As previously reported, Montague Street is about to get a shot in the arm as popular sundries chain Ricky's opens there soon. The Brooklyn Eagle reports on neighborhood reaction today, with a focus on some of the more "controversial" aspects of the store:
Brooklyn Eagle: Ricky's – Is Brooklyn Heights Ready?: But then, there’s that back room. The one with the chocolate penises, vibrators and other sex toys, along with a month-long October celebration featuring trashy Halloween costumes.
And this is what has parents in Brooklyn Heights worried — especially parents of tween-age girls likely to be attracted to Ricky’s like moths to a candle. It doesn’t help that an eye-catching sign hanging in the front window advertises the coming of “The hottest, sickest, freakiest costume superstore in New York City.”
“My daughter is at the age where she loves streaking her hair and doing her nails,” said a Brooklyn Heights mother of a 13-year-old. “But I’m not thrilled with the idea of her seeing dildos hanging up in a shop on Montague Street. She’s just starting to walk around the neighborhood with her friends.”
The threat of a Frankenstein mob of angry prudes doesn't phase the folks at Ricky's:
Dominick Costello, president of Ricky’s NYC, reassured us that Ricky’s will tone it down in Brooklyn Heights. “We are doing a very scaled-down version of the adult room It will be on the lower level and there will be no other kid type merchandise on that level,” he said.
“It’s not porno – it’s really gag stuff bachelorette type of stuff.”
He said that children would not be allowed into the “adult” room, and that the store’s managers would be trained. “We do the best we can. Do things happen? Sure, but we try our best. It won’t be graphic stuff – there might be a vibrator with no picture.
“I have kids, my brother has kids. If we put everything downstairs that’s a little racy, maybe we won’t let kids downstairs at all. It’s hard to say because we’re not set up yet We’ll make our managers aware that that’s what parents want and we’ll take care if it,” he said.
