Happy New Year!!!
This year will mark the 40th year in business for Fantasy Gifts! It is a long way from the second story gift shop on Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis to multiple locations in two states, while my brother and his wife run the stores in New Jersey, my sister and I run the stores here in Minneapolis. So much has change over the 4 decades of Fantasy Gifts so good and some no so much, the quality of sexual health items has vastly improved and there are more choices than ever yet running the business is still difficult with the highly unconstitutional laws against such products, while the general populace is incredibly receptive to Fantasy Gifts, finding willing landlords, insurance and other ordinary everyday businesses to do business with us is still difficult at times, at least no one has been arrested in years!
There are so many quality companies making sexual health products. I do not envy the buyers but I do miss choosing new items, some of the companies that we have worked with for years keep improving too such as California Exotic Novelties, Sportsheets, ID lubricants, Nasswalk, Doc Johnson, Spartacus and new companies such as Wicked, Blush and nsnovelties have helped us create a store where the phrase Some Thing for Every Body continues to be true.
The lingerie companies are more and more creating styles for sizes 14 and above, I know I certainly wouldn’t fit into the items form when we first opened nowadays. Shirley of Hollywood, Dreamgirl, Magic Silk and Escante have been joined by Music Legs, Baci and Xgen for sexy and affordable lingerie in more sizes then years ago.
What I am most thankful for is my staff at the office and in the stores without them FG wouldn’t be what it is today. Many of my office staff have been with me for decades and they know a hell of lot more than I do about the sexual health products than me now as I deal with the things such as the phone system malfunction as I type this, plumbing and HVAC issues, parking lot repairs, and all the stuff that breaks at any business.
Attitudes about sex toys are so much more open, we no longer make or try not to make assumptions on who and how someone will use an item, for example anal toys are no longer thought of as a gay male item and anal sex in movies which used to be its own category is featured in almost all movies now. The anal toy section of the store grows larger each year!
Dildos have also changed so much in 40 years, from a few colors, shapes and smelly materials to so many sizes, fantasy shapes, and the colors are amazing including multiple realistic skin tones to tons of colors and made from materials such as silicone and blends that clean easier and have very little scent. Doc Johnson, Blush, Nasswalk, Tantus all make quality lines and in a variety of price points.
Vibrators have also evolved over the decades and have become so much more interesting from the first rabbit vibe in the 80s to the sucking toys of this decade the choices, colors, functions and materials are better than ever! I love that there are rechargeable toys now too!
Sexual health information is abundant with the creation of the internet, yep Fantasy Gifts predates the internet and that is why the education and information pages on this site are links, there are wonderful sites with current sexual health information so there is no need for us to reinvent the wheel to have it available you.
Another very different thing is this site itself, while we had our own site for years but two and half years ago we created this one with a trusted partner and supplier as it was simply becoming to difficult to keep up with the changing ecommerce, shopping cart and payment platforms on our own
Social media also did not exist 40 years ago and keeping up with that has added to the workload here at Fantasy Gifts, each store has a Google, Yelp and Facebook page plus there is twitter and Instagram. We have a YouTube site which I am still trying to figure out and I should probably drop the Pinterest site because it never gets updated. The sites were invaluable a few days ago when there was an ice storm as I could quickly get the information out that we were opening late, and I have personally been having fun adding content to the Instagram page!
Well that is enough for now, thank you for the past 40 years! It’s because of your suggestions my Dad figured out Fantasy House
Colleen