NEW CONDOM STORE STOKES PASSIONS
By Antony J. Michels

(FORTUNE Magazine) – If you're looking for a risky business venture, follow the example of Emanuella Del Vecchio, 32. The one-time Pan Am flight attendant has moved into a former shopping-center Fotomat kiosk in the middle of an Italian Roman Catholic neighborhood and opened a drive-through condom store. Even before the Condom Hut opened in Cranston, Rhode Island, vandals splattered it with paint and broke a window. Del Vecchio, who owns a nail salon in the same shopping center, says she considered selling cigarettes or lottery tickets but chose condoms after seeing a TV show about the success of such a store in New York City. She also saw a way to increase awareness of AIDS and safe sex, issues that she says many locals refuse to address. Says Del Vecchio, a Catholic: ''I don't think I'm doing anything wrong. I'm not promoting sex; I'm promoting safe sex. To me, abstinence is not reality.'' The drive-through, open from 2:30 P.M. to 10:30 P.M., enjoys moderate sales, she says, and averages about 50 packages a day. Customers include ''all categories -- some old, a car full of teenagers, two couples, two guys.'' What Del Vecchio describes as ''novelties'' are the best-sellers, among them glow- in-the-dark varieties and one called Kiss of Mint made by Ansell International of Columbus, Ohio, a subsidiary of Australia's Pacific Dunlop. -- A.J.M.