MB sez:Sorry, MB. My experience hunting porn in the States, Australia, Canada and South Africa disagrees with you. Especially in the big cities. In the small towns, the only place you'll find porn is in indie mainstream retailers with separate rooms or sections. It's those guys that I find consistently do a good (enough) job of keeping in new product. That's because the business model for mainstream video is "new releases every week to keep them coming back," so they just do the same thing for adult video.
In the big cities, esp. in the States, I find that the pattern is different. A lot of the porn-only shops have been around for a long time. Generally they weren't opened by people with heads for business, but by people with heads for sex who got into the business because they loved or were obsessed with sex and wanted to spend their days knee deep in their fetish, not knee-deep in sales and rental reports and marketing plans.
I only say this harshly because it shows in the stores. Messy product layout. Dusty videos. Smelly carpets. Even if they've got lotsa new product, they're still charging $49.95 for old VHS product. Gimme a break! I know you paid $7 for that tape, motherfucker, and I know it's been on your shelf for 9 years!
You're right, MB, there are adult-only stores that are shining lights. I walk into places like the Hustler store and I get down on my knees and ask Goddess why all stores can't be like this. But that's the exception.
A recent trend I've noticed is that adult-only retailers are giving up on rentals. Renting is my bread and butter, man. I can't hold onto all the porn I watch or I'd have a basement full. The best place for rentals (selection and price) are the mainstream stores (indie, or corporate like Movie Gallery). These stores know the rental business, so they apply that knowledge to adult product. Don't adult stores realize the amount of money they give up by cutting off the porn addict who rents 3-7 videos a week? Guess I'll stay in and download porn from inbedwithfaith.com. Doopdeedoo...
In my own neighborhood (I currently live in a big city), the options for porn are, fortunately, many. Here's the rundown:
*A giant 3-story adult wonderland that's part of an adult chain. Magnificent! Wonderful! A whole floor dedicated to videos. Problem: No rentals. *A giant 3-story skanked-out version of the above. Dusty sex toys. Pornshop smell. Ancient magazines still selling for full retail price. Great selection! Always bringing in the new shit! Problem: no rentals. *A 2-story tower of porn with more videos in it than is probably allowed by the fire department. Literally...stacked waist-high with VHS all along the top floor. Packed with an uncountable number of DVD's on the bottom floor. Problem: no rentals. *A mainstream indie bookstore with a sliver of vids and mags in the back. Great, cheap mag selection! Great cheap DVD selection for such a small space! Problem: no rentals. *A primarily gay porn shoplet that has a fantastic selection of het new releases too. Rentals? Yes! Problem: rentals are $5 for one day only. They have a "rent 2, get 1 free" policy, but what the fuck if you only have them for one day? DVD's take a long time to watch these days with all that extra footage and shit. *An indie mainstream video store with a back room. Selection is so-so, but rentals are $3 for 3 days. That's more like it. *An indie mainstream video store with a corner (not even a room) stuffed with DVD covers that you bring to the counter. New het and gay releases every week. $3.16 for 7 days. That's what I'm talkin' bout!
And the golden jewel, hidden to most: An unassuming convenience store in which you go behind a white curtain and you see a prize collection of multiple copies of new releases from the hottest directors and best studios. Whoever runs this room is obviously a connoiseur and I wouldn't be surprised if they were an ADT reader. The collection looked so good I got wet...and I stopped getting wet walking into porn rooms years ago. Clean. Labelled shelves. I teared up. This is obviously a person who cares about pornography. And to think...I'd been walking past this store on the way to work every day for months before I even walked in that fateful day to get an ice cream sandwich.
Here's the heartbreak: The bastard wouldn't let me get a rental membership because I have an out-of-state driver's license. I could have slapped him.
*sigh*...back to downloading from Bang Bros. Doopdeedoo...
On Long Island, there are a bunch of good adult video stores to go to. There are two of them, run by people who know and like porn, that get new releases every day, with multiple copies when appropriate. Although these two stores tend to be more "male friendly" (don't sell lingrie & other clothing), they are both nice, spotless (odor free) stores. The shelves are well labeled and the people working in the store are knowledgable. The sale prices of DVD's are pretty reasonable for a B&M store so they are able to stock multiple copies of titles because they will not only rent well, they sell well.
These two stores used to be owned by the same guy (who was also a distributor). When he retired, he kept one of his stores and one of his nephews runs it for him and he sold the other store to another of his nephews who had worked for him for a long time. That's why they are run the same way as one another.
There is another store as well as another chain of stores (about 6, I think) that get a large delivery of new releases once a week and are very "female friendly" stores. They are all located on major streets and usually have lingerie in the front window (which from week to week).
The chain of stores has much more floor space dedicated to clothing, toys, massage oils, sex swings and a "liberator" display than they do for DVD's. Every store in this chain has more women working in it than men. This chain definitely knows what to buy (store by store). One store will stock more black titles. Another store will have more gay titles and a third store will have more Transsexual titles. So, not only are they paying attention to what sells/rents well for the chain, they're doing so on a store by store basis.
The single store that I go to on a semi-regular basis has more floor space for DVD's than for the other stuff. But it's definitely a "female friendly" store. The store is spotless. There's a large selection of lingerie (the owner's fiancee manages that area), toys & novelties. Until recently, this store used to get a large delivery of new releases once a week. However, he has now started dealing with multiple distributors because, with his old methodology, he was missing out on product lines that his single distributor didn't carry. So, now he's getting a medium sized delivery of new releases twice a week. This store tends to be one that I will only rent from and will only rent titles that aren't available at the other stores becasue his prices are more expensive.
There are about 5 or 6 other adult video stores scattered around the island. Some are pretty nice, some are seedy, some have a really good selection, some suck. But with the stores that I listed above, I can get 99% of what I want.
You may be right about mainstream video chains being the better place to go for porn where you live. But, on Long Island, a mainstream video chain is the last place that I would go to if I were looking for porn.
Of course, the best option of all is the online mail order stores, both for rentals and sales. You can do product searches based on fetishes, the performers, the studios, and oftentimes the directors. You can have one browser window open to the online store, and another window opened to movie reviews.
When I rented and bought from brick and mortar places more often, I have used the back room of a Movie Gallery, boutiques that sell lingerie and stripper clothes, adult games, lube, and sex toys as well as having a magazine rack and a corner for movies for rental and sale (Priscilla's), an adult store above a strip club which is relatively small, but is clean and with courteous staff, and the stereotypical porn shop with a lot of old product that was usually from lesser studios to begin with, and viewing arcades and a general seedy feeling.
The selection in the back room of the movie gallery was small, of course, but was fairly diverse, carrying stuff from feature companies but also some Jules Jordan stuff, and having both original releases and comps. I'd usually rent two vids and it would cost me $11. The lingerie boutique with videos was a lot like the Movie Gallery but with a little bigger selection, and charged something like $5.95 to rent two vids for two or three days, and on Mondays and Tuesdays you could rent three vids for that price. To buy a video, though, could cost you something in the $45 range, unless it was on clearance. The store above a strip club has a relatively small selection, although it is geared more towards newer releases. They said I lived too far away to get a rental membership, but I was impressed with them giving me a full cash refund after the time I bought a movie from them, and they gave me another movie with the same name. And the seedy places might be okay for buying magazines, but they just seem too dirty to really become a regular patron. They might have a wide selection of more amateur looking stuff, but to find better stuff for reasonable prices is more difficult.
I know that in big cities on the coasts there are large stores with wide selections and offering rentals even if their prices to buy are a bit steep, but I know of nothing like that around Kansas City. And even in those brick and mortar superstores, I would think that finding the perfect movie that meets your specific likes can be quite difficult, compared to online stores where you can look at all the movies by your favorite porn star that they have, or all the movies with your favorite fetish that they have, or your favorite studios and directors.
Plus, online stores are what really pay the bills for ADT. Maybe along with the porn studios, but I would think more so the retailers.
X rated movies are illegal in all Australian states (not territories). Therefore, only large chains can afford to stock them, because if they get raided by the cops then they'll be able to bail themselves out of it. That's not to say that there aren't small speciality stores, it's just that places like Polyester had all of their X material confiscated. Because of this and other reasons, not only is pornographic material scarce, it's also damn expensive.
Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to find an Australia store that shelves good movies at a reasonable price.
[an old man dies, a little girl lives. fair trade.]
I live in a city that has plenty of porn shops. However, I can't find one with any sort of class, let alone organization (am I in the "Wicked Pictures" section or am I checking out the anal plugs?). We have a few that do advertise on late night tv, you know, it's that pimp-looking guy saying 'come on down to Lickety Split, we have it all'. And, don't get me wrong, these places in our 'red light district', are fun to go to, but I want something else. I would like a place that is more refined, more for the fan that wants to go there and actually stay awhile, be assisted by someone that knows their porn, and their toys, a place that is high-end, no riff-raff. I swear there is a market for it.
Bill: Thank you for responding. Next time I'm in New York, I'll get those retailer names from you.
Gentleman: I'll take you one step further and say that subscriptions to good movie download sites (like BangBros) is the real future. DVD is still better than streaming or downloads, but dang the latter 2 still work to get me off. Then again...a new Buttman DVD on the big-screen is like Christmas.
When I lived in Seattle, I loved going to Toys in Babeland. It was mostly toys, but I wish they had more porn. Great boutique style store with nice ambience.
That's what I am talking about Gia, a little ambience. Anyway, you're so cute, loved you and Dani W in "Silk Stockings" (2004), you licking Reno's cum off her belly...nice!
Lovers Package is like that. I think they're owned by the same corporation. It's a boutique-style place; very female-friendly. Their porn section has a sign over it saying "Area 69," which I think is kinda cute. But the porn section isn't that big. There's more selection at the mainstream vid store I used to work at.
Castle Megastore on the other hand has a giant porn section. But it's so disorganized, I can never find anything. That's why I usually get my porn online.
Interesting topic! What irks me is the way porn stores are organized. My favorite where I live has their DVD's organized according to what's the focus of the DVD: Anal, Interracial, Big Tits, All Sex, Full Feature, Girl/Girl, Orgy/Gangbang, etc.
When I shop for a DVD to rent, I'm usually looking for my favorite stars. The only way to find something is to crank my head to the right and scan each shelf, DVD by DVD in order to find a particular title.
Instead of having the empty DVD cases crammed into rickety shelves with no thought of how they're placed, why can't it by searchable on a simple database? Let's say I'm looking for title starring Sara Jay, I'd type in her name and bam, all titles with her in the cast would appear. Or let's say I'm looking for titles with interracial DP's. I'd type that in and bam, all titles with interracial DP's would be listed.
I know this would be some work initally, but it would make my shopping experience. A lot less time-consuming and a lot more fruitful.
When I think of a good adult video store, I don't think of stores that have a large selection of catalog titles (which is what every title that you were looking for is). I want a place that's getting new releases from all of the major companies on a very regular basis while at the same time, wisely picking & choosing new releases from the not so major companies.
To me, if a store has a lot of catalog titles, that just means that they do a shitty job of selling their new releases. When that happens, there is less money to be spent on new releases and the store goes to shit.
As far as special orders are concerned, they can be a real pain in the ass for brick & mortar stores (especially for catalog titles). They have to order from their distributor, who will not likely have the title in stock and then the distributor will have to order it from the manufacturer. Then they have to hope that the manufacturer still has copies in stock. If you're looking for catalog titles, you're much better off ordering from online retailers who have real time inventory. This way you know that they have it.
The problem with this kind of sortation in a physical store is that there is more than one person in the cast. What if I'm looking for movies featuring Sara Jay but the store has decided that Ass Masterpiece 2 should be filed under Naomi, because she's currently selling better? I'd have to either know the entire cast of the movie or search the entire store to find that disc. The store is better off having that disc in the "Naughty America" section or in the "Anal/Big Asses" section.
[quote} Instead of having the empty DVD cases crammed into rickety shelves with no thought of how they're placed, why can't it by searchable on a simple database? Let's say I'm looking for title starring Sara Jay, I'd type in her name and bam, all titles with her in the cast would appear. Or let's say I'm looking for titles with interracial DP's. I'd type that in and bam, all titles with interracial DP's would be listed.
I know this would be some work initally, but it would make my shopping experience. A lot less time-consuming and a lot more fruitful.
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That's a huge amount of work for a store to do. It's also one of the reasons that iafd.com, the Eurobabe index and ADT exist.
I LOVE the one in the LES ... You can never have too many whirly widgets for that special "someone" (or, in my case, that special "anyone").
That's right about rentals. None of the local video rental shops has any kind of decent porn shelf (it's a residential, family neighborhood, and the last full-on porny porn video shop got replaced by a Dunkin Donuts). I just get stuff from Bush DVD, as they have a terrific rental plan and the service is speedy.
There WAS a great brick and mortar shop, with the adult room behind a curtain, that was up-to-date (back in the VHS era) w/all the good companies, and had some really cute check out girls who I am sure thought I was a total perv. But they closed a few years ago, and now there is a Curves body salon there instead. I love that porn in my neighborhood has been replaced by doughnuts and big-girl fitness clubs.
The big "porn only" outlet I've patroned for the past 18 er so years, has remained seemingly one of the most prolific outlets for cutting edge smut, I've found throughout Porn Valley, and has held that impressive distinction, as far back as I recall. The owner's long established connections with the Valley's key distributors, have kept the cabinets displaying the covers of the movies shown in the preview booths, so current, he must get his copies from every first stack out the distribution warehouse doors. Otherwise, this shop must be the first drop off, for all the local delivery trucks.
They sell a vast number of titles on a regular basis, and most don't see a 2nd week, often purchased right out of the preview cabinet. Nevertheless, when the bulk of their stock hits the rental shelf, theres no online website that compares to the frenzied rush, of seeing so many unexpected titles, from so many different studios, all at once. One unexpected release after the next, often reveals what appears the freshest, juiciest, selection of smut, this side of the Mississippi.
For those I dont get the chance to rent, I'll usually note the titles, and scrutinize further on ADT, before ordering online. Seeing DVDs in their glossy printed retail sleeves imo, delivers an impact, lost when presented across the pixels of a computer screen.
Very viable. When you purchase something by credit or debit card, the currency conversion to the seller's currency is done automatically. Just double check the current exchange rate, to make sure the price isn't more than you are willing to pay, and you're fine.
Yes! The gals pointed out another definite pattern I see: the woman-targeted sex boutiques have small video collections. I think there are 2 reasons for this in the retailers' minds.
1)To not scare off the newbie woman, they keep the power of pornbox visuals to a minimum. I know that some women walking into a sex shop for the first time can be fine with all the vibes and dildos, but a 2meter by 7meter mural of hundreds of gaping asses and cum-covered mouths overwhelms them completely. Especially pre-internet-porn generation women.
Great post, SaraJayFan! I too, adore Sara Jay.I agree that it would be the ultimate in customer service to have this, SJF. But I don't even expect to search for titles by actor at Blockbuster. With porn, I have to do my own work, because there's so many titles. The best porn shops either have their inventory listed by title only, or they have a kiosk for you to search for you own title online. Or...they have "that guy." "That guy" knows everything about porn, and if you ask him for the newest Sara Jay, he knows all the store has and exactly where it is because he spends 10 hours a week inputting and shelving all the new releases.
One local porn shop of mine doesn't even list by title, so you're SOL if you saw something you liked and didn't write down the inventory number.
Best thing for you, SJF, would be to make your own list at home, then present it to your porn clerk (or ask for one title at a time). There are thousands of new porn titles per year, so you have to be your own porn guide.
What you say may be true if you're a tiny indie mainstream video retailer with just a binder of DVD sleeves making up your adult collection. If your collection is tiny, it has to be constantly updated with new releases if it's going to be effective. But if your collection has any kind of size, then catalog is key for 2 reasons:
1)Customers want catalog. 2)Catalog is cheap cheap cheap! That means profit profit profit if you buy right.
A US "rentailer" gets older titles for anywhere from $1 to $5. So, you make profit after 1 rental, basically. This is why no one on earth should ever pay those ridiculous "$49.95" or "$69.95" 1980's era prices for an old porno. Fuck, the most expensive titles on the market (eg new Falcon or the latest 3-disc Buttman extravaganza) only cost a US retailer $36-$46. Even these have a price-drop of 50% after a few months (unless they're the most popular porno of the year). The average new het release only costs $15-$18 to a retailer.
New releases may be where the rental action is, but catalog is where the profit is. There are different types of porn customer. One is the "hound", who's in every week and who wants new releases every week. He's the best customer, but he's not the only customer. The majority of customers are not hounds, and they frankly don't know what came out last week versus what came out 6 months ago. So you can get away with having lots of catalog because all the Anabolic titles from this July look exactly the same as all the Anabolic titles from July 2004. Most customers won't know the difference. They're just looking for the body types and sex acts that appeal to them.
Catalog can be bought smart. You don't have to buy random shit. You can buy the titles you know will keep selling and renting for eternity:
Behind the Green Door Deep Throat Debbie Does Dallas Fashionistas Pam and Tommy Lee anything with Jenna J
Catalog doesn't have to be defined as the junk that won't sell. Catalog should be managed with just as much attention as new releases. Because catalog will make up the most inventory of any video store. True not just for porn shops but mainstream video as well.
With this, Bill, I absolutely agree. It's always faster to order online than from a bricks and mortar retailer. If a retailer can special order you product with any kind of reliability and speed, it's prolly cuz they're ordering it for you from an online retailer themselves. It's not as profitable, but it's a great customer service. There are still people who prefer paying cash for porno because they don't want their porno buys traceable.
With about 11,000 new releases per year, there's simply not enough shelf space to stock a good catalogue of porn. That's why online rental sites are superior. Plus, you can shop in the privacy of your own home.
Hi Pagoda, I'm not doubting the beauties of online porn shopping. But, brick and mortar shops still have their appeal:
*paying cash for porn, so that it's untraceable (wife, Senate Judicial Committee, Entertainment Tonight, etc)
*renting or buying a video when you have the immediate impulse. No waiting 3-7 days.
*Although an online retailer can stock 100,000 titles, once you get above 1000, the brain sees it all as one blob. If a store has even just 500 smartly-bought (and weekly-updated) units in-store at any one time, the average buyer is going to find something to purchase.
*Cheaper (sometimes). I've never seen an online retailer sell a DVD for $2 (without strings attached). This happens in B&M stores, where I've seen massive previously-viewed DVD sales of A-list product.
*A "good catalog" doesn't have to be defined as "having every title ever made." A good catalog is defined as whatever your customers need. That depends on many factors. A store, big or small, can serve their customers well with 500 titles, or they can totally frustrate their customers with 5,000. It's not how many you buy, it's how smart you buy.
Brick and mortar porn stores can be every bit as good as online retailers, provided they make a real committment to retailing smartly. Greed dominated this industry for a LONG time because it could, there was no competition.
Let me tell you a little bit about me...I'm the buyer for a chain of 7 adult stores in Texas called Dreamers. Now I don't know what it was like before I came on board, but i can only imagine. I brought 4 prior years experience managing a store in Dallas, and beyond that...i was a fan of porn since about the same age we all were.
One thing I wanted to bring to Dreamers was a great shopping experience for every customer. Now since i'm just the buyer, i don't have anything to do with the aesthetics of the place, but they are nice stores and lots of couples frequent them. I'd be lying if I didn't say i was envious of places like Hustler Hollywood, the stores look beautiful. But when it comes to what's on the shelves...if I may be so bold here...I beat em all. My prices are better than online retailers. The selection is UNMATCHED. I do extensive research and tracking of titles and companies in our stores to provide more of what the customers like yall want. Every Jenna title? Check. Every Anabolic title? Check. Great niche companies like Girlfriends and LezLove? Check. The best gay companies...you got it. Oh and did I mention that we carry every 4hr comp worth carrying.......all for under $9.88. I'm not talking about shitty Leisure Time crap, I'm talking Devils, Sin City, Vivid, Wicked....under $10 bucks. We carry the full spread of new releases from practically everyone. And what really sets us apart from a lot of places is that we actively stock an amazing selection of movies for under $20 from companies like Zero Tolerance, Third Degree, West Coast Productions, New Sensations, Anabolic, Mayhem, Black Ice, the list goes on. Everything is tracked by computer and stuff is reordered to keep it in stock.
I guess i'll stop bragging about how freaking great our store is. I really wish those of you that have become disenfranchised with your local porn store could experience what i try to offer with Dreamers. And if other buyers read this, please feel free to take notes and raise the quality of your stores. All these guys that post on here live somewhere where someone probably isn't giving them the kind of shopping experience they desire...try a bit harder and these guys will come to your store!
intrigued by your comment regarding special orders. Could you follow up with examples of reliable v. unreliable. and also what is acceptable speed v. unacceptable speed in filling a special order request?
just curious as to how my past service levels stack up to your criteria. it's always good to hear feedback from avid consumers.
On a slightly different topic. I'm making a trip from the UK in September and wondered if anyone could mention some good adult stores and where these are located?
Wow, what great insight. My thing is that I think that there are people who get a kick out of the porn shop scene. They may be like I was at age 18, just moved into my dorm, first place that I went to was the "XXX ABC Bookstore" in downtown Lincoln. So excited, bought my first PocketRocket. Or it may be that couple that is ready to experiment, or it's the girls buying toys to put in the pinata at their sister's bachelorette party, or it may be the seasoned couple, gonna rent a couple flicks, checkin' out the scene. The guy who looks like Marilyn Manson working there, the old guy, I am asking him, "so why do you have Briana Bank's pussy next to the "Zero Tolerance" section?", she doesn't do their flicks". Anyway, I guess there is something to be said for these places...
The Best things In Life Are Chocolate 732 Posts 11/05
Posted - Aug 9 2006 : 9:17AM
It is funny to see some guys get all nervous leaving a porn store hoping no one sees them. I remember one time downtown here in Toronto me and 2 friends walked into one place on Yonge Street last summer, and I had seen an old Amber Lynn title on DVD I wanted (a shicker) and there was a woman working the counter. One of my friends didn't want to walk up to the counter when he seen a woman was working there. And when we left the store he was all nervous like not wanting people to look at him outside walking by thinking "What a pervert" so I said "Hey Mark why didn't you get that Gangbang title you were looking at" and he says "Shut up, don't be so loud" LOL then I said "Oh mybe someone from work will see you oh no!!!" LOL
Acceptable speed means 1-2 weeks. I've waited so long for special orders before that I'd forgotten I'd ordered something when I got the call. Months.
Reliable means the store knows whether they can get it, then knows when they'll get it.
When you special order from a B&M store, they have to call their distributor(s) to see *if* the distributor has it. Sometimes the distributor doesn't have it. Sometimes the distributor doesn't have it but thinks they will "soon". Sometimes the distributor has it but doesn't quite know where it is because it's in a box of undistinguishable Sunshine Video catalog DVD's, on a palette of 10 boxes of indistinguishable Sunshine catalog, in a room full of palettes of indistinguishable Sunshine catalog.
Ordering online, you see whether your title's in immediately, and if it's not, you can go to another website.
I've also had physical stores go through the hassle of special ordering me something, only to receive "Freaks Whoes and Flows 18" when I ordered "Freaks Whoes and Flows 19" and we have to start the whole process over again.
gia jordan wrote:There's a Babeland in Los Angeles, on Melrose near La Brea. I love to go there.
Stylishly designed space -- it literally reminds me of a candy store. Great layout of toys; a good collection of sex books of every kind; not much in the way of hardcore porn. The women who work there are knowledgeable, frank, friendly, and fun to talk to.
In my town I have a few choices as far as getting porn.
1. The local video store—A married couple owns it. The store carries all the mainstream movies from Hollywood, but also has a room full of porn. They always have new releases in there. And I know some people that work there so aside from renting DVDs of "24" or "Penn & Teller's Bullshit," sometimes I can get all my rentals for free.
2. Hustler Store—Very nice, very clean, and hot girls working there. And they had a lot more of the product I was looking for than I thought they would. (I thought there would be tons of Vivid comps, which there were, but they also had plenty of Platinum X, Anabolic/ Diabolic, etc.) At the same time, I don't wanna order scones and a cup of coffee at the in-store cafe after picking out some DVDs.
3. Bookstores—Take the magazine section from Barnes & Noble, and put it in a non-descript suite in a shopping plaza. Then throw up a curtain over the doorway to the back room where the porn is.
4. Priscilla's—Never been inside. I only remember them because when the Hustler store tried to build their store, the councilmembers tried to impose new zoing laws to keep Hustler out of town. The most ludicrous being it couldn't be within 1,000 yards of a farm. Their store is on the outskirts of town, off the interstate. Every argument was made about the harm porn does to women, and how we need to protect our children from such filth and people like Larry Flynt. Yet, Priscilla's opened up a month later and not one councilmember nor citizen made a peep about their store, although they are nestled between a K-Mart and a Starbucks.
5. The locally owned porn store—This is the place I get my porn. Thousands of titles—I think they said they had over 3,000 DVDs in stock, and they order new releases every Tuesday. They carry everything, and if they don't have it, they have signs posted, saying, "If we don't have it, let us know, and we'll order it for you." It's nice inside; well-lit, there's music playing, and a big plasma screen playing porn. And the rental prices are cheap. Five DVDs for $13, and I get to keep them for two days. Some DVDs are $5 a piece, but most of those are John Thompson GGG titles, or are the piss and/or fist titles straight from Germany.
Although once in a blue moon, I'd go down to Leicester Square and frequent one of their sex shops, I usually order from the Internet. I've found Adult Universe to be the best in terms of speed, reliability and customer service.
Sounds cool. Bill, you mentioned these LI stores in another post a little while back. They sound very good, especially the first two. I have often traveled into Manhattan for adult videos but over the years I've become more disappointed with the stores there. Often you've got multiple stores under the same owner so you see the same deficiencies in more than one place. Like if a new title sells out, there seems to be a reluctance to restock it. Organization of older titles is often a problem. There's just that sense that customer satisfaction is not a priority.
The plus is that competition keeps the prices low with many bargains to be found on older titles. (The weird thing is that you still find a few of these stores selling new releases for 8 - 10 bucks more than the store on the same block -- go figure.)
Can you post the name/locations of the LI stores, especially the first two?
I think I know the two LI stores Bill is talking about. I agree with him. I especially like that they get new releases every day, whereas another store that's near me gets new stuff only once a week.
I'd rather drive 20 extra minutes to a store that constantly gets new stuff than drive 5 minutes to a store near me that only gets new stuff about once a week.
That will often depend on how new a title really is and how well it has rented before it has been sold. If a disc sells on the very quickly, usually a store will try to restock it. But if it's been in the store for a little while, and will soon be moving from the new release rack to the general floor space, it won't be restocked, unless someone specifically asks for it to be reordered for purchase. That's because the store has pretty much made as much profit from that disc as they can.
Another reason is that most distributors don't typically carry much if any inventory. They order from the studios what they think they will sell to their customers. If the distributor does his job perfectly, at the end of the day, he will have exactly 0 units in stock and every customer will have received every disc that they want for that day.
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Can you post the name/locations of the LI stores, especially the first two?
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House Of Dreams 160 Adams Ave Hauppauge
Adult Outlet II 58 State St Westbury
If you're looking to buy discs, the second place is better because they will usually order at least two copies of everything . One as a sale only copy, the other as a rental copy (which they will sell if the sale copy has already been sold). Their sale prices for DVD's is typically $29.99. Because they knew that I was buying a lot of DVD's online, they started selling me discs for the same price that I could find them online.
I usually shop at the first store because it is more convenient for me. When I know that I want to buy something that is coming out, I will let them know in advance and they will buy an extra copy. Therefore, they're not giving me a discount on a disc that they could have otherwise sold at full price to another customer and they have no inventory exposure by buying extra copies that don't get sold.
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the unknown pervert Deactivated User
I'd like to stay but I've got a plane to catch. 3243 Posts 5/06
Edited by - the unknown pervert on 8/11/2006 4:30:41 AM
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AlexPanzer Deactivated User
1593 Posts 6/03
Posted - Aug 11 2006 : 7:32AM
I found this other place across the street from 300 DVDs, its called XXX DVDs. They have bunch of stuff and bunch of sicker stuff that 300 DVDs doesnt sell. They also have a guy there that walks around and offers discounts.
