Adult novelty stores, or “sex shops,” are all the rage in the U.K., according to a recent article in the Financial Times. So much so, in fact, that one major chain has opened a store on London’s main shopping drag, Oxford Street, home of such traditional stores as Marks and Spencer, and another has opened a concession in Selfridge’s, the very symbol of British retailing.
Experts credit the increased acceptance in Britain of sexually oriented shops to a general easing of attitudes there toward sex, perhaps helped along by television shows like Britain’s Coupling and the popular American show Sex and the City.
Whatever the reason, the industry’s “coming out” of the back streets has made it far easier for the U.K.’s adult novelty industry to appeal directly to a huge target market – women. Thus, Ann Summers, an unlicensed British retailer, has opened 60 stores in the last 18 months. With a total of 117 shops, the chain had a reported income of $197 million last year.
Not wanting to be left out of the boom, Larry Flynt’s Hustler Hollywood U.K. subsidiary is planning to open a store this month in the city of Birmingham, prior to opening another in London. Hustler U.K. plans to employ similar marketing techniques to those used in Hustler’s flagship Sunset Boulevard store, with an open, coffee-shop storefront. This approach has been especially successful in wooing couples to browse the store’s offerings.
Hustler’s lead may attract other U.S. sellers to enter the U.K. market, which presents a more vulnerable target than the heavily populated – and competitive – German and French markets.
According to British law, sex shops may be either licensed or unlicensed. There is no limit to the amount of hardcore novelties, films or other such merchandise a licensed shop may stock, while an unlicensed shop’s sexually oriented fare cannot exceed ten percent of its stock; the rest must be classified as non-sexual in nature, such as lingerie.
In the U.S., in contrast, there is no nationwide regulation regarding what shops may or may not sell. Each state, county and municipality may pass its own laws regarding the sale of sexually oriented items according to the “community standards” principle, resulting in an incomprehensible patchwork of rules and regulations and generally keeping sexually oriented shops off Main Street.
