Adam & Eve draws protest

Neighbors object to new location

A new neighbor for the Streets at Southpoint is a little too risque for nearby residents.

Adam & Eve, which sells adult sex toys, videos and lingerie, is moving to the busy intersection of Fayetteville Road and N.C. 54.

The area where the store is planned is near several older, established neighborhoods, prompting a local homeowner to start an online petition protesting the store's arrival.

"People don't want it. They don't want their children to look at it," said Ellie Mayer, a retired teacher who lives in Woodcroft. The store is going up about a mile from her house.

As of Tuesday, nearly 1,000 people had signed Mayer's petition, which states in part: "We feel that this is an assault upon our family values and a depreciation of our property values."

Mayer would like to see the store, which is relocating from a commercial corridor on U.S. 15-501, go elsewhere.

But Karen Sindelar, senior assistant attorney for the city of Durham, said Adam & Eve has been deemed a retail business and not an adult business. That means the city can't prevent it from locating in a retail center. No date has been set for the store's opening.

That is little comfort to Mayer.

"We realize they have a right to be there, and we don't see that there are any rules or regulations they are breaking except a sense of common decency in a family community," she said.

Mayer said that she has seen the window display in the store's current Durham location and that "it's quite racy."

Adam & Eve spokesman Jason Hoke said in an e-mailed statement, "A majority of our inventory consists of lingerie and apparel. ... We assure the residents of the area that the store, its signage and its window displays will be tasteful and respectful."

At the Triangle's newest Adam & Eve store in Clayton, the display on Tuesday had a Christmas theme. The female mannequins wore short red negligees with white collars while the lone male mannequin wore only green boxers covered in tiny bells.

The chain, the flagship brand of PHE Inc., is based in Hillsborough, where it employs 375 people. Adam & Eve has 29 stores nationally, three in the Triangle.

Mayer said that she is not sure what, if anything, will come of her petition but that she is encouraged by the response in the six days it has been online.

"I felt there were a number of people who felt the same way, and I felt the easiest thing to do was to get their name on a list," she said. "There was a great more number of people than the 12 people I knew when I started."