Rating:

4.0 (6 votes)

Adam & Eve, which bills itself as a "romance super-store," is set to open its doors in downtown Great Falls in about a month.

The store will be located at 416 Central Avenue, and will carry novelty items, lingerie, and other clothing, but will also have a restricted area for things like adult movies and what it calls "adult toys."

The store's website proclaims, "Adam & Eve is your one-stop shop for lingerie, novelties, adult DVDs, adult toys, and bachelor/bachelorette gifts." Because the restricted area of the store is secondary to the store's primary clothing sales, it holds a retail permit and is allowed downtown.

If the majority of sales came from adult movies and sexual novelties, zoning restrictions would apply. Mike Haynes, director of planning and community development for Great Falls, explained, "The request they made was for a lingerie store with novelties, and that's what our zoning determination was based on. We would have to look at adult movies, etcetera, to see if that fits in with what's permitted downtown."

Owner Nelly Hanson and her husband also operate Adam & Eve stores in Missoula and Three Forks, and they say that they've heard positive feedback from Great Falls residents and business owners about the addition of the shop to the downtown area.

We asked some Great Falls residents what they think of the new store; here is what they had to say:

Mary Seale: "I think it's wonderful. You gotta spice your marriage up, you know?"

Barbara Twaddle: "I would be opposed...I just don't think that should be public stuff."

Joseph Nielsen: "I see nothing wrong with it. Every person has their thing and if it works and you're married and it's what your wife likes, it's all cool."

Margery Kuhn: "I never heard about it, but I don't like it."

Hanson has heard it all before; she said, "You're always going to have somebody that doesn't like what you're doing, whatever you're doing. So, we've had a few comments that weren't totally positive but overall it's been a wonderful experience."

With an estimated 10 new jobs for the area and the possibility for new business, the store should fit into the city's plan to revitalize the downtown area; Haynes noted, "We're always interested in having new businesses coming downtown."

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Adam & Eve is a national franchise with operations in 12 states; the company's website provides the following information:

The company officially began in 1970 as the nation’s first mail order contraceptive business. Founded by Phil Harvey and Dr. Timothy Black, the company became a leader in promoting birth control services through non-medical channels.

Today, Harvey divides his time between A&E located in Hillsborough, NC, and DKT International, his not-for-profit organization located in Washington, DC. DKT International is a continuation of Harvey’s original mail order business, providing family planning, health care, and sex education materials to nine Third World countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. It ranks among the top international family planning and AIDS prevention organizations worldwide.

Harvey’s close work with international family planning and AIDS prevention, and social marketing of information, motivational messages and condoms has been called one of the most effective front-line strategies against the spread of AIDS by international family planning experts.

The public’s positive reaction to condoms-by-mail provided Harvey to investigate ways to provide American adults an avenue to purchase adult-positive materials. Thus Adam & Eve was born.