'Please treat our staff with respect', or 'Inappropriate behaviour? We prosecute', but that's incompatible with our warm friendly, customer care image, apparently.
PS: That sounds like a lot of hard work, one way or another?
MX: It is and it isn't. I mean, it's not coal mining, but the hours are long for not very good money. I work six days a week. It's getting on towards being a 55 hour week. I've joked that it's more than a job, it's a lifestyle choice. Like medicine I suppose. It's a vocation more than anything else. I get a lot of satisfaction from helping people, and because I'm open minded and a bit nosey about what other people get up to, in many ways this is the perfect job for me.
PS: What's on the way up and what's on the way down in the market at the moment?
MX: Anal toys are very popular so far this year. The Rabbit's never far from the top of our sales list (about half an hours conversation about Sex and the City here, removed for expediency) and we sell a lot of delay spray and wank-toys to the Asian market.
PS: Asian market?
MX: Yes, we see a lot of Indian, Bengali and Pakistani guys. Not so many women, but I know they're in the position where being seen coming into a shop like this wouldn't be very wise. I've had white girls buying toys on behalf of Asian friends before.
PS: Ok, but what about videos, DVDs and magazines?
MX: There's a big issue with all of those at the moment. In our area we lose a great deal of business on magazines to Newsagents. There's a few in town that are notorious for under-the-counter deals. Plus we don't have a very inspired range and that hits repeat business. The big worry for DVDs and videos is the Internet.
PS: People buying online you mean?
MX: Well yes, you can get an R18 title from the States for a third what you might have to pay in the UK. But I actually meant downloading stuff. Broadband is cheap enough now, and DVD writers are peanuts too. It's a piece of cake to download and burn a DVD and make a few bob selling them to your mates or through work. If we're not careful the same thing's going to happen to the porn movie industry that happened to music industry with MP3s.
PS: A good point. Speaking of peanuts, would you like some?
MX: No thanks. I'm fine.
PS: Ok, all the more for me. So how would you deal differently if it was up to you?
MX: The business I work for is still stuck in the 70's. It's very frustrating when I give feedback to my area manager and nothing is ever acted on. There's a lack of reinvestment in branding. I mean, we're a sex shop, right? But we don't sell sex, so why is it that's what we're called? Ann Summers isn't 'Anne Summer's Sex Shop', is it? They had the foresight ten, fifteen years ago to move away from a tired image and reinvent themselves. I think if we were marketed as an Erotic Boutique we'd generate a lot more business, particularly from the female market.
PS: I was going to ask about that. What's your customer split?
MX: It's actually about fifty-fifty. We do lose out on a lot of business with women because we don't sell larger sizes of lingerie. I've also pushed for us to stock fetish stuff and uniforms, but as usual nothing ever happens. It's daft isn't it? Talk about top-down management.
PS: You'd prefer to be bottom-up?
MX: Oh yes. Much. I'm here fifty hours a week. I know what I get asked for, and I know what I have to send people away to eBay for. We don't cater for the gay market really. A couple of magazines, but that's it. Lesbians? One strap-on, and frankly not all lesbians are into penetration, are they?
PS: Of course they're not.
MX: And Trannies! We see loads. It wouldn't kill us to sell shoes, wigs and industrial foundation but whenever I bring the subject up I'm told that's not a market the company is interested in. Can we really afford to turn good money away? I've noticed a clear market gap for adult baby equipment too, but again there's really no one who cares about developing the business. I suppose the stock goes out, the money comes in and people get lazy and complacent. I get criticised for my soft-sell technique, but a happy customer is one who's going to come back. You can only pressure someone into a purchase once and you'll probably never get the chance to do it again with him or her. Again, I get the impression that my management expect me to try to fleece and rip-off everyone who comes through the door. A lot of our business is the novelty stuff for stag-dos and hen nights. If you look after them, there's so much repeat business waiting to happen. Send them away with a load of stuff they didn't really want and you'd never see them again. I prefer to keep my integrity, and I'm convinced it's the right sales strategy for this marketplace.
PS: I can see it's not a job without its drawbacks, but you're still here, two years later. Something must be keeping you here?
MX: Oh yes, it's not all aggro, hehehe! I really enjoy talking to my customers. I end up as a bit of a counsellor and agony-aunt I guess. But with subtle up-selling I see a return for my investment in time and effort with them. We get everyone from stunning TVs in full drag to nervous little old ladies, and obviously they need different handling. There's still a stigma in coming in here that you might not get at Anne Summers so I need to be approachable and friendly. If anyone ever criticises our prices compared to products they can get online I remind them they can actually see what they're buying here, we include batteries in the price and if that's not enough, I will price match if I can.
PS: That's great. Thanks for taking the time to talk to me. It's been an insight into the glamorous world of adult retail.
MX: Yeah right, hehehe! Thanks for the coke.
Paul Smith is still free to a good home. Kinky Job offers to mailto:info@snapsandbytes.co.uk?subject=An e-mail from your ETO pages, Mr Simith/Sir please.
1476 words on the happy world of sex shops Dale :-D
Paul.