to be expected to be licensed to sell a selection of vibrators amongst a broad range of lingerie, hosiery, shoes, wigs, costumes and stag-n-hen-night novelties when a quick look online will bring up a choice of 50 unlicensed websites willing to post the same vibe to your customers, no questions asked beyond “Credit or Debit card?” Presentation and ethos have a lot to do with it too. How else could Sh! Women’s Stores have an extensive sex toy stock holding, plus limited clothing and saucy books, and happily trade unlicensed? Their ‘no men without an accompanying woman’ policy must have something to do with it, as must the female-friendly look of their shops. Perhaps this could be a successful model for those looking to drop R18 films to follow, without also having to massively scale-back their toy and other ‘sex article’ sales to safely trade unlicensed.
Even if, at some point in the future, it became illegal to buy a buttplug by mail order (it would be fun to see what the European Court of Human Rights would make of that one) how would that be put into practice? If you needed to be licensed to sell nipple clamps from a UK website and address, you can be certain Jersey would soon find itself a hub of adult commerce and Sealand used for more than just data storage. Business would literally go offshore and that can’t be good for UK PLC.
Returning to the crux of these articles, calculating if your licence is good value for money - and if having one makes good financial sense or not - is a dark art, but is something every manager and shop owner may feel drawn to do at some point. As a hard-nosed businessperson in the Lord Sugar mould, it should be a decision of the head, not of the heart. Which makes gathering data and examining the figures rather than relying on your gut feeling the business-minded way forward. If you’ve an EPoS system, you’ll have it easy. A very rough calculation might go; value of R18 sales, minus the cost of those films, minus the cost of your
licence equals X. If, taking all taxes and extra costs into account, you’ve got a positive figure, your DVD sales are making you a profit, but what would the same wall space make for you if it was covered in lower- margin playwear, boxed lingerie, toys or adult books? Would changing your stock mix so radically actually save you the cost of your licence, or would your local authority still feel you were a sex shop that needs to be paying them a small fortune for the honour of being part of the local economy? So many factors and variables and, annoyingly, very few appeal processes, arbitrators or ways to take any arguments to a higher authority. It may well come down to that giant variable; the cost of the licence. £7,000 is always going to be more justifiable than £21,000. Three times as justifiable.
The opposite situation also exists. If you’ve an unlicensed shop, it may be possible to become licensed in the future if an opportunity knocks, thanks to a successful, trouble-free trading history. If some of your competitors opt to go unlicensed or even shut, there’s every reason for you to ask the question of your licensing authority; would they consider lowering their charges in light of their recent loss of revenue? They may argue that their fees are fixed as it will always cost Y to manage the licensing situation in their area (on paper, licensing charges should only cover the authority’s costs, not be used to make money for the council. In reality, it’s not always clear this is the case) but it costs you nothing to ask. The very fact that councils have been open to reducing charges, and remain so, should be an encouragement. It’s one situation where one cannot protest too much, methinks.
IF SEX TOYS BE THE FOOD OF LOVE, PLAY ON
Campaigning for lower licence charges is something AITA has been doing for some time. The Adult
Industry Trade Association is a proactive body that fights for the UK adult industry’s interests. Stuart Inglis has been on the AITA board since it was formed, back in 2003, and he is one of the UK’s leading authorities on sex shop licensing issues. He told me: “Our campaign’s ongoing. It took a couple of years to really take effect. When we started, we had no idea it was going to take so long to get councils to react. Licence charges tend to be set and reviewed annually and in the past, that review was to see how much they could put up by. The only way we could help get them reviewed downwards was to contact them all. Local government decides what’s charged in their area so to tackle it on a national level was very difficult. There’s no will to have any sort of uniformity, as that would take control away from these local authorities. We needed to reach them all, in one go, so drafted a letter with the help of a solicitor to send to each of around 300 local licensing departments, plus MPs and others with responsibility for setting these charges. We made sure each letter went to a named individual rather than just teams - that’s important if you want to ensure the letters don’t just go in the bin. So we contacted the Head of Licensing or whatever, by name, and also copied in the leader of the council, again, by name.”
I asked what result this had and Inglis described how “
...the response to AITA’s campaign was successful, but slow. It took a long time and some, including Westminster, just wouldn’t have it. As you know, they’ve a separate challenge with the London licensed shops, which are seeking judicial review. We are liaising with Tim (Hemming) of ABS and that group and we have been invited to attend the hearing as representatives of the trade. They recognise what we’ve done to help with licensing fees in the past.” He continued, “If you Google now, a few years
later, for adult licensing, you’ll find the text of that letter reported in council meeting minutes, on .Gov sites, discussion documents and archives; it made a big impact. It takes time though, and a response we often
“The reality is most sex shops trade quite happily, causing no problems, next to ladies hairdressers and food stores. They don’t ‘jump out and get people’”
got was ‘well, no one in this area’s complained about licensing charges’. On the other hand, some areas such as Milton Keynes halved their charges. That was completely in response to our letter. Although there’d been no complaint from within their area, the enforcement officer concluded local licensed retail business looked to be struggling. So, it did work.” Explaining what that meant in practical terms, Inglis said: “Taking Birmingham as an example, the 12 shops there have saved £60,000 a year, and that’s ongoing. It wasn’t a temporary drop in charges; it was a reduction of the renewal fee. They’re continuing to benefit from it, as have new licensees, as the application and renewal fees are the same.” Is the campaign still active, I asked? He replied:
Stuart Inglis (centre) & the SEV Team: “I’ve been licensing shops since 1983 and know what sorts of things upset councils” 48
“We still get the occasional shop ring us and ask for help, and we’re happy to supply them a copy of the letter to amend with their details and send to their licensing authority, but generally things have settled down. Renewal fees seem to be generally half the price of an application, helping existing businesses. The campaign to reduce licensing charges is still live
Erotic Trade Only June 2012
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