retail profiles // sexy // the garden

Q&A with Tom Smith, Owner

Number of stores: 3
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Square footage: 7,200
Year opened: 1997

Ted Vayos, BODY: Describe your store.

Tom: The Garden is Ohio’s finest adult novelty, media and clothing emporium. Our first floor houses an extensive selection of DVDs, magazines, toys, bachelorette and party supplies. Our top floor is fully stocked with women’s dancewear, stockings, boots, shoes, corsets, sexy costumes, lingerie and more! In addition, just two doors down is our fetish and BDSM boutique which features hardcore toys, fetish media, men’s dancewear and clothing, plus locally and nationally made leather goods.

Ted: What makes your store special?

Tom: Customers come to our stores because of our knowledge base and our customer service. Our comfortable, well-maintained and clean stores offer our customers a comfortable atmosphere where they can shop for, learn about and even explore the naughty side of sexy. An array of services including special orders, layaway and hold options, toy party packages, meeting spaces, our enhancement desk and personal shopping ensures our customer has the best shopping experience. We are sure that all of these options add to our continued success.

Ted: List some of the brands that are important to your store.

Tom: Lelo, Icicles, BodyZone, Living Dead Souls, Allure Leather, Sportsheets, Doc Johnson, Pleasure, Karma Sutra, Entranue, Cal Exotic, Colt, Escante, Body Language, Music Legs, Rimba, Fantasy Fetish Collection, Nippies, Highest Heels, Kookie International, Male Power, Blue Boy, Ellie Shoes, Jungle Juice, NY Jox, Unico, Seven ’til Midnight, Pleaser, Bordello, Demonia, plus local artists and vendors.

Ted: Describe popular styles or trends in your store.

Tom: We cater to many different groups, lifestyles, and subcultures, thus our trends are always changing. We have a extensive dancewear section completely stocked with clothing, accessories and a large selection of shoes. We also have the best selection of enhancement items in central Ohio, allowing for the transsexual, drag and crossdressing communities to shop comfortably. We also have personal shopping, makeup application instruction and custom order services available.

Ted: What price and size range do you carry?

Tom: Our talented buyers continuously work to stock various items in an array of affordable price points and options. Most of our products, whether they be adult toys, accessories, lingerie, dancewear shoes or party supplies are kept in stock in at least two variations. Many toys, if not currently in stock, may be special ordered and received within the stores or shipped directly to the customer within seven business days. We are constantly adding to our clothing and lingerie departments. We currently hold the largest selection of dancewear, lingerie, bridal undergarments, bridal lingerie, plus-sized and maturity lingerie in central Ohio. The Garden and The Chamber hold shoe sizes up to 16 and lingerie, corsets and club wear up to 5x.

Ted: What is your average customer size?

Tom: Our customers come in an array of sizes. We pride ourselves in being able to provide the majority of our customers with options for all of their needs.

Ted: Who is your typical customer?

Tom: We specialize in adult novelties, toys, costumes, lingerie, performance wear, and shoes. Because we offer so many products, our customer base is very wide, including everything from high school drama students to promotional groups to performers to those just looking for an amazing Halloween costume. Our customers for our adult department vary as well, from couples to bachelorette parties to adult media lovers.

Ted: What other information would you like to share?

Tom: In addition to The Garden (our main adult novelty, costume and clothing store) and The Chamber (central Ohio’s finest fetish emporium), we also have The Joint. The Joint, located just four doors north of The Garden, is always stocked with the finest in smoking accessories and tobacco products. The Joint offers local and nationally recognized glass artists. We also offer a wide selection of incense, rolling papers, drinking games, stickers, posters, BMX/bike accessories and clothing, and party novelties.