“We are THRILLED to announce that we signed our first lease and will be bringing FRUITLOOTS to our hometown of West Hollywood,” reads a post from the official @heyfruitloots Instagram account. “The vision of Fruitloots is to be on the forefront of Queer Retailing and this first step is the beginning of many more to come. See you in the fall West Hollywood.”

The popular gift-giving website is moving to 7990-7992 Santa Monica Boulevard (sandwiched between Laurel Hardware and the former home to Fubar). The 1,740 square foot retail space was built in 1950 according to LoopNet. The space has been pretty much empty since 2016. It’s had a random pop-up over the past years. The last retail store at that space was LA Jock which opened some time in 2014 to 2016 (before that, it was a bird store called For Birds Only, which shared the space with Kim’s Nail Salon).

Founded by best friends David Cruz and Allan Nugyen, Fruitloots is an LGBTQ+ owned and operated ecommerce gifting marketplace based in West Hollywood, offering a whimsical twist on modern gift-giving. David is the founder of Finding Cupid and a former matchmaker from BravoTv and WeTv, and Allan has a background in corporate retail merchandising.

The idea for Fruitloots was born out of the pandemic when David and Allan wanted to send a box of fun goodies to their friends to celebrate Pride and were disappointed by the overseas-made trinkets available on Amazon. It became the company’s core mission to showcase vendors from LGBTQ+, POC, women and ally-owned brands by featuring these products in their gift assortment.

David and Allen were featured in an episode of the We Know WeHo podcast where their wink factor”, which is part of the “humor” core value of the company.

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