Q Toys Up for Sale
Local adult boutique seeks new owner
By Beth Sullivan, 8:00AM, Fri. Dec. 6, 2019
In a newsletter sent out last month, Q Toys announced store proprietor Stephanie Boggs was seeking a new owner to take over the adult boutique.
Boggs, who opened the store on Burnet Rd. in 2012, cited family health concerns as the reason behind her departure. Rather than closing the store, Boggs tells the Chronicle she hopes to keep Q Toys a local and community-focused business. “A lot of people have really come to depend on the store [as] a good resource for education and for toys and accessories that they may need,” she said. “We’ve always set out from day one to be a good community resource, a good community partner, so that’s the main reason why I think Austin still needs it and still wants it.”
The sex-positive, education-based shop has always been a supportive store for Austin’s LGBTQ community, in addition to offering inclusive workshops. Furthermore, up until this March – incidentally, a year after recovering from a robbery – Q Toys also offered a sex toy recycling program. And if being environmentally responsible wasn’t enough, the store also donates a portion of profits to orgs that support women, LGBTQ youth and adults, and people living with HIV/AIDS, according to its website. Boggs says she would like to see the new owner continue Q Toys’ legacy of operating as a good community partner.
For now, there’s no “hard and fast” date for when the sale needs to happen by (the store is still open for business); Boggs admits she’s received a “couple nibbles, but nobody too serious yet.” Aside from financial stability, Boggs is looking for an enthusiastic buyer with “a passion for this industry, and our sex and body-positive, education-based approach,” as she wrote in the newsletter.
“If anybody even has a slight inkling, I’m willing to talk to anybody about the possibility of ownership, whether they think that they have the experience or if they’re excited about something like this and they’re interested,” she explains. “I’d love for somebody else to be able to take it to a level where I was never even able to take it – new ideas and new energy and all that good stuff and carry on the tradition.”
Those interested in discussing Q Toys’ future, can reach out at info@qtoysaustin.com.
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