Thanks so much for the support and kind words. We are located in Georgia in a suburb of Atlanta called Gainesville. Being in the Bible Belt, we knew that our road was probably going to be tough.

The really frustrating part of the whole situation was that we met with the city officials several times and received nothing but blessings from them. We wanted to be totally upfront and let them know what we were doing, but also that this was something different from the stereotypes. But then a year after we were open, the right people complained, so they twisted a couple of regulations around and used those to shut us down.

If we’d gotten rebuffed when we first approached the city, it would’ve been something we could work through because we wouldn’t have sunk all this money and effort into the store. But at this point, it would be like starting all over again. Plus the areas that they want to force us into would make it impossible to create the positive, inviting environment we were after.

We had LOTS of unhappy customers when it happened though. We did pull off what we were hoping to do as far as our customers were concerned. Our customer mix was about 70% women, 20% couples and 10% men. Everyone raved about how different the store was and how much they loved it. Now everyone is severely upset because it’s back to the sleazy shops or nothing at all.

All of this is still in process right now. This just happened about 3-4 weeks ago and is quite some way from being resolved. But we really don’t see any positive way to save the store. So as I mentioned, right now we’re focusing on the website, our blog and also starting up some in-home parties. Basically, re-grouping and trying to figure out where to go from here.

And just so you know, you guys (Babeland) have been a huge inspiration for us. You were the template that we molded ourselves around. And in the backs our our minds, we hope that one day we will find ourselves in the position to take another shot at having a brick and mortar store. In the meantime, you guys should open a store in Atlanta. My wife would make the perfect manager for you

I’m so sorry. Those battles are so difficult and I’m sorry that you had to close your brick and mortar. I hope the online business continues to thrive and that maybe one day you’ll be able to open back up again.

What part of the country were you in?

We got the exact same reasons: lowers property values, think of the children, it’s all still porn, blah, blah. All of which were completely bogus reasons as the area is growing and thriving and our neighbors in the shopping center we were in all loved us.

Unfortunately we’ve had no recourse but to close our retail store and move the business online. We just don’t have the resources to take on the city and fight a protracted legal battle.

The sad thing is that there are numerous sleazy porn shops all around. The kind that feeds the stereotypes. But we attempted to do something positive and we were taken to task for it because we would not move into the abandoned neighborhoods where no one wants to venture after dark.