Spencer's Gifts under fire for its adult novelty items
Interesting news this week from South Portland, Maine, where the city council is debating an ordinance change to restrict Spencer's Gifts ability to sell sex toys and adult novelty items in its store at The Maine Mall.
XBIZ News reports:
Condoms, sex toys and adult-themed novelties have some shoppers steaming at the suburban Maine Mall.
The complainants are targeting the local Spencer’s Gifts, which sells sex toys along with T-shirts, candles, Deep Throat shot glasses and the Carmen Electra Professional Pole Dance Kit.
The Maine Mall has more than 140 tenants, including the anchors Filene's and Macy's.
After hearing complaints, including a South Portlander who said he was offended after he stumbled upon the store's selection of sex-related products, the City Council is weighing whether it should alter its ordinances.
Spencer's Gifts has been pushing buttons and pushing the envelope in shopping malls across the country for decades, and now operates as many as 600 stores shopping malls across North America. The stores have also recently come under criticism and increased restrictions in Ohio and Florida, partly because of the juxtaposition of its adult "intimate" brands with other brands the store carries catering to a younger crowd, including t-shirts featuring Sesame Street and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters.
The proposed ordinance change in South Portland would make Spencer's Gifts the only store in the city subject to adult business licensing and force it to bar anyone under the age of 18 from entering its store, despite the fact that condoms, lubricants, vibrators, sex toys, and other adult novelty items are now widely available in grocery stores and pharmacies.
Spencer’s Gifts counsel... contends the company is being targeted at a time when pharmacies and supermarkets stock condoms and lubricants in plain view of customers.
They also questioned whether, under the city's current guidelines, many other retailers would need adult business licenses.
"Many mainstream retailers are carrying these products," said Kevin Mahoney, attorney for New Jersey-based Spencers Gifts.
City Council will discuss the issue again, as early as Monday, before scheduling a vote.
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