The Tickle Trunk Turns 10! - A Funny Thing Happened at the Sex Shop
Owning a sex toy store is a peculiar job. A lot of things happen that would seem rather odd at any other workplace. Here are some of the things that are just a part of the day to day at the Tickle Trunk, and some things that were rather odd and funny even to us.
- Just before Christmas one year, Santa Claus came into the store. I kid you not, it was really Santa, or at least he looked a lot like him. He even had a real long white beard. He bought some condoms.
- We get a ton of prank phone calls. They are almost always from kids - we can tell by the voice and the laughter of others in the background. What they don't realize is that it's not very funny to us to call us and ask if we have anal beads. When we say yes, of course, what size and shape were you looking for, they almost always hang up.
- I get a lot of calls from people asking for donations or sponsorships. Many of these people are obviously just going through a directory of businesses and have not taken the time to find out what kind of store we are. I once got a call from an elementary school that was looking for people to take ads in their fundraising calendar. I said, 'Do you know that we are an adult toy store? Would you like an add for a vibrator shop in your elementary school calendar?' She stopped her speech and was dead silent. And then said 'Um no, I guess not, thank you.'
- At most workplaces when something starts vibrating in the middle of a meeting, everyone looks at their phones. At our place, everyone looks at the shelves to see which toy was left on.
- I've found that, for the most part, customs leaves us alone. Although I know that many sex related business have been targeted for investigations, we've been lucky enough to not experience that. Except, that is, for when we order rope. Almost every time, our bulk rope shipments come to us having obviously been opened and haphazardly repackaged. I guess when a box comes in smelling like hemp, they'd like to know what's in there.
- When I was getting the store ready to open, I needed some paint for our shelves. I went to Home Depot and asked for some help to figure out what was the best paint. The guy asked what sort of store it was. I was still new to talking about my work publicly so was a little bit sheepish but I told him it was an adult toy store. Well, it turned out the Home Depot paint guy is kinky! He was thrilled and we spent some time talking about the store and what it would stock. I also got some good paint advice
- Most work places have some fairly stringent filters on their computers so you can't look at porn when you're supposed to be working. If we did that, we'd never be able to do our work. If I ever see porn sites, adult news sites, or sex toy sites on the history on our computers or tablets at work I think 'Good, they were doing their research!'
- When I say I got tied up at work, I really mean it. One of my jobs is to help out with the workshops. If someone comes to a rope workshop without a partner to practice on, I am happy to lend a hand, or an arm, or a leg,,,,,