• Conservative lawmakers and pundits criticized stores like Target and CVS for stocking sex toys.
  • But national chains began carrying the brands in 2021 and are adding more products all the time.
  • The sexual wellness market is worth about $10 billion annually and brands are cashing in.

The sex toy market came under fire this week after Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and pundit Tucker Carlson criticized chains like Target and CVS for stocking the products in their stores. The products, most of them made by direct-to-consumer companies, have inked partnerships with major retailers over the past few years and started selling their products on store shelves and online. 

"You can pick up a butt plug or a dildo at Target and CVS nowadays," Taylor Greene said during a speech Saturday at a young Republican club. "I don't even know how we got here … this is the state that we're living in right now." Meanwhile, earlier this month on Tucker Carlson Tonight, correspondent Trace Gallagher said one of the show's producers "happened to notice" that CVS is now selling sex toys. 

Taylor Greene's and Carlson's comments were mocked by late-night hosts and criticized by people online, with so many tweets devoted to the topic that it started trending, according to Glossy. 

While the right-wing pundits' ire may be recent, sex toys and sexual wellness products have long been sold at mainstream retailers. But these products are only now coming out of the shadows. The direct-to-consumer sexual wellness brands that CVS, Walmart, and Target have recently begun selling in-store no longer hide behind euphemisms such as "personal massagers." Their bright packaging and cheeky messaging make these products hard to miss on store aisles. 

These retailers and startups are cashing in on a growing industry. The sexual wellness market is worth about $10 billion annually, according to Grand View Research. 

 

Cake, the brand that which drew ire from Carlson, raised a Series A round this fall worth $8 million, bringing the total amount of money that it has raised from investors to $16 million. The brand, which sells products like sex toys and erectile dysfunction medication, sells its products at Walmart, Target, and CVS. Bloomi — a startup that sells vibrators, body oil, intimate wash, and lubricants — debuted in 1,000 Target stores in March 2022.

Cake's website tells visitors that the brand exists "to help the world have more fun sex," while Bloomi highlights founder Rebecca Alvarez Story's credentials, including a masters degree in sexual wellness from UC Berkeley.

Walmart, Target, CVS, Bloomi, and Cake did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. 

But Alvarez Story previously discussed how sex toys had become more mainstream. 

"Intimacy is something we need in order to survive and feel good," Alvarez Story previously told Insider. "This industry, in general, intimacy and sexual wellness, has been becoming more normalized over the years over the last decade, for sure." 

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