One of the more annoying trends in business are those “sexpresso” places, coffee houses with female baristas dressed up (down?) in bikinis.  They sort of seeped along onto our cultural radar like a mildly annoying fungus.  I do not quite know what the meaning of these places are, and what they say about where we are at this precise moment in our culture.

I do know that I am glad I do not watch local news, as I understand that there has been some protesters at the newly opened place in this city, and by not watching the local news I am ensured of missing out on the rather easy ratings-grabbing “Up Next” spots, and the fill-in-the-blank formulaic standard on the coverage, which you just have to close your eyes and the story rolls right through a television screen in your mind.  I am forced to the issue and know that some protesters have set up shot via the Willamette Week, though.

There was a story in the news from one of those “sexpresso” places which passed by me — apparently there’s this pervert who has been harrassing some workers at one of the stores, and…

The first time he came to the window Feddock said he was wearing a white bra and white panties and touching himself inappropriately.

Then he came back a second time.

“He has underwear over his face, he’s wearing hot pink panties now and the underwear that he was wearing is over his face and there’s a little peephole so he can see,” Feddock said.

Feddock and another barista were working around 5 a.m. last Thursday when the incident happened. They tried to get a look at the man’s license plate, but that too was covered up with women’s underwear.

When the man came back a third time one of the baristas took a cup of scolding hot water and doused him with it.

“Kylie opened the door and threw boiling hot water and doused him with it.

Charge him and Prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law and publically shame this man, yes.  But I suspect that incidents like this are, kind of, Occupational Hazards, and there is probably something just a little sad about much of the clientele coming (reportedly older-middle-aged-men who are prone to handing out “stripper tips” to the baristas.)  Sex stores have largely cleaned themselves up, shuffling a bit away from the “Man in the Overcoat with nothing underneath it” demographic and to respectable corners of society and couples and women.  The creepy guy in the overcoat, with nowhere else to turn to, will gravitate toward a place like this.

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