Gerringong not afraid to B*LUSH

DESPITE having constant visions of one of Gerringongs more famous residents storming in and demanding the immediate closure of their store, the owners of one of Gerringongs more risqu? businesses could not be happier with the way the town has embraced their presence.

Chloe and Ysabel the owners of BLUSH, a store described as being dedicated to the sensual, sexual and spiritual exploration of the body said they were initially fearful the sleepy hamlet of Gerringong may not be ready to embrace such an overtly sexual store.

Obviously we were a little nervous. We found out Fred Nile lives in Gerroa so we had a few visions of him storming in, Chloe said.

Some people I think expected us to be a really explicit sex shop before we opened.

I think there may have been some concerns around the town that we would be selling nothing but pornography but that is not what we are about. The few people that had these opinions came in and actually enjoyed what we had to offer.

We have people of all ages coming in all the time. I heard from one lady who was telling me that all the women from the Golf Club think that we are great. It is really positive hearing that sort of feedback.

It is amazing how many people have come in simply to see what we were about and have left feeling really happy after buying something for themselves.

Ysabel and Chloe said they decided to open BLUSH because of the perceived lack of options locally for both females and couples to explore their sensual sides saying the idea of their store was to come in and have some fun.

The shop is aimed at helping people of all ages explore have fun with their sensual sides, Ysabel said.

We are finding a lot of females are dropping the kids and the husband up at the surf shop and they are coming down and exploring on their own. It is really pleasing to see people coming in here and enjoying themselves. We have had a really broad spectrum of people come through.

The best part of our job is listening to couples come in to the store and giggle their way around the whole place whenever they find something interesting.

Chloe said despite the positive reaction from locals, tourist trade still made up a high percentage of their business saying word of mouth advertising had brought in a lot of day trippers keen to have a look around.

We are getting a lot of groups in who have travelled to get here, word of mouth has been fantastic for us, she said.

We have had people from as far away as England come in and say they have heard of us from overseas. I think the positive thing for us is that females especially have enjoyed the friendly and laid back atmosphere we have here.

If females wanted to explore themselves sexually before our store they had to enter a traditional sex shop which are often very masculine and can be intimidating.

We offer something totally different, anything that is considered explicit we have out the back of the store so people dont have to see that sort of thing if they dont want to.

Considering the success B*LUSH has produced in its first 18 months both Chloe and Ysabel said they are currently making plans for a website saying they had also had plenty of offers to franchise the business.

People are continuously asking us to consider franchising however we are pretty happy with the way things are going at the moment, Ysabel said. There has been some demand for a website which are looking into. People from here and overseas want the convenience of being able to do all their shopping in the click of a button. It is definitely something we are going to look into.