SE Store Spotlight: New Fine Art’s Gary Hartstein

(Note: This story appears in the June 2023 issue of SE Magazine) 

SE Store Spotlight by Larry Kaplan

Everything’s bigger in Texas — including the adult stores!

For four decades, the Hartstein family has maintained a substantial presence in the “adult” business throughout Texas, including 10 stores in virtually every major city in the Lone Star State (and several more locations outside of it). Here, Gary Hartstein discusses some of his “New Fine Art” store locations, as well as the unique challenges to operating today, and why size does matter.

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ncreasing involvement in the family business, as well as maintaining a steady head amidst the myriad battles which accompany adult sales in this country, adult retail entrepreneur Gary Hartstein has earned his evenings in peace in his private Texas home.

For Hartstein, who was raised in the family adult business in Texas and decided to stick with it, perseverance has paid off. Hartstein’s father, Herb, started with X-rated drive-in theaters, then moved to indoor theaters back in the 60s — the film days, long before VHS and the Internet. And his uncle, Paul Radnitz, who recently passed away, came on board with his brother’s company in about 1970. 

In the late ‘70s, after finishing school and a short stint on an offshore fishing boat, Hartstein, then in his ‘20s, began working at his family’s Red Bluff drive-in theater in Pasadena, outside Houston. The family also had an indoor X-rated theater in nearby Galveston called The Broadway. Hartstein was soon traveling back and forth between the two. 

Today, Hartstein is an adult retail entrepreneur whose company has 10 successful stores in most of the major cities in Texas, another three on Florida’s East Coast and an interest in another six boutique stores. StorErotica spoke with Hartstein about the fluctuations in the adult business over his 40-plus years in the industry, as well as how his humble, understated approach to management has inspired fierce loyalty and tremendous productivity from his people. 

ED: You started in your family business in the days of X-rated drive-in theaters. Those must have been crazy times.

Hartstein: I remember working at a drive-in one Saturday night, and 1,600 people at $3 a head came through the theater. Forget the concessions, another profit source; that was just admissions. No telling how many more people were in the trunks.

ED: Growing up, did you always know you would work in the family adult business?

Hartstein: No, not really, but I’ve never left. Initially, my mother did the bookings for the theaters. I eventually took over her job, booking hardcore and softcore movies from theater to theater while still working in the drive-ins. Before VHS was the AFAA (the Adult Film Association of America), we had our own awards. Then AVN came along with adult video, which killed the film business.

Today, we have three New Fine Arts stores and another seven under other names in most of the big cities in Texas, except Houston, and three on the East Coast of Florida. We’re in El Paso, San Antonio, Austin and Dallas, Texas; as well as North Palm Beach, Melbourne and Pompano, Florida. 

ED: What is the advantage of keeping your individual store names for the other ten stores rather than changing them all to New Fine Arts?

Hartstein: That’s a good question. We’re still having that conversation. It’s probably name recognition which is worth quite a bit to us. Those stores have been around for 30-40 years. Choosing a name that we all can agree to, without “adult” in it – because companies won’t take your ads – isn’t easy. 

“What defines us is probably having a more substantial variety of merchandise than anybody else in the city. We carry such a tremendous variety of SKUs that if you can’t find an item at one of our stores, you might as well go online, because no brick-and-mortar will have it.”

 

– Adult store owner Gary Hartstein

ED: And I’m sure you know full well that you often can’t get leases for adult stores. I broker adult stores; I have clients wanting to open new stores, often getting 90% of the way to a lease when landlords just back off. You can guarantee that you won’t sell anything they deem “objectionable,” and they still won’t rent to you. I’ll send them pictures of Walmart and CVS selling more adult stuff than the proposed store would ever sell. They simply don’t care.

Hartstein: No, they don’t. That’s one of the pitfalls of the business: simply trying to rent space, especially with zoning issues or the landlord’s preference for “no adult,” there’s always something. Sometimes you can find a space, but it’s not how it was back in the day when, from the day you opened, the store immediately made money. It just doesn’t work that way anymore. Most stores are smaller boutiques today, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But I think big stores have an advantage because you can carry such a variety. It’s like a Walmart of adult, at least for us.

ED: Multiple store brands must create a more significant challenge for marketing. 

Hartstein: I wish it were all one consistent name. We can’t have one website because of the naming, which means we don’t have a web presence for sales. We just list our store locations.

ED: Most stores opening today are 1,200-2,000 square feet boutiques. Yours are 8,000-9,000 square feet? 

Hartstein: Correct. I’m involved with another set of six boutique stores. They do much better, on average, per sale. But they don’t do nearly the volume my larger stores do.

ED: Having much larger stores, can you utilize the space in a way that smaller stores can’t?

Hartstein: We have a large assortment of all kinds of items from a wide variety of manufacturers. There’s a big area for a smoke shop and a good selection of lingerie, plenty of room to add merchandise, and we’re always looking for a new profit center. The more stuff you throw in there, the more it attracts the populace. They like to see an extensive selection.

ED: What separates a New Fine Arts store from another adult retail store where a customer could shop? What are the defining characteristics?

Hartstein: What defines us is probably having a more substantial variety of merchandise than anybody else in the city. Nobody comes close to the assortment and size of our stores. We carry such a tremendous variety of SKUs that if you can’t find an item at one of our stores, you might as well go online, because no brick-and-mortar will have it.

ED: What does the typical workweek look like for you?

Hartstein: On a typical workweek, I work out in the morning, then either visit my stores locally or call my out-of-state stores. Then I do some office work, followed by a walk in the park to get my alone time. I enjoy going into the woods, off the path, onto the dirt trails and just getting away from everybody. I also like to get out and go fishing when I can. I’ve got my private place in East Texas, my happy place.

ED: What are some of your specific challenges in operating multiple stores in two states?

Hartstein: The most difficult task for any business in any industry these days is finding honest people to work with. Additionally, there are many challenges which come with all the price increases, trying to keep the P&Ls in line. People challenges are a real issue, and wages are going through the roof. Who cares about the federal minimum wage these days, with wages going up the way they are?

ED: Have you had to cut back hours at any of the stores due to a lack of people to work?

Hartstein: No, we’ve been able to maintain. Most of my stores are 24/7, 365. A couple of the stores have hours of operations restrictions which, by law, I have to live with, but most are 24/7.

ED: Most adult retail store owners I’ve talked to are kind of a separate breed from adult nightclub people. But until recently, you also owned an adult nightclub. Can you compare the two businesses? What led you to get out of the adult nightclub industry?

Hartstein: We had people operating the club for us, and I kind of stayed away from it. They are two separate businesses. You’ve got to live and breathe an adult nightclub business, and I wasn’t going to do it. I’ve got nothing against it, it just wasn’t my thing. So we converted the club recently when we had another opportunity for the building.

ED: You have adult stores in states that don’t support adult businesses. Have you had any legal issues related to being located in red states?

Hartstein: No, we’ve had no problems with those three stores in Florida. Landlords are happy with us; we’re good tenants. We’ve had legal problems here in Dallas — we’re the hotbed of obscenity and everything else. I’ve fought numerous battles and beat the city on many things, making my attorneys quite wealthy in the process. But things are pretty quiet these days.

ED: What’s the best part of your job? And what’s the most challenging part?

Hartstein: Being your own boss is wonderful; that’s the best part. And although it’s challenging just finding people to work, even that is not much of a challenge. I’ve got a good person overseeing my Florida stores, so it’s not a headache there. The most challenging part is just the day-to-day. That’s the bottom line. I’m very fortunate, and I don’t take it for granted. I try to be humble and just bring a low-key, calm attitude to everything I do.

Larry Kaplan has been the Legal Correspondent for ED Publications for 22 years. Mr. Kaplan is a broker in the sale and purchase of adult retail stores and adult nightclubs and the Executive Director of the ACE of Michigan adult nightclub state trade association. Contact Larry Kaplan at 313-815-3311 or email larry@kaplanstoresales.com.