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Who We Are
Our Company Structure
Working under the corporate name "Open Enterprises, Inc.", Good Vibrations is a well-established sexuality product retailer based in San Francisco, California. For almost 30 years, our business has been driven by our Mission Statement:
"Good Vibrations is a diverse, woman-focused retailer providing access to sex-positive products and accurate sex information through our clean and comfortable stores, catalog, and web site in order to enhance our customers' sex lives and to promote healthy attitudes about sex."
We currently have four stores-- two in San Francisco, one in Berkeley, California, and one in Brookline, Massachusetts. We also have a Call Center catalog and web site. We've recently partnered with the Center for Sex and Culture in order to expand and strengthen our sexuality education offerings.
A Brief History
Sex therapist and educator Joani Blank started Down There Press in 1975 as a way to provide needed books on sexuality to her clients and the public that were not available through mainstream bookstores and publishers. Her first book, The Playbook for Women About Sex, was published in 1975, and The Playbook for Men About Sex followed shortly after in 1976.
In 1977, dismayed by the lack of resources for women seeking accurate sex information and good quality sex toys, Joani opened the first Good Vibrations retail store in San Francisco's Mission District. She set out to make Good Vibrations a friendly, "clean, well-lighted" alternative to conventional "adult" bookstores. Her efforts met with immediate enthusiasm and appreciation from women and men alike. The store flourished over the years, thanks to a faithful and supportive clientele. In 1987, Open Enterprises was incorporated in the state of California, with Joani as the sole board member and stockholder.
The first Good Vibrations mail order catalog offering books, vibrators and other toys debuted in 1985. The Sexuality Library book catalog was launched in 1988 with the idea that our customers might be better served by separate toy and book catalogs. Videos were added to The Sexuality Library a year later. The two catalogs were later combined to form the Good Vibrations catalog, which is now updated and released every three months. At about the same time, Good Vibrations began to pursue democratic management in earnest. Joani had always encouraged her employees to participate in decision-making and as she began pulling back from the daily running of the business in order to follow other interests, the staff met monthly to discuss policies and procedures.
In 1990, an internal debate sparked discussion about the possibility of Joani selling the business to her employees, leading to researching worker-ownership models. After meeting with consultants and lawyers, the staff of Good Vibrations decided to purchase Open Enterprises Inc. from Joani and to restructure the business as a worker-owned cooperative. In October 1992, Good Vibrations reorganized as a California Consumer Cooperative.
Good Vibrations continued to grow as a co-op and a business, working to define and refine an alternative workplace while striving to survive in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Good Vibrations became a member of the Network of Bay Area Worker Collectives and worked with local cooperatives to explore business structures and operational policies that met the company's changing needs.
In December 1994, Good Vibrations opened a second retail store in Berkeley, California and began to grow the mail order business. A third store opened in 2002 on Polk St. in San Francisco and in 2006, the first store outside the San Francisco area opened in Brookline, Massachusetts. The company has expanded the web site, the workshop program continues to grow in popularity and the staff training has set the company apart as a retail store committed to customer education and satisfaction.
In 2005, the Good Vibrations Board of Directors and the President/CEO began the process of assessing the company's values and vision with an eye towards corporate restructuring. Their goal: to better address changing customer needs and grow to meet the demands of the market. They determined that the cooperative model no longer matched the needs of the company. However, any change that would be made needed to be well-considered. The Good Vibrations Board of Directors and managers spent months of careful work before reaching their conclusion that Good Vibrations should restructure as a California Corporation. The cooperative voted to restructure according to their recommendations and in February 2006, the change was complete.
Who We Are Now
Throughout this reorganization, the Good Vibrations Board of Directors and Management Team worked to define the company's Vision and a Values Statement in order to ensure that even though the structure of the company was going to change, the ideals that shape and guide Good Vibrations would not. They also developed a Code of Conduct that aligns our daily work practices with our principles. These are the guiding documents that shape our every decision, and we're quite proud of them. In fact, we like them so much that we invite you to read about our Vision and Values.
Good Vibrations' goals are to model sex-positive attitudes and to promote sexual health and pleasure. We offer our customers free information about products, sexual activities and resources; we've partnered with the Center for Sex and Culture, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing community sex education and enrichment; we promote safer sex awareness and make regular donations to sexual well-being education programs; we network with sex therapists and educators nationwide; and we provide sex information to anyone seeking it.
Sex and Gender Policy
Good Vibrations has long accepted that gender and sex are subjective notions. The Good Vibrations Mission Statement champions diversity and difference as valuable facets of sexuality. All staff members have the right to present any gender or sex with the expectation that they will be supported and respected by the rest of the staff, including and not limited to names and pronoun usage appropriate to their gender identity. We invite you to read the Good Vibrations Sex and Gender Policy Good Vibrations Sex and Gender Policy.
Continuing Education
In a recent survey of Good Vibrations mail order customers, we were pleased to find out that 82% of our customers rated our customer service as "exceptional." That fact is certainly gratifying, as the company has always taken staff education very seriously.
New staff members are given extensive training on the finer details of Good Vibrations products and sexuality education. Monthly educational seminars, known as Continuing Education,are required for all customer service staff. Read more about the Good Vibrations training program.
Your Feedback
Good Vibrations appreciates customer feedback regarding our web site, products and/or service. What works for you? What doesn't? Do you have any suggestions for improvement? Please e-mail your comments to us at customerservice@goodvibes.com or chat with us in real-time by using the Questions link at the top of every page of our website -- Thanks! |