Many chain stores to create shelf space for adult toys
Vibrators are more accepted, available
Safeway, Walmart among stores that sell vibrators. “People are more comfortable than ever” about having one, Trojan marketer says.
Store shelves at supermarkets, pharmacies and supercenters across the USA are making room for sex toys once reserved for adults-only eyes.
CVS, Walgreens, Kroger, Safeway, Target and Wal mart are among major national chains that now include vibrators on store shelves. These devices (also known as personal massagers or vibes) have been around a long time, but their availability on the mass market is relatively new. Condom makers Trojan and Durex are among brands that have expanded product lines to include vibrators, starting with small vibrating rings. Durex launched its first handheld vibrator in 2008, Trojan in 2010.
“We’re talking about the Walgreens and CVSES of the world — not the dotcoms and sex shops and things of that nature,” says Durex senior brand manager Alan Cheung of the U.S. headquarters in Parsippany, N.J. So why isn’t anyone blushing? With the erotic Fifty Shades trilogy still topping best-selling book lists and a movie ( Hysteria) about the invention of the vibrator opening across the USA this week, the summer is starting out steamy. Sexperts cite a combination of factors, including marketing that targets average women. They also trace societal changes to 1998, when a Sex and the City episode broached the subject of vibrators. And in the early 2000s, Tupperware parties gave way to parties selling vibrators and sex toys.
“People are more comfortable than ever talking about vibrators and the idea of having one,” says Bruce Weiss, vice president of marketing for Trojan, based in Princeton, N.J.
Even the fact that vibrators are the focus of a feature film illustrates how times have changed. Hysteria is a period comedy set in 1880s London.
“Couples are less willing to tolerate lousy sex,” says sex therapist and clinical psychologist David Schnarch of Evergreen, Colo. “People have much higher expectations.”
Websites that sell an array of paraphernalia designed to enhance the sexual experience include Liberator Bedroom Adventure Gear, which looks rather like a sexual Bed, Bath and Beyond. The Fifty Shades books prominently feature a sex playroom with whips, handcuffs and other sex toys, and now websites including Pure Romance and Babeland sell Fifty Shades- inspired wares.
Vibrator sales are increasing, show exclusive data provided to USA TODAY by Trojan. The research is by Nielsen, which tracks UPCcoded items scanned at food, drug and mass retailers, including vibrator rings and handheld devices. First-quarter numbers for 2012 count 318,840 vibrators (all brands) sold at retail outlets, excluding Walmart. That’s $4.4 million worth of vibrators sold, up about 14% over the first quarter last year, Nielsen says. Vibrator makers say they are responding to customer demand. About 53% of women and 45% of men have ever used a vibrator, suggests a 2008 online survey of 2,056 women and 1,047 men, ages 18-60, by the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at Indiana University in Bloomington. Funded by Trojan, it has resulted in a handful of academic papers in peerreviewed journals, including two 2010 papers in the Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, on vibrator use in relationships.
“Introducing a vibrator into a sexual relationship is now much more common in the U.S. and much less fraught with protecting a man’s precious ego than it might have been 15 or 20 years ago,” Schnarch says.