Do you remember Little Chef? Tucking into a stack of pancakes or a hearty fry-up to break up a long drive was one of life’s small joys in the 90s and 00s.
But if you were to step inside one of those restaurants today, you wouldn’t find any fried potatoes, toasties or lollipops. Instead, a very different kind of pleasure is on offer.
Along several of the UK’s A-roads and motorways, you’ll find a number of the former diners, which have been transformed into Pulse & Cocktails adult stores.
The sex shops are fully licensed, meaning they’re strictly 18+ and can sell more ‘extreme’ items then the likes of Anne Summers and other naughty stores you might find on the high-street.
This includes bondage products as well as realistic-looking dolls and masturbators. They also stock R-rated movies and magazines, which Kieran Williams, the brand’s e-commerce and marketing manager, tells Metro are popular with their predominantly older male clientele.
‘Our really regular customers are older gentlemen who are still into the DVDs and magazines and haven’t moved on to the online aspect,’ he says.
‘They come in and use our DVD swap service, where they can take a film home, bring it back and then get credit for another one. It’s very popular.’
And Kieran predicts the Online Safety Act will see DVD sales boom in the coming months – and it won’t just be older men buying them.
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From July 25, those who wish to watch pornography online will be required to prove they’re over the age of 18, in a bid to prevent children from accessing harmful and inappropriate content.
Porn sites will have to introduce ‘robust’ age checking techniques as a result, demanding photo ID or running credit card checks before allowing sexually explicit material to be viewed.
It comes after Ofcom found that 8% of children aged eight to 14 in the UK had visited an online porn site or app over a 28-day period.
‘We believe this [change] is a good thing for business and the industry in general, keeping safety as the top priority,’ Kieran explains. ‘But people are also becoming more cautious online and they might not want to put their IDs into websites and have cookies tracking what they’re doing and buying,’ Kieran explains.
‘This could push people to the store and back to old school DVDs. It’ll be like the vinyl records revival. People will start picking them up again and they can do that in our stores as we offer a discrete service.’
Customers may still be asked to show their ID before they are able to enter one of the sex shops, of course, but showing your drivers license or passport in person feels different to inputting your details on the internet.
‘Not everyone gets ID’d, it’s Challenge 25, but obviously we can’t let young people in,’ says Kieran.
‘There are strict rules and regulations for the licensing, say a mum wanted to come in with a newborn baby, we wouldn’t be able to allow the baby in. You’d think it was fine, no harm would come to the child whatsoever, but they’re not allowed, whereas you can take a baby into a pub and have a drink and that’s absolutely fine.’
Customers who do make it through the doors will be in for a unique shopping experience.
As well as being able to offer products that competitors like Ann Summers can’t sell on the high street, one of the chain’s biggest selling points is the privacy it offers visitors.
The out-of-town locations mean you’re unlikely to bump into anyone you know when browsing, and according to Kieran, you’re also very likely to have the shop all to yourself.
‘We’re lucky if we have two people in the shop at the same time. Nine times out of 10 there won’t be anyone else in there other than a member of staff,’ he says.
As such, shoppers feel comfortable enough to embrace their desires as they browse, with some even turning up in head-to-toe fetish gear.
‘People make date nights out of coming here in the evenings, they go for a drive to buy a toy together and then go for dinner afterwards.
‘Some come in full latex and have their partners on leads as part of “pet play” and a lot of men also cross-dress, wearing high heel boots and dresses. It’s completely normal for us to see that.’
The big rule when it comes to behaviour in the stores is not to make anyone else feel uncomfortable – meaning nudity is not permitted.
However, Kieran stressed that nobody is ever ‘judged’, regardless of their kink.
‘There is still a bit of stigma around the shops, but they’re not dark, seedy places,’ he assures. ‘They’re open and bright and we try to make it as inviting as possible.
‘You’re not going to be shown stuff you don’t want to see. It’s a safe space’
Pulse & Cocktails has been running since 1997, started by a husband and wife as two separate shops – a lingerie and a bondage store next door to one another.
The business is now run by the couple’s son and daughter and in addition to the roadside stores they also have locations on industrial estates.
While some of their sites have closed in recent years (there were 26 in its heyday), Kieran claims that they are contining to look into expansion opportunities, so if there’s not one near you, there could be one coming soon…
‘At one point we had a lot more stores than we’ve got now, obviously through changing habits and online shopping, some of those have had to be chopped out, but it doesn’t mean we’re not expanding,’ he shares.
‘We recently had a new store open in Kettering and we’re looking more strategically at where the best places for the shops could be.’
The requirements for finding new locations are simple – the stores need a lot of visibility.
Kieran adds: ‘There’s always a service station nearby, and they need to be on a road where a lot of traffic is going to pass by, perhaps somewhere on route to a holiday destination – you could be going on a romatic weekend away and you see it and fancy a stop on the way in. That’s what these shops are perfect for.’
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