There is a clear and rather sizeable difference between your bog-standard sex shop and your complete and comprehensive resource for adult fun and games. The difference lies not only in the way in which such establishments carry themselves, but the way in which at least one of them is making every effort to dispel taboos once and for all and get the nation as a whole more adventurous and courageous behind closed doors.
Dark, Dirty and Dismal?
The problem facing the sex shop industry today is the way in which for so many decades it has for all intents and purposes been swept under the rug as something of a dirty little secret. Such stores were for the large part considered seedy and unsavoury, those using them carried the same kind of stigma and the situation was generally one from which nobody was profiting.
However, more liberal attitudes over recent years have seen the sex retail industry emerge from the rock it was forced under by society and has become one of the most ‘loud and proud’ industries out there. Those working for the cause have been making every effort to revamp the industry with a new, entirely less serious and more fun façade than ever before, in an attempt to remove the stigma from both the shops themselves and those using them.
That being said, for most it isn’t quite as simple as flipping a switch and suddenly becoming the most adventurous sexual pioneer on the face of the Earth, which is precisely why online sex shops have taken the revolution and have made it their own.
A New Dynamic
What makes the online sex shop such an important presence in the way forward for the industry as a whole doesn’t in fact have anything to do with the product on offer. Instead, it is a case of delivering a different method by which to browse and purchase large ranges of sex toys, while feeling 100% confident and free from the gaze of prying eyes while doing so.
As opposed to what were at one point glorified vending machines where a person would scuttle in, pick up the gadget they were looking for, pay up and summarily scuttle out of the door again, things really couldn’t be more different. Online sex stores have been set up to offer comprehensive services that go far beyond the products themselves, offering detailed advice, descriptions, guidance for newcomers and the answers to plenty of common questions.
Or in other words, a package that has the potential to remove all of the stigma from both the buying and the selling process, which by rights could open the eyes of millions across the country to what they have been missing out on and were previously afraid to get into.
Of course, it might be a while before this new liberal approach to sex retail hits the mainstream and people are just as happy to use physical sex chops with the same confidence as online stores, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction.
By Kath Roberts
Kath Roberts considers herself to be something of an adult sex shop expert having worked for dozens and is now taking her mission to transform attitudes across Australia to the web.
