Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century

by Jessica Bruder

America’s appetite for sex toys— indicated by the sheer number and variety of dildos and butt plugs passing through Amazon warehouses— is a subject of fascination to many workers. And though most “adult novelties” get wrapped in black plastic as soon as they come off the loading docks, a few squeak past unnoticed. One CamperForce stower recalled gleefully the time she received a case of sixty suction-cup mounted dildos. She arranged them on the shelves with each one suctioned at the front of a bin and standing upright. “When you turned the corner, around that aisle all you see is these peckers,” she said, laughing. “Of course, we all had to go around, telling everybody, ‘Go look at C23!’” Usually she would have worried about pissing off management, but “it was the last two weeks of work there, so what are they going to say?”