LONDON — American nightclub and bar customers are used to seeing vending machines selling condoms, antacids, pain relievers, and other useful and plausibly deniable items in their bathrooms. But what if they started to see machines that dispense sex toys?That’s precisely what British patrons of nightspots in London and other locations have started to see – and according to Geoff Todd, the manager of the Alphabet Bar, located in London’s West End, they’re taking to them quite nicely, thank you.
The machines, which Todd says are access daily, are popular for a number of reasons.
“Some people use them just because it’s in the bar. Some make a special journey, maybe because they are too embarrassed to go into a sex shop,” he speculated for The Guardian. “Some buy the toys because they are a novelty,” he continued. “Some do it for a laugh, some buy them as presents. It’s been a great success.”
The pink devices, called Tabooboo machines, were initially tested in public toilets throughout Britain but have expanded their reach into bars and nightclubs in London, Manchester, and Newcastle, as well as at health clubs, retail outlets, and styling salons.
Tabooboo managing director Alan Lucas says that about 20 of the machines, which dispense an assortment of devices averaging about $8.00 and including mini vibrators, have been shipped to Italy and another 10 to the United States. Lucas speculates that “The younger generation isn’t phased by sex toys. They don’t believe they equal pornography. Vending machines allow them to buy such products anonymously without going to a seedy sex shop to do so.”
