Shop Review: Whiplash Trash (Edinburgh)
Back in 1999, I worked in a shop on the infamous Cockburn Street in Edinburgh. Just up from my shop was an interesting place called Whiplash Trash. Whiplash Trash was where we sent customers looking for drug accessories like wraps and bongs. Not much has changed about the shop to this day.
Today I went into the shop to have a look at what kind of products they are selling. In the front left part of the shop they sell cheeky t-shirts and gothic clothing, while in the front right side of the shop they sell a wide variety of drug accessories. One of the most noticeable features of the shop is the row of colourful bongs that line the right wall behind the drug counter.
The back of the shop was the “sex shop” part… I write this in quotes because it has a lot of the sort of clothing that you would find in a regular sex shop, but none of the sex toys. They carry vinyl lingerie, fantasy clothing, penis pasta, nipple tassles and sexy tights… but no typical dildos or vibrators. I found this strange because even the joke shop (ie. Halloween store) named AHAHAHA on Victoria street carried a wide variety of realistic dildos and penis-shaped party favours.
The downside of this soft-core sex/drug shop was that the front clothing section was badly lit and the drug counter was unaturally high (laugh it up, fuzzballs…). Additionally, although they had some nice fantasy clothing and lingerie, they didn’t carry a lot of sizes… and whenever I did look for a size, the clothing was huge.
Apparently Whiplash Trash does tattoing and body piercing, but I didn’t see anything that would lead me to believe that this went on in the shop. The only reason I know this is because I just did a Google search to check if they have a web site (which they don’t). They obviously aren’t very good at marketing the mish-mashed specialties of their shop.
There are not a lot of sex shops in Edinburgh, but it is obvious that sexuality is much more accepted and regarded as being natural. How else could the local pharmacy be selling the new Durex sex toy line?