(Note: This story appears in the December 2022 issue of STOREROTICA Magazine)
The Museum of Sex features exhibits and galleries dedicated to showcasing various artists and erotica, the history of sex and more. There’s also a bar and, of course, one of the funnest gift shops a museum-goer could hope for.
Kit Richardson has been with the Museum of Sex for almost six years. What started as a curious visit to the museum turned into a vocation — and a relocation from Philadelphia, where she was working at an adult boutique at the time.
“I decided I wanted to move back to New York and figured I’d see if the museum was hiring,” she says.
Within a few weeks, Richardson was hired as a lead sales associate. She is now the head of retail, where she is responsible for buying, merchandising, overseeing inventory, hiring, training and establishing business goals.
STOREROTICA Magazine spoke with Richardson about all this ode to erotica has to offer as well as how it’s received in The Big Apple.
SE: What’s the most common question visitors ask at MOS?
RICHARDSON: The most common question is “What is the Museum of Sex?!” We are not just a museum. We are not just a sex store. We are not just a bar. We are an experience into pleasure. You enter the museum through our curated sex store, then venture up three floors of exhibits and galleries dedicated to showcasing various artists and erotica, the history of sex, and even porn and media. Then you cross the hall where you enter Super Funland and venture down three floors of carnival games and into the bar where you can sip on a delicious Clit-ta-Rita and then end your visit back in the sex store. Museum, sex store, bar. We are a culmination of all these things that ultimately sends our guests back
out into the world more informed and comfortable about sex and their pleasure.
SE: What would you say your audience/clientele skews toward more (retail or museum)?
RICHARDSON: People come to us first for the museum. It is how we are able to advertise and have social media. Knowing that sex stores and toy companies are constantly being censured, we are lucky to have the platform that we do. The moment our guests walk through our doors and realize it’s a sex store, too, then we convert them to sex toy owners.
SE: New York being a cosmopolitan city, how would you describe your clientele? How do you feel you’ve been accepted by the local community?
RICHARDSON: We see around 5,000 guests weekly and they are a variety of people from all around the world and backgrounds. Tourists are our typical customer, but we are seeing a growing interest from our local community especially now that we’ve begun to have events. I was never too sure if we were accepted by the local community until a few months ago — I was launching a new window and someone passed by and commented that they love seeing the window changeovers. We’ve also won Tripadvisor Traveler’s Choice Award for 2022 so we are beginning to see the recognition of Museum of Sex both home and abroad.
“Museum, sex store, bar. We are a culmination of all these things that ultimately sends our guests back out into the world more informed and comfortable about sex and their pleasure.” — Kit Richardson
SE: What is your most popular product and what is your most popular museum piece?
RICHARDSON: Our most popular product is our very own Museum of Sex Love High gummies. Love High gummies are manufactured to get you high and horny. While we do have a CBD option, it’s the THC option that is taking the world by storm. Having launched only recently, these sexy arousing and psychedelic gummies have skyrocketed to become our most popular product. That and of course the indomitable Inya Rose. The popularity of the Rose is unmatched by any other product in this industry and has become a staple in society.
In the museum, I would say our most popular exhibit is Super Funland which is an immersive sex-themed carnival where guests venture through three floors of games aimed at providing a historical context into carnivals but also rids guests of inhibitions around sex and pleasure. The favorite attractions in Super Funland tend to be the Boob Bounce House, Slide, and the Tunnel of Love which is a 4-D ride through an artfully designed orgy.
SE: If you had other adult retailers in a room, what’s the No. 1 piece of advice you would give them?
RICHARDSON: Create an experience, a brand story around pleasure. Customers are different now than they were 10 years ago, 10 months ago, even 10 weeks ago. They want to support brands and stores that have similar missions to their own. So stand for something. Invest in social impact. Create safe spaces. If we can keep customers engaged in a safe space and encourage them to be adventurous in the bedroom not only will the buy products, but they will leave and spread the good gospel of pleasure and sex positivity to the world.
For more information, visit museumofsex.com.
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