DANVILLE, Va. — Sales increased for sex shop Shhh … Intimacy on a New Level after Pittsylvania County ordered it to shut down in May.
“More people are coming in and shopping,” store owner Trish Post told the Danville Register & Bee.
Local officials say the store, which sells sex toys, bondage gear and lingerie, allegedly violated the county’s zoning ordinance, which prohibits the sale of adult novelty items and DVDs.
Post is appealing her case to the Board of Zoning Appeals. The county’s code compliance director, Odie Shelton, has allowed the store to remain open while the appeal is pending.
“I don’t think it’s fair they’re taking away businesses that are bringing in revenue just because of what we sell,” Post said. “If they don’t like it, they don’t have to shop in the stores.”
Shelton shuttered another adult store, Ringgold, earlier this month for violating the same zoning ordinance.
Adult entertainment industry attorney Lawrence Walter told XBIZ when the story of the store closing broke that it was a clear violation of the First Amendment to shut the store down because it is selling porn DVDs and sex toys, "particularly if the county did not have a specific zone where such stores could operate as a matter of right."
