Boston- Kim Airs remembers escorting friends and co-workers into the Combat Zone to buy sex toys.

”Let’s get out of here,” she recalls them saying to her as soon as they had made a purchase. That was back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, around the same time she realized there was no comfortable place for women to go if they were interested in finding a sex shop. By November 1993 Airs had opened her own store in Brookline — far from the erstwhile Combat Zone.

Ten years later, business at Grand Opening! is booming and Airs has opened a sister shop in Los Angeles.

Tucked away on the second floor of the Harvard Street Arcade Building, Airs sits in a pair of casual black jeans and a comfy-looking gray hooded sweatshirt. Not the typical look of a sex tips goddess or dominatrix. But, then she giggles a little as she explains that the flower arrangement she’s just brought into the store was purposely made to look phallic.

Airs likes the location of her shop — central to the main Coolidge Corner shopping area but discreet enough that her customers feel comfortable browsing through the videos, toys, books, harnesses . . . You name it, Grand Opening! has it.

Airs says that after 10 years she knows what people like and she’s learned how to create a comfortable place for customers. ”I don’t take it for granted at all,” says Airs, who is 45. ”You don’t assume you’re going to have a successful business, especially in the sex industry.”

Airs’ father owned a furniture store and she swore she would never go into retail, but like her three siblings, that’s exactly what she’s done. Only her take on retail is a little less conventional. She was working as an administrative assistant at Harvard University before she made the switch to being her own boss. ”If you don’t like this stuff, have your normal life,” says Airs. ”I have no problem with that.”

She’s neither sanctimonious nor preachy when it comes to sex, pornography, and the industry in general, but she’s more at ease talking about these subjects than she is mentioning the fact that she once taught macram. That seems to make her squirm.

”I’m doing this because I love it,” says Airs proudly. ”I love sex and I love retail.”

Throw in her other passion, teaching, and Airs says she has the best job around.

She offers dozens of workshops and courses on sexuality, health, and sex tips. One course, ”Take it Off!” is a demonstration-based class during which Airs shows women how to seductively undress. Airs also offers a class for victims of incest, rape, and abuse.

Airs says she met little if any resistance from the town when she first opened her store. She’s been on the Brookline Chamber of Commerce’s Board of Directors for five years and until recently was a vice president of the organization. She stepped down to focus on her newly opened store in California.

”Kim is a valued member of the business community,” says Polly Cornblath, executive director of the Brookline Chamber of Commerce. ”Kim has generously contributed her energy and enthusiasm and business acumen to many committees.”

Cornblath does recall some wariness when Grand Opening! debuted in Brookline. ”When her shop first opened it created a stir in the community, which now appreciates that she is the type of businessperson who contributes to the business community and the community at large.”

Local real estate maven and president of the Brookline Chamber of Commerce Chobee Hoy echoes Cornblath’s sentiment.

”While being a good marketer she’s also discreet,” says Hoy, of Airs. ”She’s a smart businesswoman and she runs a good business. She runs a business that could be quite controversial.”

In April, Airs opened her store in Los Angeles, an area she says was surprisingly underserved. ”It’s shortchanging a population when you don’t have a store like this.” Airs smiles and waves to several customers coming and going.

Airs says most of her clients are women — 63 percent — although men are regular customers and couples often browse through Grand Opening! as well. Airs says customers often check out the wall of books first before moving on to the opposite wall of assorted sex toys. Most shoppers tend to be in their 30s, she says. ”By then, people give themselves permission to learn more and try something new out,” says Airs.

”This is funny stuff,” says Airs. After getting many queries from men in their 20s and 30s Airs started a sex tips class just for guys. ”They know they can come in here and ask questions and not be judged,” she says.

”The whole industry is so fun, but at the same time there’s a serious side,” says Airs. ”I do love to teach and make people laugh and relax around this stuff.”

Airs says she worked as a call girl in Boston for two years and has sold more than 80,000 sex toys — experience she says that has enabled her to teach and sell successfully. Airs is a sex educator certified by Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts and is hoping to start a doctoral program on human sexuality at a small private institute in San Francisco next fall.

Airs says women’s sexual health, the impact of childbirth, age, and general health issues are ”fascinating” to her, and she sometimes gets referrals from area doctors who send patients to Grand Opening! for books, classes, and adult toys.

”It’s less taboo for a doctor to talk to a patient about sex toys,” says Airs, of one of the changes she’s noticed in the last decade. In that time, Airs says she has seen customers become savvier. And she’s seen technology launch pornography, videos, and toys into a whole new realm.

”This ain’t your Daddy’s porn anymore,” she says.

”Sex is more prevalent now,” says Airs. Whether you chalk that up to a world in which teenagers are buying millions of dollars in lingerie each year, or a general shift in society’s attitudes, Airs says the adult industry is booming. And she credits the Internet with much of its success.

Recalling how much she loved getting toys as a child, Airs says her store offers adults a similar fun and entertainment.

”Toys have always been great,” she exclaims. ”I own a toy store.”

Boston Globe