The company was the subject of a recent CNN Money feature article.
Good Vibrations, which does $12.5 million in annual sales, doesn’t account for a big share of the overall $1.5 billion adult novelties business, the article’s author, Lessley Anderson, notes. But what made the former co-operative ripe for the profile was its unique position in the growing market.
“They got there first, and they’re the most trustworthy brand out there,” Madeline Temple, a retail analyst with consumer research form Iconoculture, said.
The store, which opened in 1977 as an experiment to encourage sex-friendly discussion among women, is now trying to take full advantage of its early start, according to the article.
“In fact, everything is moving according to a plan as audacious as any in the annals of retail makeover,” Anderson wrote. “The former co-op company that pioneered American sex-toy retail in the 1970s is trailblazing again, this time aiming to turn Good Vibrations into a brand as mall-friendly and all-American as Restoration Hardware.”
While bringing Good Vibrations to malls across America may be more than a few steps away, the attention paid to the company by CNN should be a good step towards executing the agenda laid out in the restructuring.
Although the March reorganization was not without its labor pains, the change allows the Good Vibrations to reshape the corporate structure to raise capital for the planned expansion.
In other words, while the owners/employees have looked to mainstream companies like Ben and Jerry’s and Whole Foods for insight on retaining values, while growing a business, the company’s main task is to sell itself as a worthwhile investment to traditional investors.
To that end, the CNN Money article goes to great lengths to capture a company in transition, commenting in summation on the future operations of the retailer that it will be “just like a normal company. Well, almost.”
