They lost my loyalty a couple of years ago, and I'd be willing to bet that part of their troubles are because I'm far from the only one.
A few years back, they started a big growth-and-self-branding thing, coinciding with their sale (it's no longer the local worker-coop it was), but I'm not sure whether the sale came before the changes to their personality, or after.
I couldn't find products I'd always gone there for, they'd replaced them with higher-priced, lower-quality, but otherwise similar items. The staff didn't seem as helpful anymore. I stopped feeling like I was going into a sex-positive, feminist-sex-is-fun little store and started feeling like I was going into a Sex Store. Then I saw that Blowfish had all the cool toys that GV used to have, for half the price of their similar items, and . . . switched.
I still go into the store, when I need a good local sex store, and I'd like to see it last for that if no other reason. (Hell, I bought my first vibe at GV something like 24 years ago.) But I find myself wondering what they did to bring this on themselves.
(Okay, reading that Carol Queen is the chair of the board of directors makes me wonder: What is it now? Still a coop? Did the official owner change, but the structure remain the same? Was the plan to switch it out of coop-ness dumped? At any rate: They've still lost their glimmer, in my eyes.)
I'm not sure what their current structure is. I know that they bought out Joani Blank, the original founder, some years ago.
I haven't been too pleased with them in recent years either. I do appreciate their commitment to holding drop-in classes, though, as well as their historical role in encouraging Americans to talk about sex and sex toys without whispering.
I guess I should honor the history. They were very important in their time, and still are to a large degree. I just compare them to ten or fifteen years ago, and sigh a bit.
I hope they find someone to help but after the last time going in the store and they were out of most of their stock and the people we less than helpful we are starting to buy our stuff at other places.
They were also very unprofessional when it came to telling me that they did not do the parties anymore.
The fact that Amazon et al. are selling their main product lines means that they've fulfilled their purpose. Brav; and good on them! But if they can't adapt, I see no reason to keep them afloat.
By the way, I also have stories of rude workers and out-of-stock goods, but don't really think that's relevant to their current problems. I suspect a big portion of their in-store sales are to tourists and shy first-timers, who wouldn't be as affected by such problems. But I'm just guessing.
(I have an irrelevant story of GV's illegal discrimination in hiring, which maybe I'll tell another time.)
I actually do hope they survive -- I really do like the smug bastards.
That financial is scary - the net profit is about 3% or FMCG rates. And their margins cannot be thin. There is something fundamentally broken in the business.
Ha! I wonder why they pulled it. It was a call for investors and an explanation of their financial troubles (too many online retailers; Amazon now sells sex toys).
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Date: 2007-09-04 07:59 pm (UTC)A few years back, they started a big growth-and-self-branding thing, coinciding with their sale (it's no longer the local worker-coop it was), but I'm not sure whether the sale came before the changes to their personality, or after.
I couldn't find products I'd always gone there for, they'd replaced them with higher-priced, lower-quality, but otherwise similar items. The staff didn't seem as helpful anymore. I stopped feeling like I was going into a sex-positive, feminist-sex-is-fun little store and started feeling like I was going into a Sex Store. Then I saw that Blowfish had all the cool toys that GV used to have, for half the price of their similar items, and . . . switched.
I still go into the store, when I need a good local sex store, and I'd like to see it last for that if no other reason. (Hell, I bought my first vibe at GV something like 24 years ago.) But I find myself wondering what they did to bring this on themselves.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-04 08:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-04 11:16 pm (UTC)I haven't been too pleased with them in recent years either. I do appreciate their commitment to holding drop-in classes, though, as well as their historical role in encouraging Americans to talk about sex and sex toys without whispering.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-05 05:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-04 10:30 pm (UTC)They were also very unprofessional when it came to telling me that they did not do the parties anymore.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-04 11:03 pm (UTC)By the way, I also have stories of rude workers and out-of-stock goods, but don't really think that's relevant to their current problems. I suspect a big portion of their in-store sales are to tourists and shy first-timers, who wouldn't be as affected by such problems. But I'm just guessing.
(I have an irrelevant story of GV's illegal discrimination in hiring, which maybe I'll tell another time.)
I actually do hope they survive -- I really do like the smug bastards.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-05 05:43 am (UTC)Sad, but they ain't what they used to be.....
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Date: 2007-09-07 04:45 am (UTC)That page no longer exists.
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Date: 2007-09-07 05:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-07 05:22 am (UTC)*smooch*