The Sullivan Sex-Shops.

[blueballsdc]

Many years ago I had taken a trip to England with a group. I was over 18 at the time. I had been to a few sex shops here in the US and I was eager to check out the ones in England. I had figured that the shops over there must be worlds better than ours. Boy was I disappointed. I purchased nothing despite the efforts of the shop worker.

[lothian]

I have absolutely no idea how the Private shop in Edinburgh survives .It has less 'adult' stock than any number of news agents around it . the manager is as welcoming as a headache and the sign on the door which basically screams " PEVERTS ONLY" guarantees that only the truely desperate ( and me) will cross the threshold.

[pharoahegypt]

Originally Posted by lothian

I have absolutely no idea how the Private shop in Edinburgh survives .It has less 'adult' stock than any number of news agents around it . the manager is as welcoming as a headache and the sign on the door which basically screams " PEVERTS ONLY" guarantees that only the truely desperate ( and me) will cross the threshold.

As i recall, the official wording has to go something like.........

"persons passing this point may find articles that they find offensive. please do not pass this point if you are easily offended, or under the age of eighteen"

think the one we had was longer, but it was something like the above. used to amuse the signwriters when you read it out to them to have made up for you. lol.

[Avallanius]

I grew up in Lancashire too & went into Manchester throughout the 1980's where there were numerous tiny "second hand" bookshops on Tibb Street also in & around the Corn Exchange area that dealt in Dirty books, Blue Movies & moreover did a roaring trade in "banned" Video nasties. Of course all were under the counter VHS copies with photocopied sleeves, but they were the real deal. The guys who ran the shops were obviously "very dodgy" types, but were friendly & helpful. The prices were never too steep & they would also ask what titles you wanted & try to find them for you - that's service!
Are Private shops still open? never went in one & never will! They just reflect everything about the awful prevailing 20th Century British attitude to sex, dirty, cheap & rotten with guilt to the core.

Originally Posted by Pinkpapercut

I was always amazed that the Sullivan shops managed to survive in big cities. I grew up around Manchester and as a teenager was a big science fiction reader. Around the age of 15 I used to visit a bookshop off Tib Street run by a moderately notorious author later persecuted by God's Cop James Anderton. The shop was scruffy but in a cluttered antique shop sort of way, not the Sullivan "couldn't give a damn" style. This shop, Orbit, sold Science Fiction, hippy "Underground" publications, and soft- and hard-core magazines and reels. When I started buying hardcore, that's where I began.

I've only been in any of Sullivan's shops out of curiosity, a handful of times in 35 years, and I've never bought anything from one. I do recognise the picture painted of them by posters in this thread, the overwhelming atmosphere of con and can't-be-arsed, and I was always amazed they got any repeat customers.

I can understand how in a small town they might be the only shop selling porn, but in a place the size of Manchester - not the biggest city in Britain - there were always at least a couple of independent shops selling genuine hardcore and generally treating their customers decently, at least until the Web did away with their customer base, so for committed porn-hounds at least, there was never any need to go near Sullivan's pit.

If Sullivan's chain was profitable in itself, I can only imagine that it was on the strength of his shops in the Sticks, where they were the only game in town.

[vo1v0d]

The Sex Shops had to be disgusting and dingy so you would feel artificial seediness and not suspect the junk on the shelves was dearer and softer than what was available on the top shelf of the newsagent.

[Historian]

Originally Posted by vo1v0d

The Sex Shops had to be disgusting and dingy so you would feel artificial seediness and not suspect the junk on the shelves was dearer and softer than what was available on the top shelf of the newsagent.

From my memory (and I think I've only crossed the threshold of a Sullivan shop once, maybe twice in my life), the 'artificial' seediness looked pretty much like 100% genuine, actual seediness!

Fortunately, I quickly discovered there were better independent alternatives

[pharoahegypt]

Originally Posted by Historian

From my memory (and I think I've only crossed the threshold of a Sullivan shop once, maybe twice in my life), the 'artificial' seediness looked pretty much like 100% genuine, actual seediness!

Fortunately, I quickly discovered there were better independent alternatives

one of which afforded me a very nice wage for some four years....lol.
(and we sold the 'proper' stuff)

[vo1v0d]

I remember seeing a protest when he opened a sex shop in Lewisham in the late 70's. About three dozen with placards saying things like KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF MY BODY.
It pains me to say it but the protesters were some of the ugliest women I have seen in my entire life, and judging by the message on the placard had bad eyesight and no mirrors.

[pharoahegypt]

Originally Posted by Historian

From my memory (and I think I've only crossed the threshold of a Sullivan shop once, maybe twice in my life), the 'artificial' seediness looked pretty much like 100% genuine, actual seediness!

Fortunately, I quickly discovered there were better independent alternatives

one of the first thing i did on taking over a shop where the walls were covered in taped on glamour pix, was to pull them all down to reveal untouched white walls & pillars behind, which not only made the shop look better, but also strangely brighter/lighter. there's nothing more offputting to potential lady punters than to have to not stare at all the bare tits and fannys on the walls of such tackier shops; so a frequent lady customer once told me.

[Pinkpapercut]

Hi Pharaoh

Having read your posts in this thread and other places on the forum over the years I'm interested in your insight and experiences of independent porn shops and sellers compared to the the lousy Sullivan joints. Beyond my previous post in this thread over a decade ago I have little to say about the Sullivan joints. The shops were poor, the mags were visibly poor, I didn't even bother looking at the vids and the staff were aggressive con artists.

As I've mentioned I found independent porn shops and even some newsagents far better sources of porn, sometimes magazines only, sometimes magazines and videos.

One thing that was notable about nearly every one of the independents was that they had thriving businesses running parallel, sometimes in the same shop. For instances over the years up here in Manchester and Bolton the first reliable outlet I used was a science fiction and underground magazine bookshop run by this guy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Britton who later - and probably earlier - had other shops in Manchester selling similar lines plus non-porn publications from his own publishing company Savoy Books. I know one of his shops was still running in the early 1990s selling everything from porn to bootleg vinyl.

Another porn shop was run by a genuine second-hand bookshop situated a couple of streets away, the same staff worked in both, a grandmotherly woman and her two sons - I expect the woman is long dead and the porn shop is gone but the second hand bookshop still exists and is run by one of the sons. Another shop near the town centre of Manchester was run by a young enthusiast for American comics and his pretty young female goth assistant, whose shop had a very conspicuous corner of his successful comics emporium selling soft- and hardcore magazines and videos at reasonable prices.

There were many others over the decades. The most conspicuous one was a conventional newsagent's large newsstand-cum-kiosk on Bradshawgate Bolton town centre, open to the street on one side so the hardcore was visible to passers-by; this shop sold the usual newsagent's lines - newspapers, general interest magazines, sweets, soft drinks, cigarettes - but had an extensive corner next to the till sellng soft- and hard-core porn mags. I can't remember exactly what hardcore mags they stocked but I remember buying several issues of John Stagliano's 'BUTTMAN' magazine and an excellent Alisha Klass magazine by Seymour Butts from there.

There were various euro-mags too. This last outlet was around the turn of the millennium, after the liberalisation of the porn laws in 1992, the others I've mentioned were pre-92.

One or two independent shops were run by guys who were plainly borderline gangsters but who weren't con artists- they treated the customers in a friendly and helpful manner and would go out of the way to source specific items for you at a sensible price. Indeed every time I've bought from an independent porn-shop I've been treated in a friendly and helpful way and have sometimes been given free items such as in later days DVDs that had lost their cases. Indeed the grandmotherly woman I mentioned above used to add a few conventional girlie magazines to my hardcore bundle. I remember her once adding four Fiestas to my hardcore bundle saying 'I hope you don't mind boring Fiestas but they're not moving and you might find someone you like in them". One shop on Manchester's Shudehill shared an entrance with a 'sauna' upstairs so if a punter fancied more than a wank over a mag or dvd he could nip upstairs and pay to shag one of the girls. I don't think that was a deliberate sideline though, just a coincidence.

I'm interested to know your opinion Pharaoh on why this independents' superiority to the Sullivan Grot shops might be. The local Sullivan didn't do much business, the little independents were busy so the Sullivan business strategy appeared not to be working. The staff in these independent outlets were so much more friendly, the stock was so much better, which is to say harder and cheaper, than my admittedly limited experience of Sullivan shops and indeed of most 'licensed' sex shops? Have I just been lucky or is it in your experience a general thing?

Originally Posted by pharoahegypt

one of which afforded me a very nice wage for some four years....lol.
(and we sold the 'proper' stuff)

Originally Posted by pharoahegypt

one of the first thing i did on taking over a shop where the walls were covered in taped on glamour pix, was to pull them all down to reveal untouched white walls & pillars behind, which not only made the shop look better, but also strangely brighter/lighter. there's nothing more offputting to potential lady punters than to have to not stare at all the bare tits and fannys on the walls of such tackier shops; so a frequent lady customer once told me.