ANE Panels Highlight Industry's Pandemic Response, Inclusivity

LOS ANGELES—On the second day of the Adult Novelty Expo, presented by Satisfyer, an event held entirely online due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Kim Airs moderated two panels of industry veterans, covering the nuts-and-bolts details of operating a successful adult products sales business, especially during the pandemic. The panels covered both the retail and distribution ends of the business.  In the morning panel, titled “To Affiliate or Not to Affiliate? That is the Question…,” the panelists agreed that though the sudden retail closures necessitated by the pandemic in March of 2020 were unnerving, they did not have an adverse effect on sex toy sales. In fact, in some cases the result was quite the opposite.  “My business went through the roof,” said panelist Ann Houlihan, CEO of adult industry eCommerce site CNV, the firm behind AdultShopping.com and other affiliate sites that provide build online stores for sexual product retailers. “I still had some distributors that were allowed to stay open. So we were poring through our technology, to the only distributors that could work.” Houlihan said that CNV, in the initial stages of the shutdowns, did not receive as many new signups for retailer ecommerce sites as she had anticipated, largely due to a general belief that the pandemic would be over within a short time. When it became clear that the crisis would drag on indefinitely, store owners began to sign up at a much faster rate. Brittany Greenberg, co-owner of Cupid’s Closet in Los Angeles — once described as “the Apple store of sex shops by the L.A. Weekly — said that as her stores were forced to close their doors in April, “we had our best month online. April was a very successful month.”   Both branches of Cupid’s Closet have since reopened, albeit under L.A. County COVID health restrictions, but Greenberg said that her company’s online business has remained strong — “more successful this year [i.e. 2020] than it was last year,” she said. Though admitting that she was “scared” when the initial shutdown hit, Kathi Pepper of Mississippi retailer Pepper’s Parties, Too also said that he store’s online sales “went through the roof.” Her strategy entailed making and posting videos of their current stock, allowing customers to shop virtually in real time. “Our customers were in our parking lot, shopping online, because they wanted some things that we had in-store, right now. We were like, ‘Stay in your car, we’ll send it outside.’ We were invoicing through Square, so they were paying that way.” Pepper said that she forwarded all of the store’s phone calls to her personal cell phone. “So I became a telephone sex-toy operator. Once I could talk to the customers, I could make sales. And that’s what we did.” But the final panelist of the morning session, Crystal Lee, owner of Temporary Satisfaction in Long Beach, Calif., said that she “didn’t do a lot of online” sales when the pandemic struck. “I did some. But not as much as I expected.” Instead, like Pepper, she had phone calls to the store patched through to her cell phone. That allowed her to personally take orders, and meet customers in front of the physical store, for curbside pickup of their orders. In general, however, the panelists appeared to agree that the pandemic shutdowns led to increases in online sex toy and adult merchandise purchases. But what were customers actually buying during their enforced periods of isolation, when many were unable to go to work, attend school, or even hang out with friends due to the pandemic. That topic was addressed in the second panel of Wednesday’s ANE program to be hosted by Airs, “What to Carry? Novelty Distributors Discuss Buying Decisions.” She asked the afternoon panelists whether they had seen new trends in product sales during the pandemic. According to panelist Bonnie Feingold of the San Fernando, Calif., wholesaler Honey’s Place, lubricants and masturbators showed an increase in sales, along with “things that never sold before.”  “It’s been a little bit of an interesting ride,” Feingold said, adding that she saw an “uptick” in sales of the Hitachi Magic Wand vibrator after it made a cameo appearance on the popular Netflix series Emily in Paris.  Masturbators were also a popular item for panelist Lou Anginone, of National Video Supply, a wholesaler in Santa Clarita, California. The “larger masturbators” were especially popular, such as “20 pound asses, and all those torsos, and all of that,” he said.  Anginone also saw a boost in sales in Bluetooth devices, which allow users to sexually interact with each other from separate locations using the devices, “because obviously people aren’t allowed to interact with each other” thanks to COVID. Jennifer Downey, president of Ambiance — a chain of seven adult stores in Ohio — the Magic Wand was also suddenly popular due to the Netflix series. But her most notable pandemic trend was an increase in sales in products for use “in the tub and shower,” by customers who need some “quiet time.”  “The kids are in the house, so they don’t have that time they had before, alone time for themselves, maybe,” Downey said. “So they’re using some toys in the bath and the shower. They’ve got their glass of wine, and they're taking their toys into the bathroom.” Airs asked the panelists about “one product that I’ve heard has been really in demand — stripper poles.”  She said that, according to what she had heard, “a lot of women, and I guess men, who work on stripper poles for a living suddenly didn’t have a job. So it was a matter of staying in shape. Also, I know a few strippers who are doing virtual strip shows now, because everything’s going virtual.” But Feingold said that though she saw “a period of time when they were just flying off the shelves, I think that’s died down a little bit, just recently.” At the start of the pandemic, she said, “we did bring in a lot more [stripper poles] than normal, and they did sell.” The ongoing pandemic was not the only crisis that rocked the United States in 2020. The summer saw massive, nationwide demonstrations for racial justice sweep hundreds of cities and towns after a series of police killings of African-Americans. The racial reckoning produced a heightened awareness of social justice issues — an awareness that has reached into the adult products industry as well as every other corner of society.  The afternoon panel discussed that topic, and whether the industry has seen a trend toward “inclusivity” as well. Anginone said that while he had always ordered products in all available colors, he has seen “some colors do a lot better than they have in the past.” “I think it’s really important,” Feingld added. “I think we have [addressed inclusivity] for years, before it became trendy. Especially in the colors, you want the inclusivity. You want to have stuff that appeal to all markets, everyone of different body shapes and sizes and colors, and ethnicities.” Feingold said that in her lingerie stock, “we have to have all sizes. It’s inclusivity in a lot of different ways. We’ve talked to some of our lingerie vendors and said, ‘Listen, we don’t want to see the standard — I don’t know how else to say it — white person on the box who’s super thin.’ We want to see all different colors and shapes. It’s really important.” Downey agreed, saying that at her stores, “every type of person comes into the door. You can’t just focus on one. I sometimes look through the catalogs and look for the ethnic models, because I need some pictures for my windows that do look like everybody that walks through the door. I can’t just have that thin, white girl in the picture.” Photo By AVN ANE 2021 Screen Capture