DURHAM — People have the wrong idea about the Adam & Eve store opening in the Southpoint area, according to co-owner Marc Goswick.
Goswick said the new store is different from the dim, seedy establishment some people are characterizing. Instead, it is well-lighted and couple-friendly, he said.
“It’s a very upscale lingerie boutique that we’re going for,” he said. “Basically what you can see from the outside is lingerie. That’s what we want you to sense when you walk in the door. We want people to be able to shop our store that have no interest in adult products or novelties.”
Though the store does carry adult novelties and movies, which are sectioned off in “discretionary shopping areas,” lingerie makes up the majority of its inventory. Goswick said Adam & Eve doesn’t pander to a “trenchcoat clientele,” and that about 70 percent of existing Adam Eve locations’ customers are female.
“We’re not people who don’t care about the community. My business partner [Jason Hoke] and I both live in the area. I’m from Durham, my parents live in Durham and I have a 3-year-old daughter. I wouldn’t put anything in my store window that I’m not comfortable to explain to her,” he said.
Several community members have spoken out against the store moving from Durham-Chapel Hill Boulevard in the South Square area to the corner at Fayetteville Road and N.C. 54. They say the store’s placement is inappropriate because of the site’s visibility to passing motorists and proximity to homes just to the north.
Much of the opposition has come from residents of Woodcroft and newer neighborhoods in the Fayetteville Road corridor.
An online petition was also started to contest the store. While the petition has received 1,341 electronic “signatures” and comments as of last week, people are able to sign the petition multiple times using the same e-mail address. Additionally, some of the names seem to be fictitious — including Alec Baldwin, Ferris Bueller and Ted Nugent, all of which appear on the signatures list.
Goswick, who also co-owns Adam Eve stores in Raleigh, Clayton and Wilmington, said the backlash to the new Durham store is the most he’s seen.
“We have no problem with folks that don’t want to patronize our store. We appreciate and celebrate their right to disagree with what it is that we’re doing,” he said. “We just want our right to allow the marketplace to decide if our store is appropriate or not.”
He added that products similar to those offered at Adam Eve stores can already be purchased at other stores in the Southpoint area.
“Consumers can purchase novelties from Spencer Gifts, adult DVDs from FYE, condoms and lubricants from Walgreen’s and lingerie from Victoria’s Secret,” he said. “We offer all those same products to plan a romantic weekend at one location.”