This year marks a historic 50th anniversary for the Adam & Eve brand, which is perhaps best known as a mainstream-friendly mega online retailer, as well as its growing chain of brick-and-mortar stores. Established by adult industry pioneer Phil Harvey, who passed away last December, and business partner Dr. Timothy Black, Adam & Eve began as a mail-order business before venturing into other facets of the industry and progressing with the opening of retail locations throughout the U.S. In addition to the brand’s milestone, Adam & Eve Franchise Corporation (AEFC) this year in May celebrated the opening of its 100th brick-and-mortar retail store, which is in Fredericksburg, Virginia. The franchise immediately surpassed the accomplishment with the opening of four more locations the following month. According to a press release, AEFC projects it’ll grow by 20% by the end of the year, which will bring it closer to its overarching goal of 400 stores, noted on its franchise website.
As more mainstream retailers embrace pleasure products, David Keegan, VP of franchising for Adam & Eve Stores, says that the company is more motivated than ever to continue to expand. Targeting Middle America with its well-lit and approachable store settings, AEFC on its website describes its average customer as married with two children and is a gray or white-collar worker between the ages of 25 and 59, with a college education and slightly higher than average household income. In this exclusive interview, Keegan — along with publicist Keri Bonfili and Ben Woodard, franchise operator of the latest milestone-exceeding batch of stores — explained how the chain’s customer base is growing, and how it aims to appeal to today’s generation of consumers.
The three-day grand opening was incredible. We had vendors from all over the place come.
XBIZ: Tell us about Adam & Eve’s grand opening of its milestone 100th store.
Keegan: Ben and his staff just did a tremendous job of getting the store in celebration mode. The Chamber of Commerce came out and did a ribbon cutting for us. His employees were great with the customers. The radio advertising, the print advertising, the social media advertising all appeared to work — and I say appeared to work because it was our record grand opening weekend…. To Ben’s credit, they made sure the store was fully stocked and the employees trained before we had the grand opening. Those are some of the reasons that made it a huge success. But with that said, I’ll turn it over to Ben so that he can tell you what was behind getting that store open and getting it ready.
Woodard: The three-day grand opening was incredible. We had vendors from all over the place come. They sent product for us to do giveaways with. They sent swag. They sent people who are knowledgeable about their product to show up and give demonstrations or training sessions to staff and customers. And so far, that store is actually our No. 1 store already. We’re really doing well. The market has accepted it, and I think we are pulling people from Northern Virginia — and so far, so good.
Bonfili: I talked to 20-plus people who had come in the store in just a very short amount of time and the feedback that I was getting was all very, very positive. One, it was really nice for them to be able to walk in the store; it was compared to places like Bath & Body Works from a merchandise presentation perspective. It was just an elevated feeling and atmosphere, which I have seen, here and there in other locations. But I love that Dave has said these things are going to be part of the package moving forward. It just lets everybody know that Adam & Eve, while they have a great online presence, they really want to step up their game in that in-store experience. They’re paying attention to that.
XBIZ: Discuss the product assortment offered by Adam & Eve stores and what makes it stand out. Are there any product categories that particularly appeal to shoppers?
Woodard: We always make sure that we have a range of products pricewise. Because especially with the grand opening, it takes a while to learn the customers — and it takes a while to learn what the price point is ideal for your customer base. So, we’re constantly shifting our product mix based on what’s selling. You’ve always got to have the $10 item and the $100 equivalent, because there’s different price points that people shop at. Different budgets. We’re inclusive for everyone. We want to make sure that we have all bases covered so that anybody who comes into the store feels comfortable. Particularly our novelties section reflects that; we have something for everybody.
Keegan: That’s the key, like Ben said. We preach that as a company to our franchise operators all the time. You can’t buy for what you like; you have to buy for what your customers want.
Woodard: We want to make sure that anybody who comes into our store feels comfortable. We also represent that through our employees. We have male, female, gay, straight — we certainly encourage anyone to be part of our team. I feel like having a mix of staff represents our customers.
XBIZ: Can you offer more information about the new four locations? Where are they located?
Keegan: They are all Ben’s stores. The newest one is Fredericksburg, Virginia. Then we had Duluth, Minnesota. We had Madison, Wisconsin.
Woodard: We have stores located in Richmond and Chesapeake in Virginia.
Keegan: Helena, Montana, and Sarasota, Florida. The last stores we opened — literally, in the last four months —were Helena, Sarasota, Duluth, Madison and Fredericksburg. We’re all over the country. We have another store opening at the end of this week, and another store opening in two more weeks. My team is very busy at this point, just like Ben’s team is.
XBIZ: What are the goals for Adam & Eve’s chain of stores for the rest of the year and beyond?
Keegan: For AEFC, my goal has always been the same: We want to have 400 stores. The reason it’s 400 stores is that for the population that are currently over 18, we can have 400 stores and support them. Again, that’s a longshot goal, but as we’re moving fast, we have great operators such as Ben and we’re going to continue to expand. Our goal is to have 400 stores.
XBIZ: How do potential franchise operators join AEFC?
Keegan: They go out and fill out the Let’s Get Acquainted form (at AdamEveFranchise.com), and within 24 hours, they’re going to get a call from a representative to qualify them. Once they do that, they get ahold of me, and they go through what we call a Discovery Day. That’s basically four hours — we do it now virtually — in which we let them know what AEFC is and what the franchise has to offer if they become a franchise operator. Then, once they go through that, we send out contracts — and we go from there.
Woodard: We’re actively looking for locations. I would love to open a store here as long as I can juggle all the balls. It takes a while to find the right location. Depending on where you are, you have to find the right zoning; you have to find the right landlord. It helps us now that we have four stores open. Once landlords see our stores, they realize it’s different from what their preconceived idea was. That’s really helped us with the last two stores, both of them. Both of the landlords went to our other two stores and saw that it was very tasteful, very nicely done — and probably better than some of their other tenants. That helped us in our lease negotiations.
Bonfili: There aren’t that many franchise retailers who have been around 50-plus years, and are tied to a really trusted, well-known brand. When you speak about Adam & Eve, I think that’s really impressive from a brand perspective. Fifty years of history and 50 years of building name recognition, trust in a brand — and increasing a store footprint — really underscores the brand’s commitment to driving loyal customers and growing loyal customers and building relationships with people. So, that is super impressive to me. I’m so grateful and honored to work with a brand that has this rich history and this wonderful legacy — and also, doesn’t rest on its laurels. They’re constantly evolving and changing. It’s going to be exciting to see what happens next.
