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Romantic Depot vs Museum of Sex vs Babeland vs Pleasure Chest
Which is the best sex shop in New York City?
We’re searching the top sex shops in NYC, searching to find the best of the best. In this review we are lucky that we are reviewing so many options in one city. Many cities still have sex shops from the 70s that lack appeal to women, LGBTQ or couples.
Shopping for a sex toy in New York is largely informative, budget minded and great for couples communication. For this we consider all of the stores the best sex stores in America.
This review will look over several categories and will ultimately try to be objective and informative. In the end we chose one adult toy store as “Best of the Best” based on your choices.
Sex Toy Prices
Romantic Depot has all the luxury brands like Lelo, Magic Wand and what distinguishes Romantic Depot from the others is that they also have cheaper options of adult toys in the “Under $100” range to “Over $100” for their top lines of sex toys.
At around $30, lingerie is accessible for lower-income marginalized consumers or those who are on a budget which makes them a great option. Romantic Depot also gives all consumers 20% off vip lifetime discount cards, which aims to build a long relationship with customers.
Museum of Sex, Pleasure Chest and Babeland have the best quality items but their price ranges on their top vibrators range from $125 to $249.
Entrance fees? For a store…yep some have it. Romantic Depot, Babeland and Pleasure Chest are all free, Museum of Sex $20-$35
Prices are personal to your budget, we’ll leave this one up to you.
Your Choice Wins
Images in gallery courtesy of Timeout.com
Surprising Sex Facts
According to a survey of adults aged 20 to 59, women have an average of four sex partners during their lifetime; men have an average of seven. Source: National Center for Health Statistics
Surprising Sex FAQs
84 percent of women have sex to get their guy to do more around the house. Source: Woman’s Day survey compiled by Sarah Jio in December, 2011
Sex Shop Privacy
Romantic Depot gives you thick black bags for your shopping convenience and discreet shopping and privacy so you can shop with discretion.
The other stores do not provide this service.
Romantic Depot Wins
LGBTQ And Couples Adult Toys
LGBTQ friendly luckily is an equal draw at all stores. NYC sex shops are open-minded and super friendly.
Museum of Sex could work a little harder on training employees, with less knowledge they might not know a butt plug from a strap on.
Everyone Wins
Sex Store Service
Romantic Depot gives you space to shop, a demonstration station to show you any toy you would like and usually cheerful, fun sales associates. The music can be loud at times but if you’re looking for a party, which you kinda are, that’s okay.
Babeland and the Pleasure Chest get the edge in knowledge and have an extremely intelligent sales staff but can be condescending at times pushing you towards toys regardless of price or your budget.
Museum of Sex sales associates are not trained on their products it feels like, and that tends to show in their enthusiasm.
No Clear Winner
Erotic Experience:
Babeland charges $20 for the classes, while Pleasure Chest and Romantic Depot classes are less. Are any of them free? Have to ask, it’s a product demonstration after all.
Museum of Sex wins but we were expecting to see much more for the $25 entrance fee.
Adult Store Hours:
Convenience And Accessibility
Romantic Depot is open until 12am Sunday through Wednesday and Friday, Saturday remains open till 1am to 2am. Why two closing times? Because they have 9 locations in the city.
Museum of Sex closes at 10pm
Babeland closes before midnight, three locations.
Pleasure Chest before midnight, two locations.
Romantic Depot has the longest hours and the most locations, including the most locations outside of Manhattan. Making them the only store for all of New York, NY
Sex Toy Store Reviews
What do the people who shop there think?
Well we have plenty of folks reactions that are available in both Google and Yelp reviews. First though researching the topic Out New York did a comparison piece awhile back. Heres how it described each store…
Babeland: At this friendly sex-toy boutique—run by women and skewed toward women—browsers are encouraged to handle all manner of buzzing, wriggling and bendable playthings, including the famed Rabbit Pearl vibrator. The shop also stocks a huge variety of condoms and hosts frank sex-ed classes on a variety of subjects. Readers rated it 3 of 5 stars
Romantic Depot: This store is three times bigger then other shops, including the Pleasure Chest, and it’s the largest sex toy store in NYC—and the only one in the Bronx. Its No. 1 seller is the Jackrabbit, but you’ll find 10 different variations of it within the shop’s massive inventory of items of the flesh. Rated 5 of 5 stars by readers
Pleasure Chest: A West Village institution since 1971, this sex-toy megastore opens a second NYC location. The 5,600-square-foot space has a boudoir feel, and stocks both luxury and budget gadgets ($15–$200), as well as books ($10–$30) and lingerie ($5–$150)…. Don’t leave without checking out the Sex Is Back campaign (sexisback.com) playing on iPads, featuring real videos of people overcoming shame and finding sex-positive fulfillment. Readers didn’t rate it at all.
Museum of Sex: MoSex’s recently overhauled gift shop is now twice the size (2,000 square feet) and double the pleasure. “We wanted the store to be a destination shop,” says creative director Mark Snyder. “We’re looking at products for their art, their design and their technology.” Such lofty merch includes the Dirty Flirty Novelty Company’s festive glass “pornaments” and Matteo Cibic’s functional fishbowl dildo. Readers failed to rate it at all.
That leaves Romantic Depot as the Timeout.com darling of sex stores.
Breaking down our reviews from Yelp and Google…
Romantic Depot Yelp: 5 of 5 stars Google: 5 stars Total: 10 Stars
Museum of Sex Yelp: 3 of 5 stars Google: 3.2 stars Total: 6.2 Stars
Babeland: Yelp: 4 of 5 stars Google: 4 stars Total: 8 Stars
Pleasure Chest: Yelp: 3 ½ of 5 stars Google: 4.3 stars Total: 7.8 Stars
Judging by these reviews on these two independent sites only one store was able to maintain a perfect rating.
10 of 10 stars for Romantic Depot, the People’s Choice of Sex Stores
Sex Toy Store Reviews outweigh anything in this review or any other store’s articles. The people have spoken and they consistently have said the winner is:
Best Sex Toy Store In NYC: Romantic Depot
Find These Stores
1st place: Romantic Depot Locations
2nd place Babeland
3rd place Pleasure Chest
4th place Museum of Sex (sorry that entrance fee sets expectations much higher)
