Hustler Hollywood Stores: 
Rapid Expansion from Coast To Coast
Larry Flynt/Chris Mael Interview

 By Christopher Buttner

  “What other adult store can you go into like the Hollywood Hustler Store on Sunset Blvd., in Hollywood, and buy a cappuccino, get a dessert, relax with a magazine, and enjoy and shop where the music is conducive for the environment?  We wanted to create a fun shopping experience.  No matter to what Hustler Store you go to, anywhere in the country, you’re going to have that same positive experience.”   -----   Chris Mael is the director of Hustler Hollywood Stores operations “There are so many zoning regulations we have to meet out there and the Supreme Court has given local communities the right to zone for various businesses.  But, the one thing they can’t do is zone out the First Amendment, and I cannot imagine that anybody would think that any rubber goods product is obscene.  It’s just a piece of rubber.” ----- Larry Flynt    

THE HUSTLER HOLLYWOOD STORES

   Larry Flynt opened the first Hustler Hollywood Store in Cincinnati in 1997.  The upscale chain sells a wide variety of adult videos, lingerie, assorted novelty gifts and red-hot Hustler branded apparel.  Hustler Hollywood Stores have been set apart from competitors by offering consumers a refreshing alternative to the traditional adult bookstore.  The eleven stores, the latest opened in Tacoma, Washington in September 2006, are well lit, open, airy and immaculately clean and sexy retail environments ranging in size from 6500 to 8500-squre feet.  Many of them feature cafes, and with the open floor plans and elaborate lighting, Hustler Hollywood Stores feel more like a nightclub than an adult novelty store.  Flynt plans on opening another three stores by 2007, with the next scheduled opening to take place in Tempe, Arizona.  Long range, Flynt’s target is a minimum of 30 stores by 2010.
   Currently, Flynt operates the nine other Hustler Hollywood Stores in South Beach, New Orleans, Hollywood, Gardena, Fort Lauderdale, Lexington, San Diego, Monroe and Nashville.     Chris Mael is the director of Hustler Hollywood Stores operations.  An intelligent young man, Chris joined Flynt’s Hustler Hollywood retail operations after working for four-and-a-half years with Walmart.     Larry states, “Chris is doing a fine job.  He had spent some time with Walmart and, believe it or not, Walmart teaches their people a lot about sales and inventory control, so he’s been a great asset to the chain.”    In only four short years, Chris Mael went from Walmart store manager, to district manager and just before joining the Hustler organization in September 2005, had just became a regional Walmart manager, supervising all Walmart stores in the entire state of Pennsylvania and half of New York State.   “I never thought I was going to leave Walmart,” Chris states.  “I honestly thought I would retire from that company.”    Chris continues, “I was presented with this opportunity, and it’s weird how it happened by chance.  A best friend had told me that Hustler Hollywood was looking for someone with Walmart experience, because Hustler liked Walmart’s principals.  They wanted someone with ‘big box retail’ experience to help them grow through the hiccups a company experiences with the kind of growth that Hustler Hollywood anticipated.  We ended up meeting and I came to work for the company.”    What goes through your mind when you’re working for the largest family oriented, conservative retailers on the planet, and someone from the Flynt organization shows up at your door and says, ‘we want you to manage the Hustler Stores?’     Chris laughs and states, “It was quite a change, but, I will say this: The two things that I took into consideration was, I was working with a huge retailer and I was well trained and skilled in operations.  I took that knowledge and education in operations and I am actually applying it to a chain of stores in where I am more comfortable.  It’s not that I didn’t like Walmart, it was a great opportunity and a great company, but coming to Hustler Hollywood, I am in a more comfortable environment, as it’s more similar to the bar and restaurant service industry I was in for 11 years before Walmart.  Plus, I’m taking the same skills and education I learned in Walmart and I’m applying it to towards merchandise I like better.”    When asked, what was the reaction from family and friends, Chris replies, “Not a problem at all.  I have a very open family.  I sent my grandfather a Hustler golf shirt and he absolutely loved it.”  

ARE YOU EXPERIENCED?  

Larry Flynt states, “Hustler has been a publisher for 33 years and part of being in the adult business is dealing with the adult stores.  I always thought they were always so tacky and seedy and they always drew basically male customers.  I thought if someone did really upscale boutiques, and put some money into it, you could attract both sexes.  And sure enough, I was right.  My stores get 56% female customers.  56% female is a pretty impressive percentage.”    Continuing, Mr. Flynt states, “It’s not the kind of clientele you would think.  Shopping at a Hustler store is sort of like an event.  If a guys wants to take his girl or wife out, instead of going to a bar or club, you can stop by the Hustler Store to check out the latest novelties, gifts and clothing and it’s really a shopping experience that can’t happen anywhere else.”    Chris adds, “We want to make sure that it’s a unique shopping experience.  What other adult store can you go into like the Hollywood Hustler Store on Sunset Blvd., in Hollywood, and buy a cappuccino, get a dessert, relax with a magazine, and enjoy and shop where the music is conducive for the environment?  We wanted to create a fun shopping experience.  No matter to what Hustler Store you go to, anywhere in the country, you’re going to have that same positive experience.  We don’t want it to be intimidating at all, and the Hustler Hollywood Store experience is counter to any negative perception of an adult boutique.”  

THE PRODUCTS

The Hustler Hollywood Chain represents products from over 600 vendors, but not just any products.  In the last two years, purchasing for all of the stores has been centralized to the home office, at Wilshire Blvd., and the purchasing department consists of five full-time buyers. 
   Chris states, “Yes, we’re carrying products from 600 vendors, but that’s honed down from probably 10,000 to 15,000 vendors that are actually out there.  When we go to a trade show, everyone and their mother comes out of the woodwork.  We can see 15 variations of a product at a trade show, but we’ll pick the one product that is the best overall, because everything is factored into why we’ll choose a product for resale, including packaging, marketing, to how the hang-tag is positioned on the product.  In the adult novelty industry there’s not just one company that makes an adult product.  You can find numerous variations of the same product, so it’s really finding the right mix, price, F.O.B. location, and even country of origin.  We even take into consideration, has the product provided a job here in America, therefore, the decision will be made, do we go with the one that was produced overseas or in the United States?”    So, I have to ask of Mr. Flynt, rumor has it that you call every Hustler Store at the end of every day to check the numbers.  Any truth to that?   Larry replies, “Every day I call at 2 a.m. to get the numbers when they close.”    And how well do the Hustler Hollywood stores do on a weekly basis?   Chris Mael states, “Our average weekly volume is $60,000 and $70,000 per store, and we have a lot of stores that do over $100,000 per week.  We’re looking to do an average of $3 million dollars per store, per year.” 

THE MONIKER AND ITS REPUTATION  
 
The reputation of the infamous Hustler name precedes the company, since it has such a well-known risqué; crude sense of sexuality, and bad taste humor attached to it.  When Hustler opens a new store, what kind of obstacles and objections does the company need to overcome in the new community?   Chris states, “When I first heard of the position opening, and having never seen one of the Hustler stores, I probably thought negatively like how any City Council member must think when they hear Larry Flynt is coming to town.  When Hustler goes into a new city, they may be opposed when they first hear the name, but when they see the finished product at the grand opening, it wipes away all negativity.”    Recently, The Arizona Republic Newspaper, on October 27, reported that the soon-to-open Hustler Hollywood Store in Tempe will reside in what once was a Red Lobster restaurant.  The residents, the article states, particularly can't wrap their minds around the notion of a store in their neighborhood selling adult toys, provocative clothing and other explicit material, in what was once a family restaurant.    Bill Kersbergen, a Tempe principal planner, says Hustler officials have complied with every city code necessary.  "They have established a portion of their store as their adult portion and everything out of that portion is not adult-oriented," Kersbergen said.  "They have complied.  There is not a process in place to deny something that is an allowed use."   Mr. Flynt comments, “Everyone has apprehensions.  Once we’ve worked out the paperwork with the landlords, towns, counties, and neighbors, they realize we run a first rate operation.  You always receive some resistance in various places, but there are so many different places you can go to, it really doesn’t effect us as far as expansion is concerned.”    Usually when you think of adult novelty stores, they’re relegated to the ‘other side of the tracks,’ they have blacked out windows, parking in the rear, but all of the Hustler Hollywood Stores feature an open and inviting format.   “We have ample parking in the front,” Chris states, “they’re well lit, clean and inviting stores, and every store has the huge windows in the front with an open an airy feeling.  It’s a very inviting shopping experience and that’s the way we intend to keep it.”    There are, of course, rules and criteria that certain products are not to be displayed near windows where they could be seen by the general public.     Chris elaborates, “With 50 United States, each State has its own set of rules you have to go by.  In any one of our stores, I’ll use the Sunset Store as an example, we have that relaxed six-foot tall wall that separates the adult area, so that even if you’re looking in our front window, you do not see the adult area.”    “When you first experience a Hustler Store,” Chris continues, “you come in, experience this beautiful retail environment, and you realize it’s nothing like you thought it was going to be.  You feel, ‘my girlfriend can come here by herself without me and go shopping and feel completely comfortable.’  We’re proud of what we do and what we’ve created.”    In closing, I ask Larry, there are seven states that have ballot measures seeking to outlaw sex toys.  As the biggest proponent and most vocal supporter of our Freedom of Speech, what is your take on these ballot measures?   Larry replies, “I don’t think that will ever fly.  There are so many zoning regulations we have to meet out there and the Supreme Court has given local communities the right to zone for various businesses.  But, the one thing they can’t do is zone out the First Amendment, and I cannot imagine that anybody would think that any rubber goods product is obscene.  It’s just a piece of rubber.” Christopher Buttner is the president of PRThatRocks.com, an entertainment industry public relations firm serving clients in music, entertainment, and the adult industry.  He’s a long-time freelance-contributing columnist for Adult Store Buyer Magazine and sister publication Exotic Dancer Club Bulletin Magazine.  Contact him at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .