CHICAGO - Great ideas come at all hours of the day and night, much like pizza and beer deliveries in Chicago. And if pizza, beer and great ideas are not constrained by delivery limits, Antony Mikrut reasoned, why should sex toys be?
Mikrut, 33, said the idea for his sex-toy-by-bicycle messenger business, The Kinky Llama, came to him at 3 a.m. two and one-half years ago, spurred by his girlfriend's sudden hankering for some bedroom playthings.
"One night we were drinking and my girlfriend wanted a toy," he said. "You can order pizza, you can order beer, you can get anything you want at 2 or 3 a.m. in the city, but you couldn't get a sex toy. So we decided to fix that so you can get it delivered anytime you want."
Customers embraced the idea right away, Mikrut said, and now on Saturday nights he makes six or seven deliveries in 27 Chicago zip codes - including the area surrounding O'Hare Airport.
Mikrut and his girlfriend keep their apartment stocked with about 1,500 items running the gamut from vibes, lotions and condoms to sex wedges and other "sexy stuff," including a selection of popular adult DVDs. Next-day delivery is free, and one-hour delivery costs $5 in addition to the price of the merchandise.
Everything The Kinky Llama stocks is available for one-hour delivery, but Mikrut said 98 percent of the rush orders come from women.
"Seems like women want [adult merchandise] more now than men do," he said. "They just like the instant gratification."
Men are more likely to order DVDs through The Kinky Llama's website and request the merchandise be shipped to them, he added.
Whether products are delivered via bike or through the mail, discretion is important, Mikrut said. He makes the bike deliveries himself, carrying the products, packed in white paper bags, in plain black messenger satchels bearing no insignia. He doesn't wear any The Kinky Llama identification on himself or display anything on his bike either, he said.
"Wouldn't want the neighbors to know what you're getting," he noted. "It usually looks like a food delivery. Chinese food comes in white bags."
Mikrut's ultimate goal is to open a "classy adult boutique," he said. In the meantime, he's happy his business is flourishing, despite the economic downturn in most other sectors.
"Gotta keep the deliveries moving," he said.
The Kinky Llama's online home is at KinkyLlama.com.
