• Forbes June 9, 2012

    Fifty Shades of Grey is Building Bridges Between the Imagination and the Bedroom

    When a salacious media phenom like the Fifty Shades book trilogy comes along, things start happening. People think differently, act differently, say and do things they wouldn’t have said and done before.… At Babeland, an adult store in New York, sales of kinky products are up nearly 30 percent in the last few months and visits to the bondage section of their Web site have spiked 81 percent, reports the New York Post. “The book is just an explosion of permission for [people] to try something new in the bedroom,” Babeland’s co-founder, Claire Cavanah told the Post.

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddisalvo/2012/06/09/fifty-shades-of-grey-is-building-bridges-between-the-imagination-and-the-bedroom/

  • Studio360 June 8, 2012

    Blushing Fifty Shades of Red

    The erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey, about a young woman named Anastasia and her bondage-loving boyfriend Christian, has been jumping off shelves (and into e-book download queues) since it was released by Knopf’s Vintage imprint earlier this year. Everybody’s reading it, but a book this risqué makes for some awkward conversations. What if your mom is reading it? Rebecca Lee Douglas went there. Claire Cavanah, Babeland’s Co-Founder, is interviewed. Listen online.

    http://www.studio360.org/2012/jun/08/fifty-shades-red/

  • Business Insider June 7, 2012

    Hardware Stores Are Experiencing A Boom In Rope Sales Thanks To A Certain Erotic Novel
    The New York Post is reporting that hardware stores in NYC have seen an increase in rope sales over the past several months — and it’s not because men are suddenly conquering their to-do lists. The novel has encouraged women to explore their kinky sides with materials used in the novel like rope, riding crops and handcuffs. NYC’s Babeland has seen its sales of kinky toys increase 30 percent and an 81 percent increase in traffic to its website, the Post reports.
    http://www.businessinsider.com/fifty-shades-of-grey-has-increased-rope-sales-at-hardware-stores-2012-6

  • Redbook online June 7, 2012

    Top 40: Tips from Our 40 Steamiest Sex Articles
    What I Learned in Sex School
    It’s all about the tongue.
    When it comes to performing oral sex on him, don’t focus only on porn star-style suction. You can do a lot with just your tongue, I learned at Babeland’s “Oral Sex Basics: Fellatio” (Babeland’s most popular class!). Flatten your tongue and pretend you are licking a delicious ice cream cone. Then try the “pointy-tongue” technique to stroke up and down and side to side. Do different strokes and touches, like flicking your tongue over the head, and see what kind of response you get.
    http://www.redbookmag.com/love-sex/advice/best-sex-article-tips#slide-3

  • New York Post June 7, 2012

    Fifty Shades of Grey spurs sales of sex accessories, bondage material

    At Babeland, sales of kinky products are up nearly 30 percent in the last few months — and visits to the bondage section of their Web site have spiked 81 percent. Riding crops and handcuffs — both used in the book — are hot items. And there’s a “Fifty Shades of Grey” book and bondage kit sold online for $29 and a more extensive “Fifty Shades of Grey: Indulge Your Fantasies” kit, which includes restraints, a riding crop and “Spank Me Baby” body powder for $169. “It’s like a juggernaut,” says Babeland co-founder Claire Cavanah. “You’d be surprised to see how very ordinary these people are who are coming in. The book is just an explosion of permission for them to try something new in the bedroom.”

    http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/ny_gals_learning_the_ropes_at_fifty_sVWWKeksj9WKUto2ITg1KK/0

  • USA Today May 30, 2012

    Many chain stores now add a toy aisle for adults
    Websites that sell an array of paraphernalia designed to enhance the sexual experience include Liberator Bedroom Adventure Gear, which looks rather like a sexual Bed, Bath and Beyond. The Fifty Shades books prominently feature a sex playroom with whips, handcuffs and other sex toys, and now websites including Pure Romance and Babeland sell Fifty Shades-inspired wares. Vibrator sales are increasing, show exclusive data provided to USA TODAY by Trojan. The research is by Nielsen, which tracks UPC-coded items scanned at food, drug and mass retailers, including vibrator rings and handheld devices. First-quarter numbers for 2012 count 318,840 vibrators (all brands) sold at retail outlets, excluding Walmart. That’s $4.4 million worth of vibrators sold, up about 14% over the first quarter last year, Nielsen says.
    http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/wellness/story/2012-05-29/vibrators-and-sex-toys-sales/55289424/1

  • Huffington Post May 25, 2012

    Is He Toy Worthy? Looking for Mr. Goodvibe
    A week ago, ready to purchase what I hoped would be a self-fulfilling prophecy, I took a field trip to Babeland, an adult toy store in SoHo. A sex educator, Pamela, schooled me on what was new in the toy market. Let’s just say they’re not your mama’s magic wand (not that there’s anything wrong with that). They were esthetically beautiful devices that look like a piece of sculpture — something I’d comfortably leave on the nightstand even when my 80 year-old father visited.
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/melani-robinson/female-sex-aids_b_1540487.html

  • Bloomberg BusinessWeek May 24, 2012

    The Fifty Shades of Grey Stimulus Retailers have been quick to jump on the Fifty Shades bandwagon, sensing a rare opportunity to attract mainstream customers. Babeland, a sex toy retailer based in Seattle, has launched a mini-site “inspired by” Fifty Shades of Grey that suggests dozens of items, from a scented massage candle to a set of vibrating nipple clamps. Claire Cavanah, Babeland’s co-founder, says the books have breathed life into the moribund BDSM category, noting that sales of bondage gear jumped 375 percent in April. “Now we have an event called Fifty Shades of Hot Sex,” Cavanah says, offering practical demonstrations on spanking and bondage. “About 150 people have responded in the SoHo store [in Manhattan], maxing out capacity. We had to add another section to take overflow.”
    http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-24/the-fifty-shades-of-grey-stimulus

  • The New Yorker Page Turner Blog May 22, 2012

    “Fifty Shades of Grey”: The How-To Class Over at Babeland, a New York sex shop, the best-selling trilogy Fifty Shades of Grey has shifted from erotic fiction to how-to guide. On a recent Friday, a hundred or so women, four men, and one Chihuahua crowded into the SoHo store for a class inspired by the books. “I found out about the books because people kept coming into the store and asking about specific products— floggers, restraints, paddles,” said Claire Cavanah, Babeland’s co-founder.
    http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/05/fifty-shades-of-grey-the-how-to-class.html

  • Glamour Smitten Blog May 14, 2012

    Whoa. You’ll Never Believe The Vibrators Women Used to Use on Their Lady Parts! Well, here’s another reason to be thankful we live in 2012 and not, say, the 1920s. Take a peek at what women used to use as vibrators. Seriously. I’m coining this week Vibrator Week. For no reason other than that I’m fairly certain it doesn’t have its own week yet, and this one might still be up for grabs. Also, there’s the upcoming release of Hysteria, the movie about the invention of the vibrator, and sex toys are getting a lot of play. So, in honor of this made-up week, let’s take a walk down memory lane and look at the, um, devices women once used on their naughty bits. (Thanks, friends at Babeland!)
    http://www.glamour.com/sex-love-life/blogs/smitten/2012/05/whoa-youll-never-believe-the-v.html