It’s a lazy Sunday afternoon. You could be browsing through your New York Times, standing in line for Batman Returns, or doing a little shopping.
The carpeted display case overflows with a wild profusion of lacy violet garter belts and teddies, with color-coordinated packages of condoms sprinkled like confetti.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
“We used to get a lot of harassment here,” confides a salesperson. “Guys would come in and make dumb remarks. That’s why we’re trying to change our image and make it more romantic. People had been taking this place as a joke.”
In the back of the store, a young woman is taking responsibility for a braided black leather whip, which she cracks against the pickled pine floor. “I want this, I want this,” she whines to her boyfriend. “Could you give me some money?”
Three months ago, Marc’s father Joel Hoffman and Randy Canter, two businessmen from the northern suburbs, visited the New York City anchor store of the wildly successful Condomania chain and decided to develop a Chicago spin-off. They’re hoping that condom shops will be the great franchise success story of the 90s, right up there with rental videos, Domino’s pizza, and $8 haircuts.
Marc, a junior at the College of Lake County in Grayslake, approaches his task as condom expert with the seriousness of someone fitting arch supports. Quite a few customers are female, he says. “I have to ask them whether their boyfriends are well endowed and what they really want out of a condom.” He admits that most women have never thought about it.
