Selling adult toys as a party saleswoman and moonlighting as a student studying sociology, UT San Antonio alumna Amy Gonzalez did not anticipate opening a sex toy shop called Love Shack Boutique, but that is exactly what the people demanded of her.
“If everybody was buying Pampered Chef, I would have been selling Pampered Chef, but sex sells, and people were buying that stuff,” Gonzalez proposed. “Then I graduated, I transferred to UTSA. I graduated in 2007. I was like, ‘Okay, I’m just gonna focus on my career,’ but I couldn’t. People would be like, ‘No, you know, we want to see if you can still do a party and order stuff.’
“Everyone would say the same thing, ‘There are no nice stores here in town.’ And so, I went to every store here in town and I was like, ‘Yeah, they’re trash. I wouldn’t feel comfortable going in those stores.’”
The store’s soft, white lighting fusing with flourishes of lavender and pine aromas ignites curiosity. The shop’s stimulating palette adorned with pinks and purples along with frisky novelties embellishing the walls encourage a playful, open-minded approach when one peruses the inventory.
“Bright, colorful, and then we’re just welcoming everybody,” Gonzalez graciously bragged. “It doesn’t matter how you identify. It doesn’t matter what you consider yourself. We just create a safe space. We welcome everybody that comes in, and then we educate.”
Love Shack Boutique’s sales floor only comprises half of the shop. The real magic happens in the leftward room. Couches along with reading material allow for a casual, self-guided Sex Education 101 course, while rows of folding chairs allude to the collective experience of guest lectures.
“No one’s getting education, but people are wanting that,” Gonzalez exclaimed. “The menopause classes are a great example. It’s just education. We’re talking about that. People are like, ‘People don’t talk about this.’ I’ve had sex therapists come in and teach. People don’t know how to go about doing that. It needs to be a continuous conversation and just making it comfortable.”
Conversations about sex come in many forms according to Gonzalez. Media, especially television and film, drive discussion and encourage exploration. The back wall reimagines Frida Kahlo’s “Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird” into an anal bead and vagina stone adorned painting deemed “Frida with Thorn Necklace and Black Cat” along with other classic works with a tantalizing twist.
“We opened up in 2012 around the same time a book came out called ‘Fifty Shades of Grey.’” Gonzalez recalled. “That was a big rush of people coming in, wanting to buy items that were in the book, and also the media coming in. I had reporters coming in and asking like, ‘You know that book, do you have people coming in asking for items?’
“People were coming in asking about items, so I think people are curious. Same thing with like [people will ask], ‘You know that movie they had a vibrator. I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, we saw that.’ ‘Sex and the City,’ they talked about sex toys too.”
The influence of Carrie Bradshaw and her crew on having positive conversations about sex rang true in the shop’s holy grail: a photo of the “Sex and the City” cast signed by Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis. Hernandez, who carries the title of certified sex educator, resonated in particular with the sex life columnist Bradshaw.
“I would say probably Carrie,” Hernandez claimed. “I would say because she was looking for love. She wanted to be committed to somebody, and she was going back and forth with that relationship, but she worked. She loved what she did. I love what I do. I love my store. I’m very passionate about what I do.”
Love Shack Boutique has two locations. One is located at 1580 Babcock Rd. and the other brick-and-mortar can be found at 10038 Potranco Rd. Both locations are open Monday-Thursday from 12-8 p.m. and on Friday-Saturday from 11 a.m to 8 p.m. Love Shack Boutique is closed on Sundays. Check out their website at theloveshackboutique.com for future events or to purchase merchandise.
