Thursday, March 9, 2006

Bars and nightclubs in London, Manchester, and Newcastle, UK, now carry vending machines selling sex toys for about £5. These fuchsia-pink Tabooboo machines are usually located near toilets to render deliberating customers a modicum of privacy. However, some hairdressing salons are giving the machines “center stage”. Products available from these unconventional vending machines include mini vibrators, “silicone ticklers”, “lust fingers”, and bottles of “love liquid” (an edible lubricant).

The Alphabet Bar in London’s West End, host to the first sex toy vending machine in the U.K., claims many people visit especially for the machine, and describes it as a “great success”. Alan Lucas, the managing director of the company behind this enterprise, Tabooboo, suggests that the success of the machines is due to younger people having a more liberal view of sex toys. He stated, “The most popular product is a vibrating rod ring which is something [the man] wears [on his penis]”.

The machines are expected to begin appearing in the U.S. and Italy.