Adult lifestyle store Piooda celebrates 1st anniversary in HBC
Piooda, on the main strip of Haebangchon. offers a table and chairs outside for customers to relax or chat with one of the staff members. / Courtesy of Piooda
Piooda hosts anniversary event
By Celeste Kriel
Piooda, an adult lifestyle store
in Haebangchon, celebrates its first anniversary this Saturday with a huge sale and a special event, “Eat, Play, Love” to thank customers for their support in making the one-year celebration possible.
Owner Kang Hye-young and her business adviser “Sheri” are excited to welcome new customers as well to explore the store, drink champagne, play games, win prizes and hopefully learn a thing or two about sex positivity.
Piooda will make a donation to support victims of sexual violence in Korea for every purchase made.
The female-owned store, situated on the main strip of the expat hub, is chic, cozy and welcoming, a stark difference to some other adult stores in the Itaewon area which often seem intimidating at first glance.
Kang and Sheri strive to provide a fun, positive and educational experience for all who want to take control of their sexual health and pleasure and their number one priority is to make customers feel comfortable enough to ask questions and empower themselves.
“When we decided to make this business, we knew we wanted to make money but also provide something more meaningful to the community.
Sex is taboo in this society and sex education often does not provide enough information for people to make informed decisions so we thought we could help with that,” Kang said.
Adult lifestyle stores in Korea are few and far between and products in Korea are often overpriced. Kang and Sheri are trying to take the stigma out of sex, and they are focused on selling the best products at the most reasonable prices, using the safest materials and supplying customers with information on safe sex practices.
“We said let's make the adult store business more positive. We try to really educate our customers and sell the best items we can, at the best prices,” Kang said.
While the store stocks products that are fun and playful, they also prioritize sex education and openness with customers and try to make everyone feel comfortable to ask anything they want regarding sex culture, sex or pleasure.
“As a Korean female I think many times people look at sex as a shameful thing, a shy thing, something everybody does but it's not spoken about. Because of that it takes a toll on the way we communicate about sex, our ideas about consent and relationships and many people don't communicate about what they need and want.
If people can understand more about their bodies and we can give just a little bit more positive energy towards sex, people will be less afraid to talk about it,” Kang said.
Piooda's mission is to support the community by providing the best sex-positive products and knowledge available through their safe and comfortable store. The friendly and professional staff seek to empower, inspire and encourage their customers to live satisfying lives.
“A lack of sex education oftentimes means people are going to engage in riskier behaviors at an earlier age. We need to tell people the truth without scaring them and help them to make the best decisions for themselves,” Sheri said.
The owners value sharing with the community and have donated to
Dding Ddong, a queer teen safe space
, and
, an organization that assists North Koreans in crisis. They also plan to hold workshops in the future on subjects such as safe sex practices and how to talk about sex and consent.
The
will start at 7 p.m., with champagne, games and giveaways starting at 8 p.m. They will also hand out samples on Saturday, while all products will be marked down 10 percent to 50 percent between June 29 and July 1.