SexWorld Headed to Sex Shop Heaven
It’s the end of a horny era for the North Loop (née Warehouse District). SexWorld, the landmark Minneapolis sex shop that opened there in 1993, will close for good this Sunday, employee Jay Limbacher confirmed to Racket earlier today.
“In recent months, it has been observed that SexWorld has been struggling to maintain stock and keep customers coming back,” Limbacher wrote Monday night on Facebook. “So for those who have been regulars at the shop for late night cigarettes or sex-focused fun, it has been clear the end was coming sooner rather than later.”
Racket contributor Patrick Strait authored this 2016 history of SexWorld for Thrillist, in which he documents: its founding by Dennis Buchanan and Robert Bonynge, the Dollhouse peepshows, the giant/saddled golden dong that once greeted visitors, the $5.9 million building sale that forced it to downsize nine years ago, and the generations of giddy smuttiness that defined its run. (SexWorld’s home at 241 Second Ave. N. was sold yet again three years ago for $14.9 million.)
Now, as North Loop’s yupster gentrification nears completion, only Runyon’s, Deja Vu, Cuzzy’s, the Monte Carlo, Bunker’s, and Acme remain. Or, as one Racket tipster eulogized via email: “RIP, no more 3 a.m. dildos for the masses.” Amen.
I seem to remember that when it opened, they had radio ads recorded by Fancy Ray… for a long time, I thought he must be the owner :haha:
sad, but expected. Not sure many people are shopping at stores like that these days, with online shopping and online everything else. The people that care about buying local for toys are probably going to Smitten Kitten instead. All that said, I remember my first years visiting the city as a young adult raised in outstate MN, and SexWorld was one of those shops that was just so fun to visit and go “wow…city life is so cool i want to live here forever”.
