NSFW: What goes on at adult video stores?

I don’t see how anyone can answer such specific questions for all adult video stores.

Go see for yourself, or talk to the store owners, patrons. I’d wager each store is different in what they do/don’t permit.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies: While I’m sure there are many differences between individual stores, there are likely some things that may be common to all or most stores. I was interested in any insight that anyone had, even if it only pertained to a single store.

I honestly don’t know any stores that sell just videos, or that have viewing booths. I know stores that have more of a selection of videos, and then some toys as well, but no stores that just have videos, and no stores that have viewing booths (and I live in a big metro area, nearish to the red light district, so it’s not because we don’t have any sex shops). And honestly, porn culture has changed so drastically in the past 3–4 decades (and not just because of the internet – soooo many other variables as well) that if I could answer for before the internet and before sex toys were really big, it wouldn’t be an applicable answer for today’s culture.

However, there are some answers I might be able to shed some light on:
Is it all male/male sex in the booths, or do male/female or female/female pairs meet there for sex as well? That will really depend quite a bit on what kind of videos the store carries. If the store focuses on gay male sex, then it’s probably only gay men – women who find it hot might come in to check things out, but they probably wouldn’t feel terribly comfortable having sex in the booths, and if they did, it would be the exception to the rule. If the store caters to hetero couples and stocks mostly hetero couple porn, then it’s more likely for there to be hetero pairings in the booths.
Can viewing porn and masturbating in the booths be an enjoyable experience for a non-scummy person, or is it just dirty and gross? I don’t really know what your criteria for being “scummy” is, so I just want to ask: If I said that yes, a non-scummy person could view porn and masturbate and enjoy themselves, would that alone disqualify them for counting as non-scummy?
Do girls ever go to the stores to just watch porn and masturbate? Depends on the larger culture, and how accepting it is of female sexuality. The more accepting the culture is, the more women feel comfortable being out and open with their sexuality (in fact, a recent study’s preliminary findings suggest that younger women view even more porn than younger men, and the younger generation views more porn than the older generations). But if women are worried about being raped at the store, or being arrested for prostitution, or losing their job/family/partner/home/etc if someone were to find out they were there, then they’re probably going to keep their sexuality more private and home-based.

I’m happy to report that I have no idea.

@Aethelflaed: Thanks for the thoughtful response. I’m surprised you seem to think that the sexual orientation of the people having sex in the viewing boths varies as much as you say. Everything I have found on this seems to indicate this is primarily a male/male thing, regardless of the content of the video store.

And to answer your question, no, that would not automatically make the person scummy. I don’t think there’s anything inherently scummy about this, but there are certain places that are only frequented by “dirty old men” anyway.

@girlofscience What have you found? And I don’t really know how much sexual orientation would impact things, just that a store that stocks hetero porn is more likely to have hetero couples than a store that only stocks gay male porn.

I don’t get the comment about “dirty old men” @Aethelflaed. Is it the age that makes a person “dirty”? Are these establishments more appropriate for younger people?

Oh sorry… my last comment was for @girlofscience… not @Aethelflaed.

I’ve been in more than one adult video store and not one of them had viewing booths. They were just shelves of videos, some stores with other sex toys and clothes and some without. I wonder if viewing booths are even legal in the UK. It seems that if they were intended for people to actually have sex in, they probably wouldn’t be.

Some 25 years ago, I went into an establishment like this two or three times during my lunch break. Since it was my lunch break, there weren’t a whole lot of people in there, and I didn’t get the sense that there was any live sex going on. Certainly no sounds.

My sense is that the place is kind of scummy. I mean, just imagine a bunch of guys going into booths and watching a few minutes of video and jerking off. I’ll just say this. I didn’t notice any kleenex boxes in the booth. It’s not a place I would have wanted to walk barefoot in. No way!

Maybe there’s male-male sex going on. The place had a lot of rooms I never ventured into. So I don’t know. If there was sex, my guess is that it is mostly with men, either in pairs or in groups—although not necessarily in the booths. Men used to frequent other kinds of establishments for anonymous sex—such a baths.

These days, I think there are private sex clubs that cater to the needs of people seeking out more outre sexual experiences. I think there are a few experts on fluther who might talk about this, should they wish to. I know at least one has written about it. I’m not sure that I’m all that sorry I can’t say more about it. It has always seemed terribly sleazy to me, and internet porn seems far more private.

There are a couple adult stores around me most sell toys too but its mainly videos and viewing booths and one has a viewing theater. In my experience of going in these stores time to time for either toys or nitrous I’ve only ever really seen older men. So I’d wager my bet on mostly male-male sex. I never went into the viewing booths or theater though so I couldnt say for sure but like I said, I rarely ever even seen females in the store unless they’re working the counter.

There is one store near my college(the one with the theater) and I know the theater is free for college students and couples so there is the possibility of there being younger people and females in there but I have no clue.