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Looking for something more thoughtful, welcoming, and exciting than your average adult store? From Brooklyn to Portland, these women, queer, and trans-owned sex-positive spaces are rewriting the script on erotic retail. With community events, education-focused missions, and shelves full of art, toys, books, and beautiful gear, you’ll find plenty to fall in love with.
Brooklyn-based, women-owned and LGBTQ-operated, what more could you ask for? Deemed ‘NYC’s best lil’ s * x y shop for 15+ years’, Shag also host mini events such as workshops and exhibitions. they even have their own magazine, which is absolutely worth reading.
Amongst a very wide range of the usual toys, they also sell fab things such as pheromone fragrances, sexy cards and stationary, and erotic art prints.
As ‘an educated pleasure shop’, Please are ‘committed to changing the way society views sex and sexuality by promoting conversations that are transparent, truthful and non-judgmental.’
Amongst the many toys and tools, cute items on sale are sexy pin badges, plus a range of erotic literature and ‘adult’ colouring books! Events include erotic open drawing sessions, lectures, workshops, movie screenings and more. Want a closer look? Go on a virtual tour of Please.
Location: South Slope, Brooklyn, NY.
Instagram: pleasenyc
Purple Passion, New York, NY
Purple Passion, New York, NY
Looking specifically for a more BDSM and fetish focused store in NYC? We’ve got you. Purple Passion is a staple NYC establishment that has long had its reputation for selling fantastic fetish gear. Expect in-house made leather pieces, very knowledgable staff, fantastic corsets and a lot more from this iconic spot in Chelsea.
Self Serve is a trans-owned, queer and kink positive sex store, ‘believing that pleasure is healthy and good for you’. Doing their best to distribute plenty of free emergency contraception, as well as offering a variety of pleasure classes and workshops, Self Serve is health and education focused and on a clear mission to normalise pleasure for all.
Another queer, trans-owned place is Minneapolis’ answer to a shop for ‘education, liberation and good sex’, Smitten Kitten. From Shibari workshops to beautiful dildos, polyamory socials to erotic artwork, this shop offers plenty and is very much community focused.
Lotus Blooms offers beautiful lingerie, elegant steel boned corsets, Body Safe products, and other fun accessories. Being a team made up of trained sex educators, their mission is to ‘nurture all people towards positive sexual wellness that will keep their bodies and souls healthy, happy and fulfilled’.
Location: Old Town, Alexandria, VA
Feelmore, Oakland, CA
Feelmore, Oakland, CA
Feelmore is a black-owned creative adult store stocking all from wax play drip candles, to glow in the dark dildos. They stated on their Instagram: ‘It may seem unconventional, but I truly believe that God wants me to help people embrace their bodies and deepen their connection with themselves. These products are about more than pleasure—they’re tools for healing, exploring self-love, and enhancing intimate connections, all while aligning with our spiritual journey.’
A ‘sex toy shop for every body’ is a good way to describe SheBop, but there’s also much more going on. SheBop consistently arrange online and in-person workshops and classes on pleasure, offer educational tips on their Bluesky and even have a newsletter that you can sign up for. From erotic books, to very specialised and unique sex toys, SheBop is well worth checking out, whether you’re near or far from Portland.
At female-owned ‘romantic boutique’, Dynamo, you can find high quality sex toys, among many other offerings around sexual wellness and health. The staff are known to be very helpful and knowledgable. Events range from sensual BDSM classes to build your own sex kit workshops.
Being ‘Chicago’s feminist s-x shop since 2001’, Early 2 Bed is a queer, woman-owned sex shop that offers sex-positive socials, mini art markets, a range of high-quality toys and other products, in a very well organised and informative space.
‘Body Positive. Gender inclusive. Ecosexual’ – As You Like It is Oregon’s queer women-owned sex shop, stocking items like high-quality lingerie and corsets, a wide collection of erotic books and accessible toys. They also consistently hold many workshops and events.
Dirty Lola is an award-winning sex edutainer, speaker, and self-proclaimed dildo slinger. Known for her live sex ed, Q&A show Sex Ed A Go-Go, and as a Sexpert on the Netflix docuseries The Principles of Pleasure, Lola has spent over a decade working to end the…
Isobel is a writer and creative based in Paris. She has been working with Sensuali since 2022 and is deeply passionate about eroticism, kink, the feminine experience of pleasure and its place in art and culture. Originally from a Northern UK seaside town, she is naturally…
