Manchester VIP experience
(Click to enlarge photo) Shown above is the Manchester VIP in Sept. 06 before the signage was put up.
A VIP general manager named Rick Lederman, quoted on AVN, an adult entreprenuer news website, had this to say about the Manchester store: “We sell everything that has to do with adult… We carry about 20,000-plus titles of DVDs. We carry probably every major toy company, every toy out there. Smoking accessories, full lingerie department, shoes, novelties, gags, lotions, oils — the full gamut. Pretty much everything out there. … It’s gonna be very eye catching, very eye appealing. We’ve got marble floors that we flew in from Italy. That type of concept.…If it was up to me, I’d like to have one of these in every state.”
Attorney Daniel Silver states in his lawsuit against the town of Berlin that “VIP should be considered a ‘romance shop’ rather than a sex shop, because it caters mostly to women and couples ‘who wish to enhance their love lives,’ and not to single men.”
So I decided to see for myself if this “upscale, tastefully designed store” (according to Silver) really is as “romantic” as Dan Silver claims.
1. In November, shortly after their grand opening, I went to the Manchester VIP with a friend and two 19 year old college students, who were not asked for ID upon entering.
2. To the left is a very large area that is lingerie, costumes and shoes-the kind with 10″ heels, etc. and boots. The space devoted to this is in fact much more than in the Hartford store.
3. To the right (there is a long, runway style floor going down the length of the center of the store…) are gag items, bachlorette party items, t-shirts, candy, greeting cards, posters, etc. and a magazine isle. Some of the magazine titles inc. “Terrible Teen,” “Young & Tight,” “Barely Legal,” “New C_nts,” “Spanker’s Guide,” “Love Bondage” and a variety of “niche” fetish magazine like plus size women, couples, older, etc.
4. Off of this area is an entire room devoted to drug paraphernalia, bongs of all sizes (I mean some where 2 feet tall!) and steel bladed knives and daggars. This room is set up like an art gallery. It is 2 levels high (like the upper displays are their priceless museum pieces.) This room is approx. 16′ x 30′
5. On this same side of the store next is an area displaying leather goods, leather outfits, harnesses and bondage items.
6. Going farther back, on the left side of the store, is the “Toy/Novelty/Sexual Aide” section. There is isle after isle of vibrators, dildos, blow up dolls, the “Hustler Virtual Girl Doll,” rubber female parts, specialty equipment (? don’t know how else to put it!)
7. To the opposite side of the store is the DVD/Video section. This section is easily the size of Berlin’s Blockbuster Video, if not larger. Here are a few of the “Romantic” movie titles: (These are titles that didn’t have actual swear words in them)
WARNING: SOME OF THESE TITLES ARE NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART!
“Torture of Pixie,” “Gag Factor.” ” Teens for Cash,” “MILF’s Gone Anal,” (MILF is an acronym for Mother’s I’d Like to F___) “Labor of Love” this was a series of pregnant porn, “Backend Bi-Boys,” “Gang Bang that P_ssy” – volumes 1-8!!! “Over 40 and Still Gang-banging,” -gang bang is in scores of other titles as well, “Screw my Wife, Please!,” “Interracial Throat Bangers,” “Pain Threshhold,” “Guys Who Suck Their Own C_cks” -I could not make this stuff up!, “Facial Frenzy,” “The Violation of Aurora Snow: A Lesbian Gang Bang,” “Don’t Tell Mommy,” “Little Girl Next Door,”-I think this is the scariest as my 4 year old may wind up being the little girl next door to them!
8. While there, one of our group needed to use the restroom, but they don’t have public restrooms (a good thing, actually) so she and another decided to run to McDonald’s. They called from a cell phone from the parking lot, where they encountered a couple, in a “passionate exchange” on the ground between our car and theirs! I ran out to see, (and try to get a picture) but by the time I got out there, they were gone. It didn’t occur to me at the time to report this to the police. This was 3pm on a Sunday. So much for their parking lot security!
Lest anyone think we are making a big deal out of nothing… This is no “Romance” Shop, this is a porn shop. And it is open M-Th 9:00am – 12 midnight; Fri. & Sat. 9:00am until 2:00am!!! and Sun 11:00am – 10pm
I don’t know about you, but if my husband brought home any of the movie titles above, it would NOT enhance our “romance.”
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For those of you looking for info about VIP from a different perspective (and based on my web search stats, many of you are –although I think other than my movie reviews, my run down is fairly neutral on store content) here is a review of the Hartford VIP from another blogger.
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Just how close is this SOB to homes?
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE) image courtesy Google Maps
Well, my house is the little white square underneath the letters “Cir.” on Woodruff Cir., at the corner of Mildrum Rd., and the VIP building is the big square just above it, near the green arrow. It is clear from this satellite image that there are many homes near this proposed “adult business” location. 144 homes in “Webster Heights” and 43 in the Bluebird/Hummingbird neighborhood behind it.
This building is at one of 2 entrances to the neighborhood, the other being at the end of Ronal Dr., at the bottom of the map. There is great concern that traffic coming from Rt. 372 will just cut through the neighborhood, especially late at night, as they are open until 2am.
Courant 1/27/07: Proposed Sex-Themed Business Gets Cease-And-Desist Order
An article in today’s Hartford Courant about the cease and desist order. Mayor Adam Salina and I are both quoted, as is VIP “general manager”, Gary Porter.
You just gotta love our mayor’s quotes!!!
We also had some TV news coverage 1/25 Thursday night on Channel 8 and Channel 30. Bob Wilson interviewed Stan K., Karen S., Kebe B., and me, though the only had time to show a clip of Kebe!
Reader’s Digest summary of the VIP situation:
(The photo above shows the sign at the corner of my front yard. It serves as a sort of “message center” for the neighborhood. This message has been up since Nov. 2, the day after the ZBA meeting, where the Zoning Board of Appeals upheld the zoning officer’s rejection of VIP’s business application.)
This is the jist of a letter I sent to Attorney General Richard Blumenthal today.
(He may not be able to help as this is a town issue rather than a state one, but- who knows… several others have sent letters too!)
This pretty well summarized what has happened to date:
My name is Laura Michaud. My family and I live at 29 Woodruff Circle, Berlin, a side street off Rt. 15/Berlin Turnpike, which is the entry to a neighborhood of 144 single-family homes.
VIP (Very Intimate Pleasures), an “adult super-store” has purchased the vacant 14,500 sq. ft. former furniture store that literally abuts my yard, as well as 3 other homes.
This business applied for a retail business permit in Sept. ‘06, and was denied, on the basis that they are a sexually oriented business (SOB) and that property is not zoned for this use under Berlin’s existing SOB ordinance (must be 250′ from residential).
VIP’s attorney, Daniel A. Silver, appealed that decision to the Berlin ZBA on the grounds that:
A.) VIP is not a sexually oriented business, that they are a “romance shop” catering to women and couples, rather than single men, and therefore should not be considered a “sex shop.” These “romance shops don’t create the “secondary effects” the “old-fashioned” sex shops were found to create, back in the “out-dated” studies.
B.) That only 14% of their merchandise could be considered “sexually oriented” (have you ever gone into one???)
C.) Berlin’s sexually oriented business ordinance is unconstitutional.
D.) Berlin’s zoning officer did not have the authority to enforce the town’s SOB ordinance.
After a 4 hour meeting on Nov. 1, 2006, at which Silver consumed over 3 hours of that time, the Zoning Board of Appeals upheld the zoning officer’s decision to deny their business application.
Attorney Silver is now suing the town of Berlin in Federal court over the SOB ordinance and in state court about the ZBA decision.
There have been no rulings on these matters as of yet, but the U.S. District court did rule last week on a similar suit that Atty. Silver brought on behalf of a strip club in Berlin. Judge Warren Eginton found in favor of the town in regards to Berlin’s SOB ordinance and it’s constitutionality, as well as the Town Council’s right to administer the compliance to the SOB.
On the day this ruling was announced, last Thursday, Jan. 18, 2007, a sign company showed up at the VIP location and erected large signs proclaiming “Opening
Summer ‘07″. These signs are illuminated all night long. I immediatly notified the town that signs were going up. They did not go through proper channels or receive permission to erect signs. A “stop work” order was issued but the sign company was done and gone before it could be served.
On Saturday, Jan 20, 2007, a tractor trailed pulled up to their loading dock. I reported this to the Berlin Police, who did come and temporarily stop the activity
until it could be confirmed with the town’s attorney that they could bring boxes in. They were allowed to continue.
On Monday, January 22, 2007, a “Cease and Desist” order was issued and sent to VIP attorney Daniel Silver, insisting they remove the signs, which were put up illegally with out any permit to do so.
Additional deliveries have been made, soome town officials have been inside, getting the impression that they are setting up shop.
This business seems to be sticking the middle finger to any town authority. I feel they are going to just open and say “see if you can stop us.”
Hello world!
Here is the new sign on the building, my house can be seen to the right.
