From Behind Our White Picket Fence Week 172
By Freddy and Eddy
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Toughing It Out…
Hopefully, a few of you have managed to find your way here now that we’re no longer in the print edition of your favorite progressive rag. It’s been a little tough trying to launch and fully realize this Little Sexy Black Book web idea, but we are a dedicated bunch and will keep at it until this little patch of web space becomes your must-visit for the week. Hatched in the mind of Ad-Slut-Extraordinaire Jane Kahn, our goal is to provide one of the first true local directories for all things sexy, along with fun and interesting bits and bytes to help all Angelinos keep our bedroom focus. Very soon, an entire set of design improvements will be implemented, along with slide shows, advice columns, guest writers, and even a podcast by your favorite smut purveying couple. Please check back often for updates and drop us an e-mail if there’s anything in particular you’d like to see added (or subtracted).
The economic downturn has hit the adult industry hard, proving sex is not recession proof as everyone seems to believe (it’s disheartening when visitors to our shop assume we’re making bundles of cash when, in fact, quite the opposite is true). As we’ve pointed out in previous columns, our receipts are down between 35-40%, forcing us to renegotiate our lease, shed our two part time employees, tighten up our inventories, and focus on cost reductions just to keep our doors open and a roof over our heads at home. An informal survey of other companies followed pretty much the same story; most stores’ numbers are off close to our own, with even stalwart institution Pleasure Chest streamlining their operation to run more efficiently. Babeland departed its Melrose location months ago, with Coco de Mer hanging on gawd knows how. For practical purposes, we’ve returned to our former model of Eddy/Alicia running the boutique, while I (Freddy/Ian) focused on our website, which has suffered from a chronic lack of updating due to neglect. Over time, we feel this divide and conquer strategy will return things to balance, with web orders once again shouldering the bulk of the revenue while our store provides enough income to cover itself.
The key to everything, though, is returning to normal levels of sexual activity. For us, that means 4-5 times per week, whether simply for fun or to review products for inclusion on our site or in our shop. Alicia’s demented/Parkinson’s afflicted mother derailed us somewhat the last few months after moving in, and we’ve yet to regain our momentum after placing her into a nursing care facility a couple of weeks back. It’s a delicate thing, sexuality; losing your way can be a trap from which couples never emerge. In our case, there’s the double whammy of not only the toll on our relationship lack of sexual closeness places, but the added burden on our business, which functions directly from our willingness to experiment and enjoy each other in the physically intimate realm. After 21 years together, you’d think we’d have this problem, uh, licked.
But hey, great weather has returned, so it’s hard to get TOO down on things.
Our Little League team is struggling this year, as the lack of kids signing up has forced teams to promote players upward who may not be ready. On our squad, we have five members who’ve never played AT ALL, so coaching them up to speed has been challenging. So far, we’re 2-3 and improving, so hopefully our plucky collection of children will put it all together at season’s end and make some noise in the playoffs. In an unrelated bit of news, our minivan was damaged in an accident (no one was hurt, thank goodness) to the tune of five grand (and a miscommunication led to the fact we have no collision insurance), so we’ll be making due with one car for awhile. We figure things can’t get much worse after that, so we’ll continue to feed off the positive energy of our Westside neighborhood and make our brighter future happen despite the bumps along the way…
Freddy and Eddy – aka Ian and Alicia Denchasy – can be reached via e-mail at freddy@freddyandeddy.com or by calling 310-915-0380.
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