Joshua Chaney
Posted: Mar 16th 2009 9:48PM
Filed under: Culture, The Economy, Muskingum College
When times are tough, families are forced to buckle down and focus on the stuff they just can’t live without. I’m talking the absolute essentials - food, shelter and, of course, sex.
In fact, some businesses in the skin industry say they do better in a bad economy. The owner of an Ohio-based condom manufacturer said business is better than ever.
“We’re doing well,” Brian Frank of Undercover Condoms told the Columbus Dispatch. “There’s been some effect from the downturn, but overall we’re still growing.”
According to the Nielsen Co., sales of male contraceptives in food, drug and mass-merchandise stores increased 6.4 percent in the last 13 weeks of 2008 compared to 2007. The number of condoms also rose 2.4 percent during that same period. Sales in January followed the same trend, up 5.3 percent compared to the previous year.
Condom manufacturers attribute the correlation to people staying home and resorting to cheaper forms of “recreation,” while also being reluctant to have more kids in uncertain times.Condoms aren’t the only things selling strong. The porn industry made a whopping $12 billion in 2007 and some filmmakers attending the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas in January said sales were up in December and January.
Nicholas Steele, CEO of Bluebird America, told Fox 5 in Las Vegas that his company shoots about 100 videos a month due to a steadily strong demand.
Outside of sex, being a dentist still pays well, one doctor says. Toothaches aren’t waiting for more economically convenient times, even though clients are tending to opt out of more preventative procedures.
Cell phones and video games can be checked on that essentials list as well, it seems.
The nation’s largest wireless provider, Verizon Wireless, is still running strong as well. Verizon’s revenues are growing as more and more of its over 80 million customers send more photos, videos and text messages and run web applications.
Many video game companies are thriving as well. Despite the retail industry projecting the slowest Christmas sales growth in six years, the video game industry was on track to increase revenues by 30 percent in 2008.












