WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif.—It’s Hollywood. Everyone gets a little facelift or work done eventually. So after 14 years, it’s no surprise that the flagship Hustler Hollywood store on Sunset Boulevard got freshened up. Thursday night, friends and fans celebrated the new look at a party for industry elite.
“We put a lot of work into the remodeling,” said Theresa Flynt, executive vice president of Flynt Management Group and head of the retail division. “In a city likeLos Angeles, you need to stay hip and fresh and young, and this store just needed a little freshening up.”
Everything from a new paint job, to less cluttered shopping areas and completely refurbished dressing rooms were shown off to attendees at a grand re-opening party Thursday night. Representatives from manufacturers—Scott Tucker from Topco Sales, Leslie Shwartz from Rocks-Off, Memo de la Varga from Fun Factory, Michelle Glitter from Sliquid and Lovehoney, Donna Faro from LELO and many more—hobnobbed with the likes of Marci Hirsch from Vivid, legend Ron Jeremy and Larry Flynt himself during the gathering.
Hustler dipped its toe into the retail market more than 14 years ago when Larry Flynt opened an outlet in Cincinnati and challenged the laws for an adult store there.
“When the sales took off, he thought maybe there was something to this retail thing, and thought about opening something up here in Los Angeles,” Theresa told AVN. “When he mentioned it I told him I would love the chance to run something like that.”
Since opening the first store on Dec. 3, 1998, on Sunset Boulevard—and another 13 stores since then—Theresa has overseen all operational aspects of the Hollywood Hustler stores, from ordering inventory to securing locations to designing the floor plans to ordering stock.
In addition to the new paintjob and updated fixtures in the flagship store, Theresa noted that other changes include streamlining the products offered—“I never want this store to look like an emporium, so we are getting selective about what we stock and how we stock it,” she said—and carrying more Hustler brands, many of which did not exist when the store first opened.
“When this location opened, we didn’t have Hustler Lingerie, Hustler Shoes or Hustler Novelties,” she said. “The Hustler Hollywood stores really opened up avenues and helped birth those lines.”
Larry Flynt agreed that the newer product lines of lingerie, shoes and toys “probably wouldn’t exist today if it wasn’t for these stores.”
“Theresa has done a great job with this store and the others,” he said. “She is very talented.”
And while Hustler Hollywood stores have brought couples together to “Relax, it’s just sex,” they have also made the Hustler brands and Larry Flynt into household name. But that’s not something he pays much attention to, he said.
“I never gave much thought to being thought of as legitimate,” he said with a chuckle.
The Hustler Hollywood store on Sunset Boulevard is open 10 a.m.-2 a.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 2 a.m. Sunday.
Sponsors for the grand re-opening party were Entrenue, Hustler Lingerie, The Screaming O, Booty Parlor, Ta-Ta-Toos, Sportsheets, Hustler, Classic Erotica, Wet Lubricants, Doc johnson, Digital Playground, LELO and Earthly Body.
For more information, visit HHRetail.com.
