Drive-thru sex toy
shop offers privacy
in Alabama


 
By Jay Reeves, Associated Press

 
HUNTSVILLE, Alabama — Gabrielle Silva takes down
a customer's order from the drive-thru window,
stuffs a bag full of products and passes it outside to
the couple waiting in a car.

"Thanks, and I put some free condoms in there, too!"
Silva chirps.

In this technology-savvy north Alabama city,
visitors won't just find burgers and prescriptions at
the drive-thru window.

A "romance" store called Pleasures offers a rare
convenience not only for these parts but nationally:
a drive-through with adult novelties for sale.
Business is brisk so far, with cars sometimes lining
up three deep for vibrators, lubricants, lingerie and
other risque items.

"It's been doing well, and really well on nights when
it's cold or rainy," said employee Toni Kennedy.
"Discretion and the ease of it are big, and
 
convenience. We're Americans. We like everything
convenient."

Even sex toys, as much as elected officials in
Alabama have tried to prevent them from being sold
in the conservative, Bible Belt state.

Pleasures is owned by Florida businesswoman
Sherri Williams, who fought the state for almost a
decade over what's considered by free-speech
advocates to be one of the country's toughest anti-
obscenity laws. Among other things, the 1998 law
banned the sale of products intended for sexual
stimulation.

With two sex-toy stores in Alabama's Tennessee
Valley, Williams sued to overturn the law with the
help of the American Civil Liberties Union. She won
initially when a federal judge ruled in 1999 there
was no rational basis for the law. But the state
appealed and Williams lost, allowing the law to
remain on the books even though it wasn't enforced
during the litigation.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case in
2007, ending Williams' challenge. Distribution of
sex toys is a misdemeanor on the first offense with a
maximum penalty of a $10,000 fine and one year in
jail, although the law doesn't ban possession.

But the law has a loophole that allows for the sale of
sex toys that are needed for unspecified "medical,
scientific, educational, legislative, judicial, or law
enforcement" purposes, and Williams jumped
through it. Customers buying toys — items that can
be used for sexual stimulation — fill out an
anonymous form with 10 questions including
Advertisement
   
    By Dave Martin, AP
Brandi McNaron of Gadsden, Ala., shows her driver's license to Pleasures romance shop employee Gabrielle Silva who handles drive-thru sales in Huntsville, Ala.
 
whether they or a partner have difficulty with sexual
fulfillment.

In November, she held the grand opening for an
expanded Pleasures store in an old bank building at
a busy intersection. Williams first opened in the
Tennessee Valley in 1993; this is her second
expansion, and she has a smaller store in nearby
Decatur.

It seemed like a waste not to use the old drive-thru
window once run by bank tellers, so Silva and her
co-workers now sell all sorts of adult products from
the side of the building. Just like at a fast-food
restaurant, there's a brightly lit sign outside with
products and prices — herbal "enhancement pills"
are $8 per dose. Williams believes her drive-thru is
the first in the country to offer adult novelties for
sale.

The woman in one car wanted a rubber toy that
spins and pulses. A couple in another vehicle
stopped by for free condoms, which are advertised
on a sign visible from University Drive, a main drag
through town.

A few yards away from Pleasures, on the other side
of a curb, workers at a neighboring McDonald's
restaurant dish out fries and burgers.

Williams runs what she calls an "upscale" adult
store, and using an old bank building with a brick
exterior and manicured shrubs outside doesn't hurt
the image.

"It actually has two vaults," Williams said. "It has a
full-blown vault upstairs, and the basement is
poured concrete with a vault door. This was a
7,200-square-foot bank."

Huntsville is a high-tech government and military
town, and Pleasures workers say their customers
include soldiers and couples based at the Army's
Redstone Arsenal and workers from NASA's Marshall
Space Flight Center.

On a busy Thursday night, the clientele looks like
the crowd at the mall down the street — young and
old, singles and couples.

Inside, the shop has bright lights and royal-purple
walls. The mood is mostly light, with friends
giggling as they browse shelves full of rubber and
plastic playthings.

But there's a more serious side to the business, too.
 
"People come in and say, 'I need something to save
my marriage.' I've had that a million times," said
Samantha Todd, who has worked at Pleasure for 2
1/2 years. "I've had people come in and cry. It can
be very serious."

The store includes an "intimacy clinic" that opens
next month and will offer sexual counseling to c
ouples and groups, but there are no how-to
classes; all the assistance is verbal. It also sells
instructional videos, books and a few magazines.

Employees check the ID of everyone who enters the
store — customers must be at least 18.

Police say they've had no complaints over Pleasures
and don't pay it more attention than other stores.

"Right now there's not really anything for us to do
with it," said Mark Roberts, a spokesman with the
Huntsville Police Department.

The head of a New York-based nonprofit group that
campaigns for tougher anti-obscenity statutes
wishes government officials would work harder to
stamp out businesses like Pleasures, and sex toys.

"I liken it to a cancer, a slow-moving cancer ... and
law enforcement is ignoring it," said Robert W.
Peters Jr., president of Morality in Media Inc. "It's
been a battle going back to the 1960s."

Williams said her store and drive-thru serve a need
for couples and individuals who need a little extra
spice or excitement in their sex lives.

"Also," she said, "the police have already said they
Advertisement
 
have a million other things to do."

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights
reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 
Advertisement
Quantcast