Vermont Country Store’s Good Vibrations
The news wires are abuzz today with reports that old-timey goods cataloger Vermont Country Store is now selling sexual aids like intimate massagers and instructional videos.
The general store merchant has actually been selling such products in its catalogs and stores since this past summer. (MCM’s eagle-eyed copy editor actually spotted them among the mailer’s assortment a few months ago.)
It’s no surprise that many of Vermont Country Store’s more conservative, senior-citizen customers are outraged at the appearance of such products in a “family” catalog. Many are even demanding to be taken off the mailer’s list.
But it’s also no surprise that the cataloger says the intimate accessories are selling briskly. I’ll bet they are—where else is this audience going to go for such products?
After all, most of the retailer’s customers are probably not getting the Adam & Eve catalog. And they’re not likely to pay a visit to the local lingerie or adult video shop either.
Sure, it’s straying from the Vermont Country Store’s niche, and seems a bit out of character at first—I have to say, I was not sure I heard the copy editor right when she first told me what she’d noticed in the catalog.
But if its core customers want what the company calls “intimate solutions for the next stage in your life,” and they feel comfortable buying them from Vermont Country Store, why not? It’s a win-win.
(And as we learned from this post about Adam and Eve, adult entertainment products are almost recession proof.)
On the other hand, I hope Vermont Country Store doesn’t start selling sexy sleepwear and racy undergarments next to its grandma flannels, union suits, and girdles. Now that’s going to look weird.
February 17th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Hey, it gets cold in NH these winter nights…. Why not?
I’ve been to this store. It’s a nice stop on the way to the slopes…. I wonder if they have a special room for these items????
February 18th, 2009 at 11:37 am
Lyman Orton here and just want to say Melissa Dowling has it right. As a merchant who delivers the “Practical and Hard To Find” to my customers I figured for our customers, average age around sixty, that Intimate Solutions (sex aids) were products they needed but would not want to go to the nasty web sites where many are sold but would be grateful if we, who they know and trust, carried them. Turns out that is true.
Sure, we get other customers who complain, who are offended. But we are a family business and don’t have layers of corporate control that essentially removes any risk and homogenizes offerings to offend no one but at the same time does not connect strongly either.
I and my family have points of view and we express them in our catalogue and web site. I happen to believe that homeowners associations that ban clotheslines are flying in the face of common sense and energy conservation and are practicing a form of snobism and say so. Sure, I get angry letters but a lot more who agree. I figure those folks will remember us and continue to buy. Corporate-owned businesses would not allow such stuff.
http://www.vermontcountrystore.com/browse/Home/About-Us/Editorial-Archive/Fall-2008/D/80000/P/1:300:3000:30040:300190.
February 19th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
If you followed the philosiphy that “if it sells, we should sell it,” wouldn’t many brands lose their way? I imagine that any catalog offering marijuana would have brisk sales, but does that mean they should offer it and that it would become a positive brand element? Seems that the role of a good merchant is to determine what kinds of product categories tell the brand story in a way that keeps customers connected over time, not just what sells.
February 19th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
It is unfortunate that some people do not understand that older folks - and saying that 60 is old isn’t really old anymore - don’t have the ability, or right, to have a great intimate life. Not everyone wants to go into a store to buy such things, no matter what the age. When a customer trusts a brand, I think it would help with the embarassment factor - and if a catalog like Vermont Country Store carries it, then it cannot be “bad”.