Mon Dec 6, 755 AM ET
By Stephanie Simon Times Staff Writer
ABILENE, Kan. — Outside, the prairie lies dark and still. In the windowless gray building by the Interstate 70 offramp, a clerk with a tired face rings up sex toys. Need batteries for that she asks politely, again and again.
Two women in prim business suits gawk at a shelf of raunchy gag gifts, giggling. A truck driver searches thousands of DVDs for a pornographic movie. Near the Love Sling of Ecstasy, a wife confers with her husband by cellphone as she studies a tidy display of vibrators, hundreds of them, in every size and color.
Adult superstores like this are popping up all over rural America — brightly lighted, clean, as well-organized and well-stocked as a Wal-Mart.