AVN.COM RETAILING PROFILE - Spreading the Word on Secrets

Allan Altman has no problem talking about his Secret Desires. He has three in Florida, and two in Southern California. He may have many others, but those are the kind that aren’t capitalized, and he’s keeping those to himself. The Secret Desires in question are adult super stores of which Altman is the owner, and his five locations (so far) are monumental emporiums of adult goods. Unlike his outlets in the Sunshine State, the western branches of Secret Desires concentrate on a decidedly female clientele.

“The stores here are very different than the ones in Florida,” Altman explains, “where your demographic is the usual stuff for the male.”

It all began for Altman nearly a decade ago.

“I’m originally a Boston preppy. I lost everything, and was living with a lady who had a small Blockbuster-type store in Florida, and some things changed and she was losing everything,” he says. “We closed that store and got into the adult business, and opened the store in Fort Lauderdale on Federal Highway and that was the beginning. That was about eight or nine years ago.”

Making the jump into the adult market was not quite as simple as Altman had guessed.

“I didn’t know what I was doing,” he states bluntly. “But I worked it out, and squirreled the money away, and opened the second store in Miami about four and a half years ago.” One lesson he learned was a valuable one indeed.

“I put the wrong merchandise in and I got busted for obscenity. With what’s going on in this country, you’ve got to be careful. The laws are different all over. It can be different from Northern California to Southern California. You just have to pay attention and adapt.”

On the left side of the Mississippi, Altman found that things could be just as sticky as in Florida, and it had nothing to do with the humidity.

“When I came out here and moved to Orange County, it was completely unreachable,” he says, in terms of setting up his business there. “I looked for locations there for six months, and finding somebody who would rent the type of space that I wanted to a business of our nature was impossible.”

The answer? Head north, to the more adult-lenient climate of Los Angeles County.

“I moved up to Los Angeles and opened a 6,500 square foot store in Torrance, which is actually in the city of LA, and we did it with about two thirds of the space being given over to women’s products. Namely lingerie, shoes, candles, massage oils, all that sort of stuff,” reveals Altman. “The rest of the space was given to men’s products, which is DVDs and toys. What we found out was there was such a tremendous need for this kind of store, because the people in Manhattan Beach or San Pedro or wherever had to go into LA, and ours was the only store around that gravitated toward women. Over eighty per cent of our clientele are women.”

Just a few months ago, Altman expanded his Secret Desires empire with a 9,000 square foot store in Santa Monica. And, though he’s been successful so far, there are no guarantees.

“When you’re paying the rents you have to pay out here, it’s a pretty risky deal,” concedes Altman.

Bare in mind, this (like the other locations) is a clean, well-lighted place to buy adult items. His main competition comes from The Pleasure Chest and the Hustler store on Sunset Boulevard.

“At the Hustler store, that guy spared no expense,” admits Altman. “What we do is Hustler to the masses. It’s very well done and very well appointed as far as store fixtures and so forth, but we certainly didn’t put a million and a half bucks into it. So the average Joe feels very comfortable coming into our stores.” Perhaps that’s the key. Nothing fancy or high-falutin’ simply an honest, straight forward adult establishment the average Joe (and Josephine) can patronize and feel at ease. And that, no doubt, is the Secret Desire of many a porn consumer.

The newest location of Secret Desires is 2414 Lincoln Blvd. in Santa Monica, Calif. Hours are 10:00 AM until 2:00 AM seven days a week. Call 310.255.0506 for more information.