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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.
“Our Upper East Side store is truly a flagship for who we are now,” said Brian Robinson, the company’s CEO, in an official statement. “It’s a beautiful, spacious location that allows us to offer a broader product selection, host more educational events and create the kind of welcoming, inclusive shopping experience our customers expect.”
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.
That philosophy helped shape New York’s broader sex-positive culture, influencing everything from retail design to pop culture moments (including Sex and the City’s infamous “Rabbit” episode). Over the years, the store became both a resource and a shop, known for knowledgeable staff, inclusive language and a calendar full of workshops and classes.
The West Village location will remain open through the end of February, giving customers time for one last browse—and perhaps a farewell impulse buy. A “for lease” sign is expected to go up soon, signaling yet another shift in a neighborhood that’s seen plenty of retail churn in recent years.
So while the West Village storefront is closing, the Pleasure Chest’s larger mission of making pleasure approachable, inclusive and unapologetically normal is sticking around, just with a different zip code.