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Articles by Mark Espinosa

opinion

Cooperation, Positivity Enables the Growth of the Pleasure Products Industry

The best part about growing older is the super swell things you learn about the world around you. A new fun fact that I just recently discovered is that people really don’t like to be told that they are wrong. They also love to point out when other people are wrong.

Mark Espinosa ·

Exploring a Day in the Life of a Retail Store Clerk

Birthdays were always such a weird day for Kathy. Her ideal birthday was a quiet evening at home with a good book and her cat, Miles. It was through a series of unavoidable and unfortunate situations that Kathy found herself at the local watering hole with a few old friends the night of her 27th birthday.

Mark Espinosa ·
opinion

Bridging the Gap Between Sex Toy Manufacturers, Bloggers

Come with me… and you’ll see… A sex toy world full of imagination! Once, the magical and mysterious mastermind of personal pleasure products, Willie Wanker, invited a few special guests into his top secret factory and granted them special access to all of his most secret of secret projects.

Mark Espinosa ·
opinion

Friends With Benefits: Competition in Adult Retail

It’s been nearly 50 years since the Great Dildo Drought of 2020. Society’s sex toy shelves were completely drained of all their resources due to unchecked over-copulation.

Mark Espinosa ·
opinion

To Increase Retail Sales, Product Training Can Only Go So Far

Have you ever been standing around when a random, uneventful memory from your childhood suddenly pops into your head? One particular instance from my childhood has been burned into my brain. Burned and properly stored in an air-tight plastic container. I remember this one time that my mother hosted a Tupperware Party at our home.

Mark Espinosa ·
opinion

Lube’s Battle: The FDA’s Crackdown on Lubricant Labeling

Before I happened upon the emotionally satisfying profession of selling topnotch adult “pleasure products,” I actually had aspirations of creating a series of fairy tale books. The easiest part for me was imaging the wild characters and the outrageous situations they would get themselves in to.

Mark Espinosa ·
opinion

Does Marketing Give the Wrong Impression About Lube?

I really can’t tell you why I was so adamantly opposed to flossing when I was a child. I imagine the reasons were very similar to my reluctance to eating brussel sprouts or using sunscreen. There was just something about flossing that seemed to be in moral opposition to my juvenile fundamentals.

Mark Espinosa ·
opinion

Valentine’s Day Isn’t Just a Couples’ Celebration

‘Tis the season for love at your friendly neighborhood sex shop! This is not to say that there isn’t a particular sense of yearning and passion that haunts your stores the other 11 months out of the year. You just can’t deny that there’s something different about the vibe (pun intended) around Valentine’s Day.

Mark Espinosa ·
opinion

What Men Want: Expanding the Realm of Male Sexual Pleasure

It’s the last day of high school and I’m completely screwed. How did I manage to make it all the way through my entire senior year and forget to go to the one class I actually needed to graduate? I’m told that if I pass the final exam of the class that I never once attended, I can still graduate in time.

Mark Espinosa ·
opinion

Understanding Consumers’ Diverse Sexual Lifestyle Landscape

Gather around, gather around! Ladies and gentlemen, please. As I stand here before you on my mighty soap box, with the luminescent California sunshine raining down upon me, I would be quite remiss if I was to allow you to miss out on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Mark Espinosa ·
opinion

Retail: Heroes on the Floor

I’ve always thought that the hardest part about being a “caped crusader” would be having to maintain a secret identity. (Also, wearing a cape. I look horrible in capes.)

Mark Espinosa ·
opinion

Marketplace Musings: Going the Distance

How many friends do you have on social media that you have never actually met in the real physical world? Someone asked me this, recently, and I was shocked when I realized that my number is well in the double digits. This means that I’m sharing intimate aspects of my personal life with complete strangers who I have never actually met in the physical world.

Mark Espinosa ·
opinion

Back to the Future: A Time Traveler’s Guide to Sex Shops

I woke up this morning and discovered a time machine in my backyard. It was powered by silicone lubricant and made a weird sort of “buzzing” sound whenever it landed at its designated temporal destination. With the entirely of humanity laid out before me, I found myself struggling to determine where I should travel to first.

Mark Espinosa ·
opinion

The Educational Responsibilities of the Sex Toy Retailer

I’m pretty sure that when I first started watching the second season of “Orange is the New Black,” the sun had just risen and I had an entire weekend to accomplish an encyclopedia sized list of chores. My Saturday was young and full of such potential.

Mark Espinosa ·
opinion

Pleasure Products: Rivalry Online

Once upon a time, at an IP address far, far, away… existed a website that millions of people visited, several hundred thousand times a day. At first, this website was seen as a gift from the Internet Gods. You could purchase everything from shoelaces to unicorn masks! Cowboy boots to ladybugs! Oh, how the citizens of Internet-land rejoiced that day!

Mark Espinosa ·