A new novelty shop on Main Street in downtown Cortez has attracted criticism from some residents and business owners during a City Council meeting Tuesday night because of the “adults only” items sold and displayed inside.
While not technically an adults-only store, Bae’s Little Secret is marketed as a novelty shop similar to a Spencer’s retail outlet.
The store’s front entrance features nicotine products, bongs, pipes and T-shirts, along with lubricants, lingerie, fur-covered handcuffs, body-part-shaped candles and sexually themed bachelorette games.
The backroom – off-limits to anyone under 18 and hidden behind a covered door window – contains more explicit inventory, including vibrators and pornography.
“There are things in there that are for adults, but you can go to Walmart and buy the same thing,” said Myranda Lee Ann, owner of Bae’s. “They’re displayed even more openly than what I have.”
Ann also co-owns a local tattoo shop, Emporium Ink.
She said she followed all necessary steps to get the store approved and comply with city codes, including meetings with officials and securing tobacco and sales tax licenses.
Chapter 4A of the Cortez code outlines regulations that apply to Adult Entertainment Establishments. Ann says that her store doesn’t qualify for such a designation because the percentage of the merchandise that can be sold only to adults is beneath the city’s required threshold.
Still, some residents and business owners voiced concerns during the meeting’s public comment period.
“Cortez Retail Enhancement is trying to promote the kids coming in on Halloween and doing trick-or-treat through all the businesses,” said Chuck Doolen, co-owner of camping store Nitty Gritty Offroad, located next to Bae’s.
“We think that this is very wrong for the kids to even see that in our town,” he said. “This kind of store promotes all kind of bad things that are happening in our world.”
“We’re concerned that it’s just not good, it’s not healthy, it’s not moral,” said Betsy Doolen, also a co-owner of Nitty Gritty Offroad.
“The ethos of our community rests on Main Street, U.S.A.,” said one person who described herself as having recently moved to Cortez from elsewhere in Colorado.
She said the types of stores on Main Street reflect the values and identity of the local community.
“Over the past two years, five new businesses have opened just on this block,” said Tiffani Randall, owner of a women’s boutique store, Love on a Hangar.
“And the city has actively promoted tourism revitalization, beautification of our downtown. Introducing an adult-only store in the core of Main Street chips away at that momentum and damages nearby entrepreneurs who depend on family-friendly foot traffic.”
“I just don’t want people to judge a book by its cover,” said Gilbert Dunston, a staff member at the shop. “At least come check it out before you pass judgment or make a final choice of the place.”
“That’s totally fine for everybody to have an opinion,” said Ann. “Their opinions absolutely should be valued.”
A historical marker outside Bae’s Little Secret notes that the building once housed the Cortez Newspaper Building, built in 1907, where the Montezuma Journal was published. That paper was the original version of what The Journal is today.
