Cupid With a Cause : Entrepreneur Runs Condom Delivery Business That Serves and Protects

Marc Schwartz will never forget the humiliation he felt the first time he bought condoms.

He was 15. In a New York drugstore, a grandfatherly pharmacist towered in front of him as Schwartz, feigning nonchalance, put the prophylactics on the counter between them. The pharmacist gave Schwartz a sinister stare, then maliciously asked for a price check over the loudspeaker.

Almost 15 years later, Schwartz, now 29 and a Beverly Hills resident, is still unnerved by the memory.

So it was a relief when he discovered recently that prophylactics are a lot like pizzas: They can be delivered to your door.

Cupid, a one-man condom delivery service run by entrepreneur Tony Maza, delivers FDA-approved prophylactics in hand-sewn pouches. Clandestine deliveries to obscure street corners, parking lots, gas stations and restaurants are especially popular for those with phobias of public purchases.

The condoms come with a complimentary ornamental condom key chain and several pamphlets on safer-sex practices, HIV infection and AIDS. Prices range from $8.99 for three to $14.99 for a dozen. Deliveries go out to the Westside and San Fernando Valley as late as midnight.

Schwartz, owner of an antiques store on Melrose Avenue, is delighted. “It is such . . . a personal, intimate thing--it is just not a nice experience to go stand in line and buy them,” he said. “Especially if you are in an amorous moment. When I called, he was there 10 minutes later. I was shocked when he showed up at my door.”

Research suggests that there is an untapped market out there. A 1990 study conducted by David Kanouse, senior behavioral scientist at RAND, found that 14% of respondents in Los Angeles County said they did not use condoms because they were too embarrassed to buy them. And 17% said they did not use them because they were not easily available when needed.

Maza, 45, a former hospital administrator, launched the business three months ago after researching prophylactics and purchasing a variety of imported and domestic condoms. He started by passing out flyers in the Westside and San Fernando Valley, and he took out an ad in LA Weekly.

So far, Maza, who also does remodeling jobs to support himself, said he has about 300 customers and averages 50 to 60 deliveries a week. He is not turning a profit yet but he said he is covering about 80% of his overhead costs with sales.

And he is enjoying himself. “It is really fun when people talk,” he said. “Some are shy, some are open about it. A lot of people get a kick out of it or think it is a joke and call just to see if it is for real.”

Perhaps most surprising is that most of Maza’s customers are women.

“I think it’s because women are more in danger than men and they are taking charge,” he said. “It’s like they are saying: ‘If you love me, put it on.’ It’s kind of a double standard. Men need to take charge a little bit.”

One such customer is Carmen French, who said she has Maza make deliveries to her at work at Kaiser Permanente on the Westside. “I feel bad going to the pharmacy where everyone looks at me,” she said. “I feel more comfortable doing it this way.”

Exotic requests and obsessively secretive customers notwithstanding, Maza insists that the principal value of his business is that it helps customers protect themselves and their health.

“I have seen people dying of AIDS, walking down the hospital corridor wasted away, and it was just horrible,” Maza said. “People just don’t want to take the precautions, but it’s their life and they say: ‘Well, having sex with a condom is just not the same.’ But that is just not true.”