Several years ago, a perfectly ordinary drive-thru Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) in Indianapolis flourished, collecting business both from locals in the area (near the south side enclave of Southport), and, most likely, people passing through the city along Interstate 65, for which there was an exit ramp from Southport Road just a few hundred feet to the east. Or, at least, it seemed to flourish. Apparently it wasn’t good enough for the franchise owner, because it closed some time in 2018. The owner left a bit of snark on the outside marquee after bathing it in a “modernizing” coat of paint, potentially to prepare for a rebranding away from KFC’s customary red-and-white stripes. But it didn’t matter; the place closed. And, despite heavy traffic along Southport Road and quite a bit of regional-serving retail nearby (a Target, Kohl’s, Meijer, Menards, and Home Depot, along with a host of other fast-food and sit-down restaurant chains), it sat vacant for almost four years. At some point earlier this year, the building finally found a new tenant that retained the color scheme KFC adopted at its closure. This time it’s a Lion’s Den.
For those who aren’t in the know, Lion’s Den isn’t a fast food restaurant. And, unless one wanders over to Waterville Maine, it’s not a restaurant at all. The Lion’s Den here in Southport is, as is usually the case, a retail establishment with the slogan “Pleasure. Passion. Romance.”
It’s more or less a sex shop. Or, to use the appropriate planning vernacular, an “adult-oriented business”. Founded in Columbus, Ohio, the company claims to have been “advocating for a sex-positive perspective on intimacy and sexual well-being” since 1971. Who am I to judge? While what qualifies as sex-positive varies greatly from person to person (with the preposition “to” having multiple meanings), I’m more taken by the webpage’s use of very contemporary buzzwords. Sex-positive. Stigma-free. Empowering all sexual identities. Carefully curated selection. Almost like it’s a prescription drug. (Indianapolis is the birthplace of Cialis, after all.) Typical couples in 1971 undoubtedly would have turned askance at some of the widely accepted practices today, but that’s not the point: some of the phrases used on the Lion’s Den website would have been bewildering in 1971 because, fundamentally, they didn’t exist. Nobody said “sex positive” or “carefully curated”. These terms were foreign twenty years ago, let alone fifty.
But Lion’s Den has clearly demonstrated the market sensibilities to adapt to the times, not just in terms of lingo but, I suspect (but do not know; I’m a big old prude as well) the merchandise they sell. After all, it’s grown into a chain of nearly fifty locations across twenty-one states, at least at the time of this blog. Perhaps the demand for “bedroom accessories and aids” has grown in the last half-century, or Lion’s Den is simply well attuned to what people like. Regardless, it’s a quietly thriving adult-oriented business.
And I employ the term “quietly thriving” because it’s precisely the sort of place most people have heard of in a vague way but can’t quite place. This has something to do with both the nature of what they sell and the company’s typical choice of location. I do not believe Lion’s Den advertises that much on digital or broadcast media, unless it would be in the middle of the night, when TV/radio allow NFA “Not for Airplay” content that the Federal Communications Commission prohibits from around 6am to 1am or thereabouts, due to obscenity, indecency, or profanity. An adult-oriented business often faces the equivalent restrictions in the spatial domain; zoning regulations typically don’t allow them just anywhere, so they have to go in two typical places: a) heavy industrial and commercial/logistical districts that are the least restrictive when it comes to nuisance uses, or b) extremely rural areas with low population density that feature little or no zoning regulation whatsoever. The majority of Lion’s Den locations are off the side of interstate exit ramps in sparsely populated areas. Some of the busiest streets in the country. Otherwise, they appear occasionally in industrial and logistics-friendly areas alongside businesses associated with pollution, unsavory and morally degenerate uses, or other similar negative externalities.
But that’s what makes this Lion’s Den along Southport Road kinda weird. It’s not rural at all. It’s in a city, with a surrounding population density befitting a suburban area, and it’s not remotely industrial. If the Lion’s Den management had wanted to locate in an area in metro Indianapolis supportive of adult-oriented businesses, they only needed to find the US Highway 37/Harding Avenue exit along Interstate 465 just a few miles away. That area is heavy industrial and truck-stop laden—already the motherlode for strip clubs, video shops, and other adult-oriented businesses.
But Southport Road? A wholesome department store like Kohl’s is just a stone’s throw away. Other places nearby include a McDonald’s, Burger King, Bob Evans, Wendy’s, Steak and Shake. Maybe not all these restaurants embrace a family-friendly image (certainly less today than in the past), but all of them cater to families. And in the immediate vicinity?
Cracker Barrel is one restaurant chain that has very conspicuously embraced a conservative image. It’s a 90-second walk from the Lion’s Den, which is not something that at least some of its loyal clientele is likely to be thrilled about. Also notable is an establishment barely visible in the distance:
Can’t see it? If one looks past the comical drive-thru windows at the Lion’s Den (now defunct) it’s there through the bare winter trees.
It’s a Sky Zone trampoline park—an overtly child-oriented business.
However, other factors may have offered a greater incentive for Lion’s Den to choose this old KFC. Note that in the first photo, a Comfort Suites is in the background. And also in this same commercial cluster, on the other side of the Cracker Barrel, is another budget hotel:
A Baymont Inn and Suites. The prevalence of hotels, gas stations, and fast food restaurants is typical of an interstate exit. After all, the interchange between Southport Road and I-65 is within walking distance. But, beyond that, this location is atypical: Lion’s Den tends to choose locations far less developed, with only a gas station or truck stop and maybe one or two restaurants and a hotel or two. These just-off-the-beaten-path locations, combined with (more often than not) a steady array of billboards announcing the forthcoming location, prompt me to believe that Lion’s Den merchandise is typically an impulse buy: a quick deviation from a long drive on a lonely highway, or perhaps an impromptu purchase while staying at a cheap hotel on the other side of a vast parking lot. Perhaps I’m misjudging the human race, but it seems unlikely that most customers would drive from their metropolitan homes to the middle of nowhere to patronize an adult-oriented business. It’s the B on the way from A to C.
This condition again makes the Southport Road location an apparent exception, even a risky business venture. It’s in a suburban area, with homes very close. This map proves it:
Less than 800 feet between a single-family residence and what Google Maps calls a “lingerie store” (Victoria’s Secret it ain’t). Granted, the area isn’t very walkable; the homes on cul-de-sacs would require traipsing through lawns and crossing a busy minor arterial. But regardless, the housing density is far greater than one would expect for Lion’s Den or any other adult-oriented business. And it’s not the only such branch of the chain. Of the three Lion’s Den locations in Indiana, two are in Indianapolis municipal boundaries; the other is in the northwest of the city, at the I-65 and Lafayette Road exit. Like this Southport Road location, it’s in a busy suburban area rife with commercial uses (much more commercial square footage than here at Southport, including a mall, albeit a long-struggling one). And the Lafayette Road location is equally close to a variety of single family residences. In both cases, the Lion’s Den opening almost certainly elicited controversy.
In late 2021, this Southport Road branch elicited the usual response whenever an adult-oriented business opens in a densely populated area: protests, a local State representative piping in, references to its proximity to schools and churches, and any attempt conceivable to delay or curtail its opening. However, the city’s zoning permits adult-oriented businesses in community regional commercial districts, as long as the district consistently features other similarly sized or larger commercial uses in contiguous parcels. This litmus test checks, thereby allowing Lion’s Den at both Southport Road and Lafayette Road. The only major restriction is that Lion’s Den could not deploy a massive, freestanding, monument sign—the type one typically sees along freeways with fast moving traffic. The company sued, claiming violation of its First and Fourteenth Amendments, but freedom of speech does not inhibit the passing of time, place, and manner restrictions; adult-oriented businesses often fall under special scrutiny because of the obscene nature of what they sell, let alone the content in their marketing or even their logo.
From what I can tell, Lion’s Den lost that suit; no monument sign exists.
But Indianapolis’s zoning apparently restricts adult-oriented businesses less stringently than other cities; proximity to a school or kid-friendly establishment either wasn’t a factor or it simply isn’t close enough. The ever-savvy Lion’s Den attempted to curry favor in the community by selling itself as an asset using much the same lingo I noted earlier: “healthy exploration of human sexuality in a safe space”. Regardless of the results here at Southport Road, the increasingly confident adult novelty industry faces an equally emboldened response from state legislators, who are now seeking to escalate the siting standards for adult-oriented businesses across Indiana: at least 1,000 feet from a child care center, school, YMCA/YWCA, Boys and Girls Club, public swimming pool, public playground or park, youth sports facility, or children’s amusement. (Conspicuously absent from the provision are churches. This surprises me, given that St. Paul’s Lutheran Church is only about 1,200 feet to the northwest.)
The most conspicuous feature of this adult-oriented business, however, has less to do with site selection and more with the physical characteristics of the structure itself.
It’s an old KFC, for crying out loud. Not only do adult-oriented businesses rarely feature drive-thrus (outside of maybe Nevada), but the KFC had lots of windows. Now the risqué merchandise tantalizes drivers heading to the Cracker Barrel. I’ll concede that the contents peeping through these windows are more at the PG-13 caliber, comparable to the defunct Frederick’s of Hollywood: racier than Victoria’s Secret but certainly not Larry Flynt material. That said, the content inside Lion’s Den does fully venture into NC-17 and X-rated territory. And it’s common knowledge that most adult-oriented businesses that might host illicit activity—Asian spas and massage parlors, adult movie superstores, strip clubs, or even certain LGBTQ+ nightclubs—have no windows whatsoever. They don’t really want the average passer-by to know what happens in there.
The windows in this case could be Lion’s Den engaged in more tactical virtue signaling—much like their trendy “empower” “safe space” lingo, they have windows to let the locals know that, while the content they sell is naughty, it isn’t so filthy that they are ashamed and must shroud it behind thick cement blocks. Thirty years after Madonna’s Sex and Erotica, I guess this passes for sex positivity.
35 thoughts on “Adult-oriented businesses in the burbs: a veritable lion’s den for innocent impalas.”
Yeah, but this isn’t the first store of its kind in Indy. Seems like there is a Cirilla’s on every corner. The Castleton one is also near a trampoline park, and the east side one, west side, and northwest side locations are all near Karma Records (which I’m also surprised that they still exist!) I’ve also seen billboards for adult stores around Indy — but not the giant signs at the actual stores.
Good point, and thanks for reminding me of Cirilla’s! Being one of those innocent impalas, I’ve never visited. I assume it’s raunchier than Victorias Secret but is it more like the old Frederick’s of Hollywood, or is it on par with Hustler? From the website it looks like it’s inventory is quite…um….robust. These are truly the most pressing questions of the modern era.
Susan Fleckenstein already referenced the good old days of Priscilla’s. It really depends on municipal laws making it easier or harder for this sort of thing to secure a location, and, beyond that, how many people in the immediate neighborhood make a fuss. I’m sure plenty of people would like to keep CBD, vape, smoke shops, pawn shops, and tattoo parlors out of their backyard as well. Good luck with that.
As for lions den, locating in city limits may be the start of a new trend. But the typical spot is off an interstate highway in the middle of nowhere.
if you’re comparing to VS, I’d argue VS is worse for how it gave so many women (and men) unrealistic beauty standards, and it recently came out that they had ties to Epstein and he used that connection to entice models… But that said, Cirilla’s was pretty tame the few times I’ve been. 🤷♀️ It’s been clean and well-lit, employees were nice and helpful, and they even have a good selection of Halloween costume accessories. 😄 But I am still curious about whether they have or had a connection to Karma Records. Then again, Indy is a small town, and it’s possible the owners just knew each other (I think those Cirilla’s were all Priscilla’s back in the day) and knew the landlords at that time.
I did a little more research, and Cirilla’s is headquartered in Kansas City. They have locations all over the Midwest. It might have relocated the HQ there a while back, and it might have begun as Priscilla’s, which used the same font as Cirilla’s and was also mostly located next to Karma Records….waay back in the early 2000s.
Except on the south side, where Karma Records was there for many years but has since departed–and Circilla’s/Priscilla’s now has its one location in Center Grove, a place where I would have expected some controversy. But if Cirilla’s bricks-and-mortar is more tasteful, it can probably keep some of that at bay. They seem pretty “50 Shades of Gray” in terms of what they offer at their website.
There was a big battle with an “adult” store on N. keystone Ave, maybe 30 years ago. Many neighborhood complaints, court filings, and 1st Amendment arguments ensued. The final agreement had a large addition over imposed on the signage, which then read, “_____Products”.
The other interesting bit was that they had to offer “normal” items for sale as well as the adult -oriented films, magazines, and devices for which they were best known. Among these “normal” items were tapes of various operas, sung by famous folks, e.g. Pavarotti and the like.
Caveat emptor.
I often wonder if some of these places have to position the tamer, “normal” merchandise closer to the doors or windows, to not offend the sensibilities of passersby. It’s also possible, depending on municipal ordinances, that a store that sells or generates revenue from enough “wholesome“ stuff won’t fall into the full classification of an adult oriented business. If you recall Stoner’s Fun Stores, they were fairly raunchy, but not exclusively so, and they were usually able to function in bland places like suburban shopping malls.
Finger licking good?
There’s one called Temptations down the street from a large shopping area here with a Costco, Walmart and IKEA. It makes no effort to hide what it is.
Yeah, it’s very hard to predict how these will play out. Some municipalities are just far more prone to regulating them enough so that it isn’t desirable or cost efficient to locate there. The suburbs tend to be more Puritanical that way, not surprisingly. The places that sell the really hard-core stuff usually don’t have windows, but most big cities have a higher tolerance for raunchy storefronts. It’s hard not to forget some of those kinky storefront windows along Belmont Avenue in Chicago back in the day!
As for the location in this article of mine, I think the biggest surprise is that the building went from a KFC to a “bedroom accessory shop”, with basically no modifications to the exterior. It still has the old drive-through window!
lol, handy for picking up an online order? Perhaps with so many businesses closing the past two years businesses have chosen to get more creative or less picky about a building. I noticed the old Sweet Tomatoes buffet near me is now zoned for medical offices.
Yeah, with so many businesses moving to mostly virtual and teleworking operations, there are a lot of empty commercial shells desperate for a tenant. It was already bad for retail; now it’s worse for a lot of consulting/service-oriented businesses that have reduced the need for workers on site. Those businesses who DO still want bricks-and-mortar have quite the pick, and the property managers/brokers are desperate to fill up the space so they offer rock-bottom rates. The result? Pretty weird buffet-to-clinic conversions. (I guess it offers a hint of what happens if you overindulge at a Sweet Tomatoes.)
Indiana looks like Nevada when driving I-65 just north of Louisville!
Methinks that has something to do with stricter laws regulating adult businesses in Kentucky than there are in Indiana.
They put a Hustler store in next to Chuck E Cheese in Castleton.
This is the first time I’ve been disappointed in one of your articles. ‘Moral laxity’? 😂 Btw, I used to manage a Priscilla’s, and a good friend of mine is the manager of that Lion’s Den. There is absolutely a place for businesses such as these in any community. No need to hide them in a seedy part of town.
The seedy parts of town tend to have lower leasing rates…and (more importantly) many, many fewer NIMBYs or Karens (or Karen NIMBYs). I do remember that Hustler store, but wasn’t there a big stink when it opened? While a company like Hustler expects as much, it does create costs with all that lag time between leasing and actually opening their doors. Looking at Google Street View, it looks like Hustler chose a building without many windows (the Asian spa/gay bar effect).
As for “moral laxity”, hmmmm…I don’t think I’ve ever used a phrase like that without being at least a tiny bit ironical! Thanks for mentioning Priscilla’s; I knew that used to be a thing. Is Cirilla’s the company that bought it out? They use the same font and have a similar sounding name.
You really have not done your research. I actually think this location has been there 2 years (or close) already, I can find out for you. And these businesses are everywhere and have been for quite some time. Priscilla’s (now Cirilla’s – it was nothing nefarious, just a trademark issue), and Lover’s Lane all have multiple locations. There’s a Cirilla’s I could walk to from my childhood home. Adam & Eve is one of the largest mail order companies operating today. There are Mary Kay type MLM businesses that are quite popular like Pure Romance. The reason these businesses exist is because they are in very high demand. The zoning thing? They are in the same category as Spencer’s, Karma, and vape shops – which is why you see them so close to Karma. They aren’t related any more than Starbucks & 5 Guys is to Trader Joe’s.
Again, I’m disappointed. Sex shouldn’t be considered seedy or immoral. The main consumers of these businesses are ordinary, every day people. Couples. Parents. Maybe even your mom or dad, brother or sister. I talked to these people daily for years.
I am in Indy no more than once or twice a year. This article from December 10, 2021 refers to it as “newly opened”. https://news.yahoo.com/lions-den-sues-city-indianapolis-151902572.html
I appreciate your and Rebecca’s reference to Cirilla’s, and I acknowledge that I neglected to reference them. I completely forgot about them. And Lover’s Lane. I can also acknowledge that I haven’t been to any of these except for Cirilla’s, way back when it was Priscilla’s. And so I don’t know the nuanced differences between what they sell (or how they might differ from the defunct Fredericks of Hollywood or Hustler Hollywood). But I am aware, from my line of work, that there are literally hundreds of legal considerations related to “adult-oriented businesses” that get passed through various town councils each year. They teach courses on how to wade through the legal morass that they involve. Whether we agree with them is beside the point. They happen and become a consideration for zoning boards of adjustment all over the country.
I highlighted one business that unequivocally has chosen remote, rural locations and only recently located near Southport. I conceded that they have another location on Georgetown Road in Lafayette. The biggest oddity to me was the occupying of a fast food restaurant building.
The taking offense toward my attempt to depict this neutrally as a consideration (which is what journalism is supposed to do) is bizarre. I made no criticism to any of these businesses operating, or to what they sell, or to their clientele. It’s almost as if people freaked out because I simply wasn’t showering them with praise or mocking their opponents enough. My whole goal was to present this flatly and neutrally, from a legal perspective. “Obscene” has a legal definition, even if we don’t agree with its applicability. (If anything, I was tacitly critical of people who attempt to thwart a legal private business from operating.) There’s been almost as much finger-wagging here as we’d expect the church ladies to do. Did people even read the full article?
Moral certitude is icky and insufferable no matter where it comes from. I hold my ground on my approach.
my bad, it opened July 2021. Coincidentally, the 50th anniversay year for The Lion’s Den. Fifty years! These businesses would not exist if there was not a healthy demand. Again, you’d be surprised at the average customer, considering you think these places are an example of ‘moral laxity’.
I thought my use of the word “moral laxity” was dripping with irony—sorry if the irony didn’t stick. The phrase sounds like something last used regularly by Shakespeare. Or Milton. Definitely Milton.
There is one point where I can definitely understand people taking offense, and for that, I’ll acknowledge my wording was careless. It’s easy to assume from my article, because adult oriented businesses, more frequently locate in middle or low end real estate, that the surrounding neighborhoods themselves are distressed or that the people who patronize them are themselves derelict. Nothing could be further from the truth.
You’re right, they often easily locate in middle-class neighborhoods, but they choose the older and more depressed real estate, simply because it’s cheaper, and the leasing agreements are sweet. And they probably have a killer profit margin! Besides, upscale shopping districts do tend to bring the NIMBY culture that will use its money and strong political connections to block things that besmirch their sensibilities. There’s a reason that strip clubs locate in heavy industrial districts like Harding street, or they used to be more prevalent on the south side of Indy’s downtown, if they’re not so easy to come by Carmel. We know the Stepford wives and husbands buy the stuff. They just don’t want them near their palatial homes. You’d be amazed at some of the cool development proposals in downtown Indy that got quashed, primarily due to a half dozen rich people living in Lockerbie square.
Hustler did end up opening in Castleton. I’m struggling to remember what it was before it was Hustler. But yeah it too doesn’t look like your typical adult novelty store you see in the sticks off an interstate.
judging from a 2019 Google Street View, it used to be some sort of flooring supply store. Not very many windows at all. Which probably made it more desirable for a retailer like Hustler.
I don’t think Lion’s Den is trendsetting, they just have commodified a smart business model. When I was in Houston almost 20 years ago there was an adult store similarly located right off I-10 within the metroplex.
Also, I think “obscene” is an unfair word you used here: “adult-oriented businesses often fall under special scrutiny because of the obscene nature of what they sell.” I suggest explicit or risqué. Obscene connotes there’s something bad or distasteful about it.
Yeah, true, there are plenty of adult oriented businesses in urban areas; this particular retailer nearly always chooses remote, rural locations, right off an interstate. Until recently, I think being rural was part of their business strategy. Now that seems to be changing.
As for “obscene“, it’s not a value judgment on my part. I’m applying the legal definition that pairs it with “special scrutiny” and is often used to make time, place, and manner restrictions to freedom of speech. Lions Den does not often win its 1A lawsuits. In Indy, it was denied the right to a huge landmark sign. As for what’s risqué, I guess it’s like what that SCOTUS justice said about pornography: you know it when you see it.
Josh Anderson have you been bold enough to go to the lion’s den?
I think the reason it isn’t by the truck stop and strip clubs you speak about is because of exactly what it is. It isn’t about casual sex or a
Den of Iniquity- it’s about providing for the average couple – with or without kids- access to items which might enhance their bedroom lives. For too long there has been a stigma attached to sex which includes there being ‘proper’ sex and ‘improper’ sex. Who has determined what is ‘proper’ is the church combines with cis het white men. Yes- everything is not for everyone- but when it’s consensual it’s not ‘improper’.
It’s certainly not as uncommon as people think. Rebecca Berfanger correctly pointed out that, in Indy, there are plenty of Cirilla’s (Priscilla’s) scattered around and have been there for decades. The one featured here still strikes me as surprising because A) the parent company Lion’s Den nearly always has chosen interstate exits in very rural areas (which are likely far more conservative than south side Indy) and B) it reclaimed a former KFC, complete with a drive-in window, rather than some nondescript boxy windowless building. These two choices probably prompted more backlash than if it had chosen to locate at a truck stop along Harding Street–but they seem to have overcome the opposition, in no small part due to Indy’s very light restrictions on adult oriented businesses.
And, if they’re still around in two years, they probably made a smart business decision.
You really have not done your research. I actually think this location has been there 2 years (or close) already, I can find out for you. And these businesses are everywhere and have been for quite some time. Priscilla’s (now Cirilla’s – it was nothing nefarious, just a trademark issue), and Lover’s Lane all have multiple locations. There’s a Cirilla’s I could walk to from my childhood home. Adam & Eve is one of the largest mail order companies operating today. There are Mary Kay type MLM businesses that are quite popular like Pure Romance. The reason these businesses exist is because they are in very high demand. The zoning thing? They are in the same category as Spencer’s, Karma, and vape shops – which is why you see them so close to Karma. They aren’t related any more than Starbucks & 5 Guys is to Trader Joe’s.
Again, I’m disappointed. Sex shouldn’t be considered seedy or immoral. The main consumers of these businesses are ordinary, every day people. Couples. Parents. Maybe even your mom or dad, brother or sister. I talked to these people daily for years.
My husband and I have shopped in that Lion’s Den on Southport Rd. 😁 We are your average parents in a regular suburban household. We don’t have strange kinks or perversions (I don’t think 🤔😆). That said, we do have a really incredible sex life and I think that’s important for a successful marriage. I like having that store close to home. I don’t think of it as dirty. Did you know you can now purchase vibrators from Target & Walgreens? They’re on the shelves. If I can pass vibrators while picking up a prescription with my son, or pass Victoria’s Secret while shopping in the mall w/ my daughter, I can handle driving past a brown building called The Lion’s Den with kids in the car.
Hi Jackie, i’m neutral on the subject. I have no problem with these stores existing, and lions den specifically has changed its business model to begin locating in urban areas, where in the past it almost exclusively operated in remote, rural locations on the side of interstate highways. I merely noted that, by choosing a location that was a former KFC building in an area that doesn’t typically have this kind of thing, they were going to face pushback. And They did.
Being a code-aware guy in Indy 🙂 I think the magic distance from a “protected district” is 500 feet. Thus there are relatively few places in the county that “adult-oriented businesses” are allowed. Right in the middle of a giant commercial district is typically where they can go, and this one fits the bill.
Other businesses nearby, whether oriented towards families and children, don’t play into the “protected districts” of residences, churches, schools, day care centers, and the like.
Good to hear from you! And that sounds about right. From my research, the state House Bill 1122 from earlier this year hoped to make a statewide prerogative of a 1,000-foot “protected district” that included public and nonprofit institution buffers: schools, Boys/Girls Clubs, playgrounds, parks..about the only thing I could find that suggested a private business was “children’s amusement establishment”, which could easily include a Sky Zone trampoline park or Chuck E. Cheese. Also a bit surprised that churches were not listed, since they often do factor into “adult-oriented business” regulations. Don’t think the bill passed in the Senate, but I’m not well attuned at tracking these things.
Can’t help but wonder if lobbyists for the industry actually don’t fight this as much as they could, given that (as you indicated) relatively little of the total US land area allows this stuff. Almost likely they enjoy a certain legislatively induced scarcity because it can help pack people into their locations. Then again, that’s rarely a wise capitalization strategy in the long-term.
Well, consider one of the remnants of Fort Ben: the concentration of strip clubs on Pendleton Pike. (Aside: these tend to cluster around every major military base, on a highway strip that also features check cashing/payday loan places, buy here/pay here car lots, fast food, liquor stores, and mobile home parks.)
The clubs on and near the Pike predate the “adult oriented business” zoning provisions in Indy, so they are grandfathered in. They represent the highest concentration of such businesses in the county. If I remember correctly there are four clubs (tucked in among 17 used car lots and seven or eight fast food joints the last time I counted on my way to the Fort).
Strictly from a real estate investment perspective this scarcity of sites makes the grandfathered establishments pretty valuable.
They enjoy a regulation-created monopoly that effectively locks in the (presumably undesirable) regulated land use.
The “economic geography” lesson here: regulators must understand that stricter property regulations only prevent new locations and semi-permanently preserve the old ones that engendered the desire to regulate.
With this explanation, you’re tapping into the nuance of “adult-oriented business” that either I failed to capture or most of the angry readers failed to recognize. It’s no small relief that you’re looking at the one extreme that faces far greater scrutiny. The opposite end is, I guess, Victoria’s Secret? Mostly harmless sexy stuff that is easy to sell in the mall. In the mushy middle is the full gamut of adult novelty stores, which I fully believe should have a right to operate in calibration with demand…but, perhaps based on the explicitness of the content they sell, may get treated closer to Pendleton Pike than Victoria’s Secret. Indy has a ton of adult novelty stores: Cirilla’s, Lovers Lane, Tasty’s Gift Factory, Hustler Hollywood, Adultmart… I haven’t bothered to check if all of these are still in business, and I’m even less certain if they all fall within the same scrutiny.
But I’d imagine that, if adult novelty stores (sex shops) as strictly regulated as strip clubs, or there are “relatively few places” where they’re allowed (as you alluded to earlier), there’s a point where the induced scarcity most certainly makes them super profitable. Because, after all, as most commenters noted (and I wouldn’t refute), the demand for these places is much higher than their comparative tendency toward obscure locations would suggest.