Hustler Hollywood

Just walked past it earlier, it’s out of business. Must have happened the last few days cause it looked open earlier this week.

Had a total blast with Martin P. here! We stopped in on a lark on New Year’s Day mostly b/​c it was the only place open in that area of High St.
Not at all what I expected, we walked in the door and were met with promo posters for a couples item. The communication on the posters had a specifically called out background piece outlining that it was developed by a Canadian woman who lost her job and whose husband was an engineer. That’s kind of cool! Go normal people!
It was also cool that it wasn’t a totally seedy place as I had expected. It was extremely well lit, with immaculate tile floors. We were warmly greeted by both the male and female sales people (plus one for gender comfort aspect).
There was a lot of logo’d hustler merch from hoodies, to shorts and shirts, to panties and glassware. We had a blast laughing at a large amount of retro-​kitsch and just plain irreverent magnets, and reading other non-logo’d tee-​shirts.
In the back are the toys. There’s a hands-​on display table which is pretty unique. One can assume it eliminates the guess work for what things actually do and offer a sense of value for price. It was pretty darn innovative! Like a science center hands-​on discovery display for big kids, lol.
Another impressive element for any of the ladies who might be a little more than uncomfortable in another store, there was a distinct focus on products made by women for women. From clothing lines, to toys and products, that was kind of nice to see. The focus was subtle but obvious once you knew what you were looking at. There was even a video section strictly for videos produced by women.
A far cry from the common image of an adult store, this reminds me more of a Spencer’s Gifts from the 90’s without the cheap, stupid crap and more of the «have fun with life» focus.
Show your check in app for 20% off. Sign up for a hustler loyalty card for a % off on your next purchase. Always a discount for folks with military ID.
*had a fantastically real conversation about the impracticality and comfort level of the «stripper shoes» on display with the female salesperson. She pointed out one pair that she experienced as actually comfortable and without the curvy-​up toe that we both agreed was hard to walk in (you know the style that is so popular in women’s shoes in general right now).

The staff was super helpful, and the store is cute, brightly lit, and well organized. The back area with all the toys is stocked with high quality items and the staff is super knowledgeable about which products are good for what. The really high end ones all have demo models out so you can handle them and check out the different settings. Their selection in general is great, even if the store is pretty small. Apple was a great sales person! Everyone there was friendly, helpful, and completely non-​judgmental which is great since the staff of likeminded stores in the Short North proved… less friendly.

Driving along minding our own business and we spot this place and smile. They had a HUGE one back in STL so we decided to pull in to see what they had. Of course there were all of the prerequisite outfits and stripper shoes. Hustler tshirts galore, fuzzy cuffs and such, and the adult videos.
Just reading the titles of some of the videos is enough to give you a good chuckle. Can’t fault them for porn with a sense of humor. The cool part of the store was the — ahem — toy section. Yes, there were the typical packaged pleasure toys which I was told they are going to be getting rid of cause they weren’t all that healthy to use (breaking down of the material leading to infections, etc).
It was then that we were led to the Cadillac of toys that buzz and make you very very «happy». The manager there was so thorough at explaining what object did what and where, I felt like I was at a trade show. Which button does what; medical grade silicon and stainless steel; how to recharge said item and how much safer these were to ones personal health… he explained it all!
This is really a very nice store — nothing seedy at all — and the help there is fantastic.