Though southern folks are keeping their lips sealed, Ken and Linda Koch can personally confirm what we already knew. Sex is just as big in the Jesus-preaching, bible-thumping states as anywhere else in the U.S.
The Kochs' sex-toy shop, Treasures for Lovers, is a single boutique outlet in Hattiesberg, Mississippi. Linda and Ken originally opened the store as a local labor of (non-romantic) love, serving the community and providing entertainment for all ages.
When that one customer comes back and says, ‘You listened and helped when my doctor didn’t.’ That’s what keeps us going.
When you live in the Deep South, running the neighborhood sex shop isn't generally a career goal. In fact, if you had visited the Koch family business a few years back, one would have been met with a few strange looks upon heading inside and asking for the butt plug section.
“We started as a family-type video store,” recalls Linda Koch. “We rented movies and made pizzas and talked with everyone every week and watched their kids grow up. If someone got a new car or a motorcycle, the video store was where they came to show us.”
According to Linda, this pair of business and life partners makes an odd couple. However, a quick Facebook browse proves they at least share a mutual love of motorcycles, biker meet-ups and, as luck would have it, exploring the unknown and taboo.
“My husband and I are polar opposites,” says Koch. “He never meets a stranger and I’m very shy and reserved. His education is in restaurant management and mine is in education and bookkeeping.”
Despite constant support from regulars, families just weren't taking weekend trips to the video store anymore. The rental industry as a whole was going under.
“We struggled to make ends meet because video rentals were on the way out,” Koch laments. “We ran food vans out to the military base and sold sandwiches and pizzas. We did real estate clean-outs on the side. We tried everything to keep it working.”
The store's proximity to the aforementioned military base is what sparked the Koch's big change in mercantile. Ken and Linda had long sequestered a small section of adult films in the shop, which often drew attention from lonely military men on their way overseas.
To Linda's surprise, these guys weren't satisfied with skin flicks.
“Eventually the soldiers came to us and said, ‘I’m about to deploy, can you get me a masturbator?’” says Koch. “After the shock wore off — remember, I’m the shy one and we are in the middle of the Bible Belt — I started thinking, why not? It’s going to be a much safer experience if this guy has a masturbator than if he seeks comfort with someone while he’s overseas.”
As the store's clientele began to shift, so did Koch's previously introverted outlook on talking sex out in the open.
“The next question [from soldiers] was, ‘Can you get a vibrator for my wife while I’m gone?’ Oh man, this is going to kill me,” she groans, “but yeah.”
According to Linda, the 21-and-over crowd initially made their way towards a tiny section of the store that held adult movies and roughly 10 sex toys in a small display case. Customers would bashfully whisper that they wanted toy No. 7 or pass Koch a piece of paper bearing the title or product name.
Despite their shyness, folks made a beeline for what would soon become the shop's cash cow.
Koch recalls, “On Friday and Saturday nights, everybody would be trying to cram into that one little section of the store as movie rentals continued to decline. Gradually the movie section was doing less and less money, and the adult section was doing more and more.”
Eventually, the Kochs dedicated a larger portion of their shop to adult products. It was a challenge running two opposing product sections, and with the mainstream movie rental market continuing to fail, it was time for a big change.
Opportunity struck soon after and the Kochs had a chance to buy a building just three miles north on a major section of highway with increased visibility.
“We jumped at the chance,” recalls Koch. “We gambled and it has paid off. We went all-adult and did away with the video business.”
Treasures for Lovers is now — mostly for better, and very rarely for worse — Hattiesburg's token sex shop, but don't think for a second that the Kochs are running anything less than a sex-positive, sex-ed boutique.
“However, we are still in South Mississippi,” reminds Linda. “The heart of the Bible Belt, and selling sex toys isn’t easy. Sex is not something that is openly talked about.”
What's brought the Kochs the most joy has been providing a community service that's almost unheard of in this part of the country. Linda's sage advice has even rivaled that of some local doctors.
“We do a lot of education in store. Sex is a very hard subject for a lot of people to talk about and we completely understand,” says Koch. “We get some flak from the community but when that one customer comes back and says, ‘You listened and helped when my doctor didn’t.’ That’s what keeps us going.”
When you're the best little sex shop in the south, there's no need for blowout events, business overhauls or enormous future goals. Ken and Linda Koch are happy right where they are, providing an invaluable, trustworthy environment where even the shyest of southerners can come to create fireworks back in their bedrooms.
“Selling sex toys is not something that just anybody can do. It is not something that we ever imagined that we would be doing,” concludes Linda Koch. “We hope to continue educating ourselves and our employees so that we can educate our customers. We are here to be the best that we can be and help as many people as we can.”
