"For West Village regulars, though, the closure still lands with a bit of sting. The neighborhood shop has long been part of the area's quietly radical retail ecosystem-one that normalized sex toys, kink gear and pleasure education long before those conversations went mainstream. The original Pleasure Chest ethos rejected the blacked-out windows and seedy stereotypes of adult shops, opting instead for a bright, department-store-style approach that treated pleasure just like any other consumer good."
"The Pleasure Chest, one of the city's most recognizable (and important) sexual wellness retailers, has announced that its West Village location will close at the end of February 2026. The closure marks the end of a neighborhood chapter that stretches back decades, even as the brand insists it's very much not a goodbye to New York. Instead, the Pleasure Chest is consolidating its city footprint around its Upper East Side location, which will remain open and continue to operate as the company's sole NYC store."
Pleasure Chest will close its West Village location at the end of February 2026 and maintain only its Upper East Side store as the company's sole New York City location. The Upper East Side location functions as a flagship, offering a larger space, a broader product selection, and more educational programming while aiming to provide a welcoming and inclusive shopping experience. The West Village shop played a formative role in normalizing sex toys, kink gear, and pleasure education, rejecting seedy adult-shop stereotypes in favor of bright, department-store-style retail and extensive workshops and classes.
Read at Time Out New York
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]