ANCHORAGE, Alaska - The Anchorage outpost of women- and couples-focused adult retail chain Castle Megastore has won the hearts of the readers of the alternative paper the Anchorage Press the third year in a row. The store was voted Best Adult Novelty Store in Anchorage as part of the paper's annual Press Picks 2008 campaign.
The Press Picks for this year were published on Aug. 27. In the article, it read: "This year, like most years, you reaffirmed your affection for a handful of tried and true Anchorage favorites. Perennial stalwarts like Castle (Best Adult Novelty Store) ... swept to utterly commanding wins, confirming their places at the top of the Anchorage retail food chain."
"We're very proud that we are being recognized year after year, not only in Anchorage but in most of the markets we operate in. We're tough to compete with because of the standards we set for ourselves," Castle Megastore CEO and president Mark A. Franks told AVN Novelty Business.
He also enumerated the reasons why the store and the chain are successful: "We opened that store on Thanksgiving Day of 2005, and the stores that were and still remain in that market were what you'd describe as dirty book stores. We opened a 5,500-square-foot Castle store, stocked and managed the way we conduct our business in the lower 48 states-a top quality store with top inventory. We're a customer-centric company, and we provide a selection of the best products. We're always going to find the newest, the latest, and the best. We have well-merchandized stores, well-trained staff, and we offer high-end, specialty retail. We're extremely consistent in that way we deal without customers, and they respond to dealing with a good retailer.
Jill Tillion, advertising sales manger for the Anchorage Press described the competition: "We out a ballot in the paper and run it for a few weeks. We've run this category about seven or eight years. There are about eight adult novelty stores in Anchorage, and Castle has won, I think, since they got here." She feels that this honor usually represents a boost to the stores who win.
