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motaman
old hand
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Sex toys go mainstream (Walmart)
#4702583 - 09/23/05 09:33 PM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/347727p-296677c.html
Sex toys go mainstream
BY JORDAN LITE DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
New products include massager, low-odor latex condoms, edible body paint, and feather tickler.
Belinda Ealey and her friend Marilyn Elliott were leaning on the glass counter of a West Village sex shop, giggling over the rows of toys. Visible through clear plastic-wrapped boxes, the wares left little to the imagination.
Similar offerings in quieter packaging can increasingly be found on Main Street, as the major condom manufacturers that supply chain retailers expand their arsenals to capitalize on the female sexuality made mainstream by TV's "Sex and the City" and national discussions about the effects of menopause on the American bedroom.
This month, condom giant Trojan is shipping out subtle black boxes containing so-called "intimacy care" products, including a warming gel and vibrating ring, destined for the feminine-hygiene sections of major pharmacies. Its selection, branded Elexa and designed from "a woman's perspective," follows roll-outs in the last year by Ansell and Durex, which unveiled "personal massagers," feather ticklers and edible body paints, among other gimmicks.
The products are being sold everywhere from Wal-Mart and KMart to CVS, Walgreen's and other mainstream retailers such as Amazon.com.
Ealey, from Queens, looked on gleefully last week as the Elexa ring, to be worn by a man with or without a condom, buzzed in Elliott's hand. "It's on every corner!" Ealey, 28, said incredulously. "I think it's great."
"I wish I had one now," Elliott, 29, of Brooklyn added longingly. "I'd test it out."
In their ads and pastel packaging that in some cases look as innocent as that containing a curling iron, the companies are looking to bring women of all ages into their typically young, male customer base, said Stephen Mare, brand manager for Durex's Play line. Men out-buy condoms over women two to one in the $234 million U.S. market, noted Trojan Vice President Jim Daniels.
"Has it been a long time coming? I suppose you could say that," Mare said.
"What we've seen in not only the family-planning category but in the market in general [is] a desire for self-improvement and for performance enhancement for people in a lot of areas," he said. "That extends also into their personal lives."
Mare said it was too soon to report sales figures for the Play brand, but noted that within two days of a July Canadian Broadcast Service report about its massagers, which sell for as high as $65, virtually all of that country's London Drugs chain stores had sold out. (The concept seems most popular among 45-55-year-old women, 60% of whom told the company they owned a vibrator in a recent survey.) Officials from Trojan and Ansell declined to say how much revenue they anticipated their new lines would bring in.
But already, Juan Baerga, general manager of the West Village's Pink Pussycat, is impressed - and hoping mainstream sales of sex toys bring more customers into his shop. He wondered why Trojan's $9.99 vibrating ring and condom package will hit Duane Reade before his store.
"They haven't even approached me!" Baerga said. "Something like that would sell really well."
But others questioned how new these toys really were to the corner store.
"They've been carrying them forever. It's just that they just don't label them as such," chuckled Ana Moran, a saleswoman at the Lower East Side sex shop Toys in Babeland.
Still, women say their confidence inside specialty shops doesn't always extend to the aisles of Rite-Aid. Now, the mere presence of racier items inside innocuous boxes at chain stores gives them tacit encouragement.
"I don't like buying condoms. I usually rely on the guy," said Christine Seddon, 27, of Manhattan, who was shopping for bachelorette-party favors at the Pink Pussycat last week. "I would be more apt to buy this. It's more discreet."
Trojan's appeal to women to pick up what are still male condoms may not substantially increase the number of couples who use them, public health experts said.
"It seems extreme to say that you are empowering women when they may still have to convince men to put it on," said Mitchell Warren, former vice president of the Female Health Company.
-------------------- http://heffter.org
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leery11
I Tell You What!
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Re: Sex toys go mainstream [Re: motaman]
#4702608 - 09/23/05 09:49 PM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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where the fuck are all the sex toys for men? We (usually) get circumcised against our will here in the US, we could at least have a better sex toy industry to make up for it.
i guess the male anatomy is hard to make a good toy for? I don't know...... it just sucks that a woman can plug something in and have orgasms all night without doing a lot of work, but a man can't.
correct me if i'm wrong.
-------------------- I am the MacDaddy of Heimlich County, I play it Straight Up Yo! ....I embrace my desire to feel the rhythm, to feel connected enough to step aside and weep like a widow, to feel inspired, to fathom the power, to witness the beauty, to bathe in the fountain, to swing on the spiral of our divinity and still be a human...... Om Namah Shivaya, I tell you What!
Edited by leery11 (09/23/05 09:50 PM)
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CaptainH13
Scum
Registered: 10/29/04
Posts: 10,287
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Re: Sex toys go mainstream [Re: leery11]
#4702618 - 09/23/05 09:52 PM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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you know alot of guys are gonna get pissed about this...with them having to compete with toys chicks can get at wallmart,hahaha...
sucks for those guys....
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Infrared
sleeping
Registered: 07/15/02
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Loc: Chicago, USA
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Re: Sex toys go mainstream [Re: CaptainH13]
#4702631 - 09/23/05 09:55 PM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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this girl i was with a couple weeks ago had some flavored lubricant.. i was like whatever
-------------------- When chemistry is outlawed.. Only outlaws have chemistry
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motaman
old hand
Registered: 12/18/02
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Sex toys coming soon to drugstore near you [Re: CaptainH13]
#4702641 - 09/23/05 09:57 PM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050917.wsex0917/BNStory/National/
Sex toys coming soon to drugstore near you
By KAREN VON HAHN AND OMAR EL AKKAD
Saturday, September 17, 2005 Posted at 2:02 AM EDT
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
Better believe it. Shoppers Drug Mart, the country's largest drugstore chain, Wal-Mart Canada and a slew of other stores have entered into agreements to stock their shelves, coast to coast, with a new line of sex toys, discreetly called "sexual well-being products."
The move is especially surprising for Wal-Mart, which doesn't sell video games rated "adult-only" and recently removed a magazine from one of its stores after a customer complained that it was too sexual.
But Wal-Mart Canada spokesman Kevin Groh said the product line is a good fit, as the company caters to the Canadian mainstream and, as such, carries products that reflect mainstream tastes.
He added, however, that some of Wal-Mart's customers will undoubtedly disapprove. "It would be naive of us to think every product we stock would meet the approval of every single customer in the store."
Sex toys and Wal-Mart?
According to some sex educators, it underscores a growing acceptance for open discourse about sex in Canada.
"People have a disposition to explore sexuality," said Cory Silverburg, a sex educator and co-owner of Come As You Are, a Toronto sex toy, book and video store. "I'm thrilled to be living in a country where we can do that."
The products being carried by the stores are a line developed by Trojan called Elexa. It includes "freshening cloths," "intimacy gel" and a vibrating ring.
Sex columnist Josey Vogels, who appeared at Trojan's Elexa release party last week, described the ring as a "beginner's intro to sex toys," recommended for women who are interested in perking things up in the bedroom but are intimidated at the thought of going into a "scary sex shop."
At Shoppers, the Elexa line will be found in the feminine-care aisle.
Elexa's makers are keen to portray the lineup as a concept rather than a number of distinct products.
Veronique Hamel, director of marketing at Trojan parent company Church and Dwight, shunned the term "sex toy," preferring "sexual well-being product."
She said the entire Elexa line was designed with sexual protection as the focus ? every vibrating ring is prepackaged with a condom. Elexa products are also displayed together at stores, and the packaging design is similar across the product line.
Ms. Hamel said Trojan came up with the idea to market the ring after interviewing women about their sexual habits. Trojan found that women were largely embarrassed to shop for condoms and sex toys, she said. More alarmingly, the company also found that half of women 20 to 24 who have sex do so without protection.
Ms. Hamel said the company tried to solve both problems by selling the ring, along with a condom, in mainstream stores.
"[The packaging] is very feminine," she said. "It's made for women, by women."
In July, Durex launched a line of "personal massagers" under the name Play. (They're currently being sold at London Drugs stores across British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.) Clearly designed to appeal to women, Play's massagers are the soft-core version of a sexual aid. All organic swoops and lines, rather than veins and studs, they come in purple, clear and pearlescent white, instead of realistic flesh tones, and are sweetly named Ellipse, Luna and Little Gem, rather than the Hot Dogger.
Mr. Silverburg said traditionally conservative retailers are going to have be careful how they market sex toys, especially in rural areas.
"If they market this too aggressively, they may alienate some customers," he said. "They probably are, and probably should, play it safe."
Ms. Hamel said the retailers who agreed to stock the Elexa products had no reservations.
"We were very happy that they didn't see any negative connection to the ring," she said.
Besides Wal-Mart and Shoppers, Elexa will also be sold at Loblaws, Jean Coutu, Zellers and the Katz Group, which owns Pharma Plus, Pharmx Rexall, IDA, Guardian and Herbies.
According to Durex's 2004 Global Sex Survey, 39 per cent of Canadians own a vibrator. The older we get, the more likely we are to have one (ownership increases with age and jumps to 61 per cent among respondents aged 44 to 55).
Mr. Silverburg said the introduction of sex toys into mainstream stores will likely help clean up an industry with a somewhat shady reputation.
Companies such as Trojan ? which are conscious of the legal and public-relations consequences of making an unsafe sex product ? will likely put the pressure on major sex-toy manufacturers that sometimes shrug off responsibility for their products by labelling them "for novelty use only."
Ms. Hamel said Elexa sales so far ? the product has been on store shelves for only one week ? have exceeded expectations. However, she wouldn't say whether the company plans to build on that success by introducing more sex toys to the mainstream market.
Joanne Harvie, the president of Passion Parties Canada, a direct-sales company that throws the sex-toy equivalent of Tupperware parties for groups of women in their own homes, said the No..1 selling item is their bullet, or vibrating egg.
"It's really a first vibrator, because it's so non-threatening," Ms. Harvie said.
Mr. Silverburg, who said the new vibrating ring should prove very popular, doesn't think the public would react well to the introduction of more overt sex toys in their drugstores.
"Canadians are progressive, but we have our limits," Mr. Silverburg said.
"I don't know if people will want to see dildos on the shelves beside the shampoo."
-------------------- http://heffter.org
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leery11
I Tell You What!
Registered: 06/24/05
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Re: Sex toys coming soon to drugstore near you [Re: motaman]
#4702668 - 09/23/05 10:05 PM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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see i think wal-marts should have sex toys all across the world, because then you don't have to feel so guilty about going to a porn shop.
but then again you'd have to lurk in the shadows waiting for no one to be around and stealthily put it in your cart and then run to the self-checkout (haha!) aisle.
buying KY is embarrasing enough for me. or condoms.
I don't have any use for condoms though
-------------------- I am the MacDaddy of Heimlich County, I play it Straight Up Yo! ....I embrace my desire to feel the rhythm, to feel connected enough to step aside and weep like a widow, to feel inspired, to fathom the power, to witness the beauty, to bathe in the fountain, to swing on the spiral of our divinity and still be a human...... Om Namah Shivaya, I tell you What!
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Tranceharper
Psychokitty
Registered: 09/17/05
Posts: 309
Loc: Pacific Northwest USA
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Re: Sex toys coming soon to drugstore near you [Re: motaman]
#4702671 - 09/23/05 10:05 PM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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So this winter we can expect to see old women in sweaters protesting infront of local pharmacey ? -Tranceharper
-------------------- Meow ===^{o_o}^===
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Drink_Punk_Soda
Now with ExtraVaganza!?
Registered: 06/14/02
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Re: Sex toys coming soon to drugstore near you [Re: Tranceharper]
#4703155 - 09/23/05 11:55 PM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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I knew as soon as I saw this on TV there would be a thread about it.
Personally I think it's great- now the consume whores who shop at The Walmart regularly can go fuck themselves.
-------------------- Kumbayah my lord, Kumbayah...
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Tranceharper
Psychokitty
Registered: 09/17/05
Posts: 309
Loc: Pacific Northwest USA
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Re: Sex toys coming soon to drugstore near you [Re: Drink_Punk_Soda]
#4703186 - 09/23/05 11:59 PM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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I bet at some point , the changing rooms in walmarts across america , will be rocking and swaying to the beat of their customers ... They need to keep thoes things under lock and key , the toys ... And it will likely happen, that a women does it quietly or such, or in bathroom, then puts the damn thing back in box , If you have ever been inside a walmart, you would agree, this IS going to happen ... Ladies, tamper evident packaging is your friend at walmart ... -tranceharper
-------------------- Meow ===^{o_o}^===
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RandalFlagg
Stranger
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Posts: 15,608
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Re: Sex toys coming soon to drugstore near you [Re: motaman]
#4703245 - 09/24/05 12:08 AM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
motaman said: called "sexual well-being products."
And the euphemism of the year award goes to...
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Tranceharper
Psychokitty
Registered: 09/17/05
Posts: 309
Loc: Pacific Northwest USA
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Re: Sex toys coming soon to drugstore near you [Re: RandalFlagg]
#4703570 - 09/24/05 01:16 AM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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This will bring liberation to soccermoms the nation over ! Rejoice , thou hath been given the keys to freedom, only one obstacle remains ... Finding time between droping your bratkids off at school, and causing many near death experiences to unsuspecting motorvehical drivers ... Freedom is great, but one must overcome some terrible challeneges ... And along the road to freedom, there will always be some carnage ...
Wait a minute ...
Oh god no
I drive a geometro
The Soccermoms drive SUVs
... I need to avoid any SUV that has anything hinting that it may be a transport of 'precious cargo ' or a instrument of vehicular carnage ... or get myself a hummer larger then their SUV ... That drinks more gasoline in a hour , then a large gathering of hells angels does beer ... -Tranceharper
-------------------- Meow ===^{o_o}^===
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DirtMcgirt
in a pinch
Registered: 10/20/04
Posts: 2,213
Loc: city of angels
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Re: Sex toys coming soon to drugstore near you [Re: Tranceharper]
#4703598 - 09/24/05 01:22 AM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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news to you...
soccermoms have been buying dildos since before you were born. They are available in every town across america
They DID grow up in the 70s after all.
about time Walmart reconized the market for sex toys...put the dirty, overpriced sex shops out of business (I used to work for one in North Hollywood)
-------------------- "And we, inhabitants of the great coral of the Cosmos, believe the atom (which still we cannot see) to be full matter, whereas, it too, like everything else, is but an embroidery of voids in the Void, and we give the name of being, dense and even eternal, to that dance of inconsistencies, that infinite extension that is identified with absolute Nothingness and that spins from its own non-being the illusion of everything."
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Drink_Punk_Soda
Now with ExtraVaganza!?
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Re: Sex toys coming soon to drugstore near you [Re: DirtMcgirt]
#4703659 - 09/24/05 01:32 AM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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The fact that soccermoms buy dildos is irrelevant. The irony here is that Wal*Mart, the company that censors music and refuses to stock "questionable content" movies and books, would be willing to sell sex toys.
-------------------- Kumbayah my lord, Kumbayah...
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FungusMan
I81U812
Registered: 08/06/05
Posts: 3,112
Loc: Everywhere
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Re: Sex toys coming soon to drugstore near you [Re: Drink_Punk_Soda]
#4703684 - 09/24/05 01:38 AM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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Ya, no shit. They cant say "shit", but will give a fuck? lol
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Tranceharper
Psychokitty
Registered: 09/17/05
Posts: 309
Loc: Pacific Northwest USA
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Re: Sex toys coming soon to drugstore near you [Re: Drink_Punk_Soda]
#4703689 - 09/24/05 01:38 AM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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Yes I know soccermoms have been buying dildos for sometime I was simply being a ass about it and
as Drink Punk Soda mentioned, that is the irony Walmart has good prices on alot of things , so its not a bad place to shop, but that is true . And what we call ' soccer moms ' atleast in my area, probobly elsewhere, view the place as mecca . How they are going to react when they have their kids around them when shoping, and are asked ' Mom what is this for ? ' is going to be absolutely hilarious -Tranceharper
-------------------- Meow ===^{o_o}^===
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DirtMcgirt
in a pinch
Registered: 10/20/04
Posts: 2,213
Loc: city of angels
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Re: Sex toys coming soon to drugstore near you [Re: Tranceharper]
#4703708 - 09/24/05 01:46 AM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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It is a bad place to shop, too much Spanish. I can't ask anybody for help. Those prices are due tax breaks on the federal and local level. You already paid for them. And now they sell you shit.
Not to mention they sell weapons. I'm all about gun ownership but, your right; censorship of naughty words makes no sense when you sell the oscillating, vibrating rabbit. In the end, I hear the irony.
-------------------- "And we, inhabitants of the great coral of the Cosmos, believe the atom (which still we cannot see) to be full matter, whereas, it too, like everything else, is but an embroidery of voids in the Void, and we give the name of being, dense and even eternal, to that dance of inconsistencies, that infinite extension that is identified with absolute Nothingness and that spins from its own non-being the illusion of everything."
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lechuck
hash smoker
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Re: Sex toys coming soon to drugstore near you [Re: DirtMcgirt]
#4704118 - 09/24/05 04:43 AM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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I?m spanish, any problem? mother fucking racist
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leery11
I Tell You What!
Registered: 06/24/05
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Re: Sex toys coming soon to drugstore near you [Re: lechuck]
#4704759 - 09/24/05 11:25 AM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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damn i didn't even think about that... they sell guns but they won't sell profanity?
I mean sure you could kill elderly people by swearing at them loudly..... but .....
-------------------- I am the MacDaddy of Heimlich County, I play it Straight Up Yo! ....I embrace my desire to feel the rhythm, to feel connected enough to step aside and weep like a widow, to feel inspired, to fathom the power, to witness the beauty, to bathe in the fountain, to swing on the spiral of our divinity and still be a human...... Om Namah Shivaya, I tell you What!
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mantis
Registered: 01/26/03
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Re: Sex toys coming soon to drugstore near you [Re: lechuck]
#4704774 - 09/24/05 11:27 AM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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Thinking a clerk in America should speak English is racist?
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Worldbridger
Nemo Lotus
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Re: Sex toys coming soon to drugstore near you [Re: leery11]
#4705986 - 09/24/05 03:40 PM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
leery11 said: see i think wal-marts should have sex toys all across the world, because then you don't have to feel so guilty about going to a porn shop.
but then again you'd have to lurk in the shadows waiting for no one to be around and stealthily put it in your cart and then run to the self-checkout (haha!) aisle.
buying KY is embarrasing enough for me. or condoms.
I don't have any use for condoms though
You mean you wouldn't have to be embaressed about going into wal mart : D
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Worldbridger
Nemo Lotus
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Re: Sex toys coming soon to drugstore near you [Re: mantis]
#4705992 - 09/24/05 03:40 PM (18 years, 6 months ago) |
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Oh my god i just realised i still have 100 bucks that i got to spend at walmart for my birthday. I can get a girl a present now`1
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