Fun Zone Gifts is a chain of Southern California “adult gift” stores owned by Frank Espinoza, an adult retail old-timer whose career began 40 years ago when he went to work as a teenager for industry pioneer Joel Warner.
The name emphasizes the lighthearted nature of what is sold. “It doesn’t have the word ‘adult’ in it. It tells you there are gifts there, too,” Espinoza says. “There’s something for everyone here. That’s why I call it The One Stop Fun Shop.”
The store in Santa Clarita bakes in the sun on a traffic-heavy strip of Soledad Canyon Road, a few miles from Valencia’s Magic Mountain family park.
Once past its unassuming façade — the door bears the sign “Sense of Humor Required to Enter” —you seem to be in a lotion and lingerie emporium. But that’s just the first of three areas. Pass through the beaded curtain next to the cash register and you enter what Espinoza calls the “more risqué” part of the adult world.
The store layout reflects what he sees as the biggest change in adult retailing, the consumer shift from single men to women and couples.
“Many adult stores,” he said, “have been changed over to cater to women, and that’s the kind of store I have in Fun Zone. We have the lingerie, the gags, the gifts, the greeting cards, a lot of jokes, a lot of games, bachelor-bachelorette stuff, and that attracts women. They’re not afraid to come into a store if you set it up in the correct manner.”
Espinoza established Fun Zone Gifts in 1994 when Santa Clarita Valley was still an unincorporated outback of Los Angeles County. It’s still his top store, in terms of sales. The area is conservative but upper middle class and relatively affluent. And Fun Zone is the only game in town. When Santa Clarita became a city a regulation was passed against any new adult establishments.
In 1999 Espinoza set up another store in Victorville, in San Bernardino County, and when that high desert city’s population skyrocketed (40,000 new residents in six years and growing), so did his sales.
Victorville’s Zone, like Santa Clarita’s, is classified as a gift store, with a certain percentage of non-adult products and no peep booths. Espinoza’s other L.A. County stores, however — one in the blue-collar community of Huntington Park, the other in an industrial area of Los Angeles — are strictly adult shops: porn and peeps.
Espinoza, 58, opened his first store when he was 25, when what was sold was mostly paper: pocketbooks and magazines. Moving images were available only on 8mm film loops, and novelties were just basic one-speed vibrators. He is amazed at the growth and variety of the novelty industry in just “the last three or four years. Every week there’s something coming out that’s new.”
The large middle part of his store houses an enormous array of toys. The most popular, Espinoza says, are any brand of pocket rocket, the Jackrabbit-style vibrator (the kind with a clit stimulator), and the more elaborate vibes with multiple speeds, circular motion and embedded beads.
Porn videos, from all major manufacturers, line the walls of the back third of the store, cases only — the discs themselves are behind the counter, to be matched with the case when the customer pays.
There is one rack of VHS tapes. Espinoza wants to get rid of them to make room for more DVDs — “the hottest thing on the market.” He’ll keep some VHS for format loyalists, but his stock will soon be 95 percent DVD.
He only sells DVDs, no renting, because of potential problems with the delicate, easily scratchable disc surfaces. “If we rented, we’d have more problems. This way the customer buys a brand new DVD, $12.95 and up. Sometimes we have them at $9.95 or two for one.”
Espinoza is a friendly man, and a family man. His 22-year-old son, Frankie, who was working the register when I visited, will soon be running a new outlet in Bakersfield.
“He will be taking over Fun Zone in the future. We’re really going to expand in Bakersfield. He’ll get the experience there where he’ll be ready to pole-vault and own the Fun Zone.”
Fun Zone Gifts Locations:
20617 Soledad Canyon Road, Santa Clarita, CA 91351. 661.252.4180.
14433 7th Street, Victorville, CA 92392. 760.241.0779.
3438 Slauson Avenue, Huntington Park, CA 90255. 323.589.6060.
2286 Firestone Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90002. 323.585.0097
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