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May 5, 2008
StreetLevel: Slope Babeland Should Open Next Month
The Bergen Street space that'll house Toys in Babeland is being gussied up by construction workers, one of whom told us that the adult-toys shop is scheduled to open in June. The interior (no pics allowed!) is still very raw, but judging from the test paint swatches on the wall, it's going to be quite colorful when all's said and done. As an aside, the long-in-the-works eatery next door, Organic Heights, opened up a couple weeks ago. Dildos and wheat germ, oh my!
StreetLevel: Kids Clothes and Adult Toys for Bergen Street [Brownstoner] GMAP
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Comments
I absolutely love this block. Something about those huge cornices and uniquely colored storefronts that really do it for me.
Feels like a village.
Now a sexed up village!
Is it June yet??
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 2:45 PM
Crazy...just 15 yrs ago, NYC was doing everything possible to shut down sex shops.
My how things have changed (just hope there are no schools nearby?)...
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 2:52 PM
Nope, no schools anywhere nearby.
Thanks for the concern though.
In more civilized countries in Europe, places like this are common because kids are raised by parents who are not afraid of sex so they grow up knowing that it's a normal part of living, unlike 2:52, who probably hasn't gotten any since 1977. Making the issue tabboo only makes the kids want to do it more, 2:52.
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 2:57 PM
Do they carry stroller mounted dildos?
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 2:57 PM
"just hope there are no schools nearby?)..."
yeah, we wouldn't want kids knowing where they came from, now would we??!!
my god. are you amish?
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 3:11 PM
This is not a sex shop in the usual sense of the word. No booths in the back, no neon out front with posters of schongs on the window.
This is a boutique that happens to carry items pertaining to sex. A very different thing. I mean...we all DO have sex here...well except for maybe 2:52.
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 3:13 PM
I use to like this block, too, before I was evicted from it to make way for luxury apartments and embarrassing businesses like Organic Heights and Bump. The mighty Pintchik owns the whole block and evicted all of the tenants, many of them long-timers, so that they could luxurify the apartments and expand their empire. Before Babeland, that space was rented by People of Color in Crisis. Although, perhaps I should be grateful that I don't have to witness frizzy-haired, make-up-less, tragically unloved Park Slope women buying giant dildos.
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 3:13 PM
252 here.
To 257, wtf does "tabboo" mean?
I'm not saying talking about sex to your kids should be TABOO... I'm saying kids potentially being exposed to smut shops is/should be taboo.
Please follow logic, stupid.
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 3:14 PM
3:13 is the perfect example of a very bitter renter.
You didn't buy anything when you lived on this block when it was a dump, now you are blaming a longstanding neighborhood business for...well...doing business (and a great one at that...Pintchik is one of the most loved businesses in the neighborhood)and THEN you trash talk the locals because you were priced out.
Sounds healthy.
Maybe there aren't as many People of Color in crisis as there once was in these parts. That sounds like a GOOD thing to me!
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 3:32 PM
How much is that schlong in the window?
Wow, 2:52 is taking a beating, and not the good kind, either...
Posted by: Biff Champion at May 5, 2008 3:32 PM
You've clearly never been to a Babeland, 3:14.
It is FAR from smutty.
Should we close down the subways too, so kids don't hear foul langage? Jeez, I saw some girl giving a bj to her boyfriend behind a pillar on the platform at Grand Army Plaza at 9:45 am last week.
You sound like you are more well suited for Utah than New York City, my friend.
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 3:35 PM
I'd like a 16-inch dildo with organic hummus and a side order of free-range lube, please. Uh, make that a double . . .
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 3:39 PM
Utah?? Now THAT's obscene!
Posted by: Biff Champion at May 5, 2008 3:46 PM
Also on this block is a really cute bookstore, City Sub and Melt (nice for a glass of wine, the food is ok).
I think it's a nice mix of retail.
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 3:51 PM
Utah is insane, indeed. but i put up with it when i travel there because the snow is the best in the world. Brooklyn real estate is insane. But I put up with it because it's among the best communities in the world, warts and all.
Posted by: Fjorder at May 5, 2008 3:54 PM
Well while Pintchick has been busy getting rich they have lost track of customer service. I really hate shopping there now because the clerks are so rude.
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 4:05 PM
Dildoes for everyone! Seriously, what's wrong with a sex shop? Especially one as tastefully outfitted as TiBL? Why do adults act like total idiots about a basic and natural part of life? OMG! THE CHILDREN! Well darlings we can't keep dumbing down society for the sake of the innocent children. Maybe if people start TALKING to their damn children the rest of us wouldn't suffer a world catering to keeping other people's whelps innocent. HA!
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 4:26 PM
I am SO gonna go there just to gawk at the -throng- of Soccer Moms, sexy stroller yuppetes, milfs and gilfs who are going to shop there, thinking straight men won't see them.
Signed,
The DILF
Someday this erections gonna end.
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 4:27 PM
You all care too much about what other people think of you.
Who cares if you see someone buying a dildo? I mean, really. Every woman I know uses one or a vibrator.
Get a clue, people.
It's sex. No other country has a hang up with sex like we do here. It's nuts.
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 4:55 PM
Nice post 4:27! Mr. Brownstoner's "Dildos and wheat germ" joke, not so much.
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 5:11 PM
3:13, What's a SCHONG? Just askin'...
Posted by: GHB at May 5, 2008 5:15 PM
this place is so gonna flop if there is no kind of rent subsidy. if pizza restaurants can't pay the rent, i don't see how this place can. sure, they will get the initial boost for the first couple of months from people buying "trinkets" on a whim, but lack of repeats are gonna kill business...
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 5:29 PM
The store doesn't need a subsidy, 5:29. It's called the internets. This place does a HUGE online business which can support the stores through rough times.
And as you can see from the website, they are VERY picky about where to set up shop. Melrose Ave in LA, Soho, East Village and now Park Slope.
This isn't a Citibank with one on every corner. They've done extensive demographic research and think that the 70% of us who are single, not married and don't have kids in Park Slope will LOVE this store!!
Not that the married people won't use it also. They will probably just be a little more covert about it.
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 5:42 PM
weird...this is what it says on the www.babeland.com website for the Brooklyn store:
"We'll be opening our newest store in Brooklyn this coming June, 2008.
It will be located on 7th Avenue in the Park Slope neighborhood.
We look forward to meeting you in person!"
Is this a fake out? It's really coming to 7th or do they just have no idea?
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 5:52 PM
"Well while Pintchick has been busy getting rich they have lost track of customer service. I really hate shopping there now because the clerks are so rude."
They have ALWAYS been rude! Their sense of entitlement makes them feel they are doing you a favor to have you shop there. They suck. I'll never cross that threshold ever again.
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 6:03 PM
so call me a horrible parent - but I have been in their Seattle store with my kids ages 3 and 1 in a stroller - yes they allowed a stroller in the Seattle store so I'm sure they will be around for a long time- and my kids loved to see the windows decorated for the holidays - favorite was the dildos (glass) dressed as ghost and bats - it's not your typical "sex store"
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 6:32 PM
this is good news. we just need more sex shops to make things nice and sleazy. the stroller mom's should be introducing sleaze to their kiddies. only in america we are a bunch of tight asses when it comes to sex. oh, and don't forget that lube and those butt plugs!
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 6:35 PM
>Signed,
>The DILF
>Someday this erections gonna end.
hahahaha!!!! lol...holy crap...this made my day...
Posted by: ltjbukem73 at May 5, 2008 6:45 PM
don't forget to make that creampie!
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 6:50 PM
God this site is full of losers nowadays.
People PLEASE get a life
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 8:27 PM
4:55: Stores like Toys and Babeland and Good Vibrations (San Fran) make a point to be a comfortable place for women to shop, and as mentioned, there are no booths in the back, so I have no problem with them at all. But don't exaggerate! There are plenty of other countries more hung up on sex than the US--especially when it comes to women making choices besides early marriage and strict monogamy.
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 8:45 PM
Let me rephrase that then.
There are no civilized countries on the planet with a hangup with sex like we have here in the US.
You are speaking of third world nations and nations where woman do not have equal rights.
Neither of which are civilized.
Posted by: guest at May 6, 2008 10:35 AM
5:52: This is actually a typo on the website and should be remedied shortly. The store will indeed be on Bergen Street btwn Flatbush & 5th Avenue.
Posted by: guest at May 6, 2008 11:09 AM
Good job, 3:13 - you started off with what could've been an interesting and important discussion about gentrification and displacement, but brought it all back to a totally misogynist and pathetic dismissal of the complex realities of women's sex lives and relationships to their bodies.
Way to go. All the more reason that we need places like Babeland.
Posted by: guest at May 6, 2008 11:49 AM
Finally! The mommies can replace that stick in their ass with something more comfortable.
Posted by: guest at May 6, 2008 1:17 PM
@ 6:35 sex shops don't have to be sleazy, you're thinking Times Square circa 1980's but lucky for us things have moved on. And the minute kids start to express curiosity or start asking pointed questions parents should figure out how to answer them without dumbing down the topic or being too explicit. However that requires thinking which we're perfectly happy to have other people do for us these days so we just condemn things, like sex shops, out of hand. Sex isn't sleazy my friend it's a natural and healthy part of life. Get on the Bump Train!
Posted by: guest at May 6, 2008 1:27 PM
Hey, Claire from Babeland here - in response to the person who noticed that mistake on our website, no we aren't opening on 7th Avenue, and more importantly, we aren't clueless! We chose Bergen Street knowing Brooklyn and Park Slope really well. I live here and love it. I can't wait to see how Babeland will fare in the neighborhood that's closest to my heart! See you all on Bergen in June!
Posted by: Claire Cavanah at May 6, 2008 2:50 PM
Stop trashing Pintchik.I used to shop there all the time.Ihave not been there in a while but they were great every time I was there. They had a nice staff and an awesome window treatment department. The girl even came to my home and helped me pick out window treatments that fit my decor perfectly. Sad to say ,Idon't remember her name, but she was British. I still love my windows and I still love Pintchik. Where else can you go for free popcorn, coffee and karoake?
Posted by: guest at May 6, 2008 3:13 PM
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