Photo Source James N. Mattis | CC BY 2.0
When was the last time you bought a vibrator, lubricant or specialty outfit?
For decades, shoppers for sex-related products and services were mostly men, often dubbed the “raincoat crowd,” who slinked into XXX-rated shops in a down-market part of town to purchase a risqué magazine, porn flick, a vibrator, a special costume or hookup with a sex worker.
Those days are over!
The commercial sex industry is now mainstream. Old-time sex toys have been rebranded “sex-wellness products” and are available at specialty outlets like Gotham’s Pleasure Chest, San Francisco’s Good Vibration and Seattle’s Babeland as well as major retailers, ranging from high-end specialty chains like Nordstrom and Brookstone, to mass-market outlets like Walgreens and Target, and even crusty down-market Wal-Mart.
But the big one is Amazon! It’s the nation’s largest retailer of sex-wellness products offering around 60,000 items.
And its sex-toys business will become even bigger with the support of the New York taxpayer.
On Tuesday, November 13th, two New York “progressive” pols, Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio, announced the deal of the century – Amazon will place one of its two new corporate “headquarters” in the Big Apple; the other will be near Arlington, VA. More than 230 cities competed to secure the Amazon deal.
Media reports reveal that Amazon will get about $3 billion – the state offered $1.525…