Posted on 12/06/2004 12:07:20 PM PST by AreaMan
By Stephanie Simon
Times Staff Writer
December 6, 2004
ABILENE, Kan. — Outside, the prairie lies dark and still. In the windowless gray building by the Interstate 70 offramp, a clerk with a tired face rings up sex toys. "Need batteries for that?" she asks politely, again and again.
Two women in prim business suits gawk at a shelf of raunchy gag gifts, giggling. A truck driver searches thousands of DVDs for a pornographic movie. Near the Love Sling of Ecstasy, a wife confers with her husband by cellphone as she studies a tidy display of vibrators, hundreds of them, in every size and color.
Adult "superstores" like this are popping up all over rural America — brightly lighted, clean, as well-organized and well-stocked as a Wal-Mart.
Remote freeway offramps are X-rated in Quaker City, Ohio (pop. 563), and Nelson, Mo. (pop. 212), in Montrose, Ill., and Perry, Mich. The Lion's Den chain operates 29 stores in the Midwest, including this one in Abilene, off Exit 272, near the cows and hay bales of Dickinson County.
<...snip...>
That prospect doesn't scare many adult-store owners.
"The way I look at it, protesters just bring in more business," Haltom said. "You can't buy that kind of advertising."
If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at latimes.com/archives.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Ah, the Lion's Den! Many's the night I've ... uh... driven by there.
Add Upton, KY (pop. 750) to the list too.
In Tacoma, the Castle super store (porn) at first had a giant balloon condom flying from their roof. After an uproar, they removed it.
Adult Video Megaplex in Austin used to give away free batteries with every purchase. Or so I'm told.
The one close by here is nice; it's connected to the local dance club. :) I once walked over there to look around a bit with a dancer when she was in between sets.
One inriguing, to me, question wasn't addressed in the article. In these small towns..everyone knows everbody else...so who is working in these stores?..locals..right..
Ah-huh ... how many do you still have in your kitchen drawer? :)
Yep, after a full day of groping a cow to turn a calf the right way or clearing an intestinal blockage theres nothing we like better than to sit back and watch porn...
Shhh...someone will start an entire line of porn based on cow groping.
Man, what a tempting target for some early-evening plinking with a pellet gun or a .22...........
Ping.
Back in the early 80's when VCR's were new and videos cost $60.00 there were plenty of Mom and Pop video rental stores that sprang up. But as the price of videos dropped and the industry consolidated into huge chains with which the Mom and Pop stores could not compete in variety, Mom and Pop video rental stores stayed alive by expanding their porn areas, by jumping into the market Blockbuster didn't want.
Apparently what we are seeing is the Blockbusterization of porn distribution which will finish the Mom and Pop video rental store alongside the local hardware store, the local book store, the local pharmacy, etc.
" near the cows and hay bales of Dickinson County.
<...snip...>
That prospect doesn't scare many adult-store owners. "
The prospect of being near cows shouldn't scare adult-store owners. Sheep, OTOH....
In Tacoma, the Castle super store (porn) at first had a giant balloon condom flying from their roof. After an uproar, they removed it.
The roof???
Shhh...someone will start an entire line of porn based on cow groping.
They already have. It's called Rosie O'Donnell.
But, if the towns are like Upton, they are small towns located on a major interstate highway. Upton is about 10 miles from Elizabethtown, KY. Elizabethtown is probably one of the larger towns in the state that does not allow adult-oriented stores. I'm thinking Lion's Den has been smart to locate as close to these towns as possible and on major interstate highways.
The vilest porn shop I ever saw was in, "Conservative, Southern, Red, God-Fearing" Charleston, SC when I was there in 1992.
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