Press & Media
National bylines. Cheeky radio ads. A Mississippi store that has been open since 2001.
Featured in
Romantic Adventures has spent more than two decades operating where sex, commerce, privacy and ordinary life collide. From the way Americans talk about intimacy to TikTok products that sell out nationwide overnight, the store has become an unusually good place to watch American culture change in real time.
Tami Rose
Tami Rose owns Romantic Adventures, an independent adult boutique that opened in 2001, and wrote The Romantic Adventures Guide to Sexual Wellness. She has bylines in Newsweek and The Daily Beast, has been quoted in Cosmopolitan, The Knot, Men’s Journal, XBIZ and AVN, and teaches online classes on communication and sexual wellness.
The timeline below is the serious part. The shaded boxes are what the store is actually like.
At a Glance
- Independent adult retailer in Mississippi, open since 2001
- Sole owner since 2016
- U.S. Navy veteran
- Bylines in Newsweek and The Daily Beast; profiled by The Daily Beast
- Featured in Cosmopolitan, The Knot, Men’s Journal, XBIZ and AVN
- Author and sexual-wellness educator
- Known locally for distinctive radio advertising
2001
Founded
2016
Sole ownership
2
National bylines
Newsweek, The Daily Beast
7
Outlets featuring the store
What We Watch
The beats Romantic Adventures follows.
Sexual Wellness
Core
Consumer Behavior
Core
Relationships
Core
Adult Retail
Core
Privacy
Core
Southern Culture
Major
Women’s Health
Major
Sex Tech & AI Intimacy
Growing
Small Business Economics
Regular
Internet Trends Becoming Store Trends
Regular
2001 — Romantic Adventures Begins
Romantic Adventures opened in a forgotten roadside motel, left behind when the interstate was raised overhead. The building sits in the shadow of Mississippi’s old Gold Coast along the Pearl River, where bootleggers, gambling rooms and floating craps games once flourished just outside polite society.
The motel walls came out and the place became a retail store. In some ways, the location never changed jobs. It just changed merchandise.
From the store, in Tami’s words
The Split Floor Plan
We split the old motel into separate sections with different looks, so first-timers and regulars each get a space of their own and conservative shoppers feel at ease. You do what you can with an 80 year old building.
2012
The store reaches $1 million in annual revenue, a milestone Tami Rose later reported in her Newsweek essay.
2016 — Sole Ownership
Tami Rose becomes the store’s sole owner.
From the store, in Tami’s words
No Injuries. No Pregnancies.
One year, a women’s basketball team came in together before a championship run. They were laughing, hyping each other up, and had made one group agreement: no injuries and no pregnancies until the season was over.
They won it that year. I helped.
December 2020
Newsweek publishes her “My Turn” essay, her first national byline.
From the store, in Tami’s words
Don’t Tell Mom
We check IDs, so yes, the daughter was over 18. A father and daughter turned the same corner around a display and ran straight into each other. “Oh my God, what are you doing here?” “What are YOU doing here?” Then, almost in unison: “Don’t tell Mom.”
It had to be the most awkward holiday gathering ever after that night out.
July 2021
The Daily Beast profiles the store, calling it “one of the nation’s premier retailers in its category.”
From the store, in Tami’s words
A Rose by any other name...
During the COVID shipping mess, made worse when a container ship got stuck sideways in the Suez Canal, the Rose was all over TikTok and nobody could get them into port. We DHL’d a package of 100 and had them in 48 hours. Then we ran a radio ad saying I’d swum the Suez Canal for them. People walked in just to ask what on earth I was talking about.
Things you can't say on the Radio may be better than the ones you can
May 2022
The Daily Beast publishes her op-ed.
From the store, in Tami’s words
Things I Want for You
One of our radio ads is simply a list of things I want for people: more joy, more love, more time with the people they care about. And long, slow, wet kisses that steam up the car windows like they did when you were a teenager. People still bring that one up.
I like to think about how many hot make out sessions I have inspired...
Now
Sex dolls and interactive devices sell out fast as AI intimacy moves from screens to shelves. This entry is refreshed each quarter from store sales.
From the store, in Tami’s words
You Know It’s Going to Be a Good Night
You know it’s going to be a good night at the adult store when the married Bible study class pulls up in the church bus for a late-night shopping trip. No scandal. Just married adults taking date night very seriously.
You can't write fiction that is any better than my life...
What We’re Seeing Now
Observations from store sales, refreshed each quarter.
Sex dolls & AI intimacy — ↑ Rising
Viral products — ↗ Fast spikes
Classic staples — → Steady
Couple-focused products — ↑ Increasingly app connected and rechargeable
Privacy-driven shopping — → Constant
The Method
Watch what people actually do.
Customers rarely behave exactly the way trend reports say they will. Romantic Adventures watches what people ask for, what they buy, what they’re embarrassed to ask about, what sells out, what suddenly stops selling, and what internet trend shows up at the register six weeks later.
Selected Work
I’m a Navy Veteran Who Runs a Sex Shop in Mississippi
Newsweek, December 2020. Her “My Turn” essay on running the store.
The Navy Veteran Who Runs a Wildly Popular Sex Shop in Mississippi
The Daily Beast, July 2021. A profile of the store by Marlow Stern.
Op-ed
The Daily Beast, May 2022.
The Long Game
Romantic Adventures has never just been about what sits on the shelves. The store has survived changes in technology, relationships and retail itself. The products will keep changing. The questions underneath them probably won’t: how people connect, what privacy means, and what people need from one another.
Press Resources
Contact
Available for interviews, podcast appearances, commentary and speaking. For interviews, collaborations or media inquiries:
Website: https://www.romanticadventures.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RomanticAdventures
Podcasters: https://matters.com/@tamirose159
Short Bio
Tami Rose is the owner of Romantic Adventures in Pearl, Mississippi and author of The Romantic Adventures Guide to Sexual Wellness. Her work focuses on sexual wellness, communication, relationships, and embodied confidence through an educational and approachable lens. Her writing and commentary have appeared in national publications including Cosmopolitan, Men’s Journal, and Newsweek.
Interview Themes
- How sexual wellness conversations are changing in the South
- Why communication matters more than products
- Building a long-running independent retail business
