Sex shop ‘mobbed with customers’ after Trump campaign’s press conference, owner says
The owner of an adult bookstore says business is booming since the Trump campaign’s surprise presser at the neighboring Four Seasons — a small landscaping business nestled in an industrial corridor on the outskirts of Philadelphia.
The campaign’s apparent mix-up with the upscale Four Seasons Hotel provided plenty of laughs on social media and has proven to be quite profitable for the Fantasy Island sex shop, according to owner Bernie D’Angelo.
The business says it has since quadrupled its sales of adult toys, books and other items that are now “selling like hot cakes.”
“Our establishment is mobbed with customers; the old Rudi [sic] Giuliani screwup has taken us to greater heights,” a Facebook post from the shop says. “Fantasy Island is on the map bigger and better than ever before, thank you.”
Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and other members of the president’s campaign gathered Saturday for a news conference in the Four Seasons Total Landscaping parking lot, an event that some assumed the campaign had mistakenly booked.
D’Angelo said he was among those who was sure Trump officials had made a mistake.
“We were kind of laughing at first because we knew there had to be a screw-up somehow, because why would you pick a spot like this?” he told Slate Magazine. “And then when we heard it was the Four Seasons, I laughed. I knew exactly what it was then. They wanted the Four Seasons in Philadelphia, inside town, not on the outskirts of the Northeast Philadelphia area.”
Officials later clarified that the booking at Four Seasons Total Landscaping was intentional and there had instead been an apparent miscommunication with Trump, who thought the event was being held at the high-end hotel, according to The New York Times.
Trump officials later said they chose the business, which is also next to a crematorium, because it was “secure” and close to an exit on Interstate 95, according to PBS.
Either way, D’Angelo said the “blooper” has been good for business.
“Oh yeah. It’s helped me out,” he told Slate Magazine. “I’m past 7,000 people commenting on everything that’s been going on. I had to order some more stuff and ask the companies if they could physically pick up some stuff at my distributors or actually ask UPS if we could fast-track some of it.”
In addition to books, the shop sells adult DVDs, magazines and other novelty items, according to its Facebook page.
“This is worldwide,” the shop owner added to Slate. “I don’t know if I’ll ever trend like this ever again.”
McClatchy News reached out to Fantasy Island owner Bernie D’Angelo for comment and is awaiting response.