Once upon a time, a castle filled with porn and sex toys would have existed only in the realm of dreams. But, by 1987, those dreams had become a reality. The first Castle Megastore lowered its drawbridge in that year, and by 2002, there were 14 Megastores in four states providing consumers with the adult products they craved.
But all was not well within the kingdom of Mega; poor planning, rapid growth and less-than-expert management befell the chain, which went into bankruptcy in March 2003 to the tune of $38 million. In an attempt to prevent total liquidation, a bankruptcy specialty group, Biltmore Associates, was brought in to restructure Castle. Biltmore then brought in industry veteran Mark Franks to helm the operation while the legal issues were addressed.
Like the proverbial knight in shining armor, CEO Franks has served the Castle well. By January 2004, the Tempe, Arizona-based business had emerged from bankruptcy, currently owing $15 million, with creditors repaid 100 cents on the dollar plus 7 percent interest paid out quarterly. Beyond that, Franks (who has worked with a number of companies including Associated Video Group, Digital Media Group, Adam & Eve of Australia and was a founding member of Erostar Erotic Novelties) has been behind the remodeling of 10 existing stores and the addition of three new, self-financed Castles.
Which brings us to Anchorage, Alaska, as of last November the latest location in the ever-expanding Megastore chain. During the grand opening ceremonies, the world of porn and mainstream collided.
“I had the president of the Chamber of Commerce there for the ribbon cutting, along with Ron Jeremy and Kelly Erikson,” says Franks. No doubt a red-hot porn mart is a welcome thing in the frigid town of Anchorage. Local TV covered the event in a segment that was practically a love letter, and dozens of consumers stood in line to be the first to enter the upscale store. The only negative was from “some Bible beater up there who did a rebuttal about why the stores were bad,” laughs Franks.
Castle’s only competition in the area is four peep show businesses that offer “almost no product,” Franks claims. Of course, there are no peep booths to be found at a Castle Megastore, something that attracts a higher level of clientele, says the CEO, who strongly believes it’s all about appearance.
“I spent a half a million dollars on construction,” he states. “It’s an old Sizzler.
I remodeled that building and opened that store in two months and five days. The whole interior’s open with mirrored slat walls, all new floors, and it’s quadruple lit. This thing is so light that when people come in, they go, ‘My God, I can’t believe the light!’ It’s like one of those movies where you see somebody walking into heaven, and they see the light. It’s kinda dreary up there, with all the clouds and shit. These people walk in and they just love it.”
Not just anyone can walk in; you have to have been alive for 18 years.
“We card people,” Franks stresses. “We don’t want anybody underage to come into the stores. We police it very carefully. We want it to be a comfortable place; the staff that we have, they look like people that would live on any normal street. Clean cut. You know what I mean? And we do profiling. We make everybody take tests before we hire them. We do drug testing. We do criminal background checks. We have a lot of female clerks, because we do 55 percent of our business with women and couples, and women feel comfortable talking to other women.”
Clearly, Franks has a game plan and is sticking to it.
“If you want to really do big retail business the way we do and be a store that makes their money selling products, and you want to get the type of customers that have money and that are gonna come back and spend over and over again, you have to have customer service programs,” he reveals. “You have to have properly trained staff. All of our staff wears the same shirt. They wear nametags. You know what I mean? It’s just like, when you walk in our store, we great you, ‘Hello sir. How are you today? Welcome to the Castle. Hello, ma’am. How are you today? Welcome to the Castle. Thank you for coming back.’” We train our clerks to up sell people. When you’re buying a vibrator, they ask, ‘Do you need some lube? Do you need some oil? Do you need some condoms?’ All that kind of stuff.”
For Castle Megastores, renewed success is no fairy tale.
“We’re doing phenomenal business,” Franks says. “When we opened at six o’clock in the evening, it was minus nine, and the people were wrapped all the way around the entire outside of the building, standing there for at least an hour and a half just to get in the door.”
Castle Megastore is located at 1851 E. 5th Ave., Anchorage, Alaska, 99501-2840. Hours are 9:00 AM to 1:00 AM, seven days a week. Tel: 907-272-1185.
