The two lads look like they've wandered in on their lunch break.

'If I buy that and it's too big can I bring it back?,' asks one, pointing to a pretty large marital aid hung on the wall. "Yeah, course you can," replies Colin Gibson with a grin and his tongue firmly in cheek. "The second-hand stuff sells better."

Colin runs Love Boutique, the Northern Quarter's last sex shop. And it's fair to say in his 20 plus years in the business he's heard all the wisecracks there are to hear.

Back when the Northern Quarter was still a twinkle in a property developer's eye, sex shops were a common sight in this part of town. Attracted by the cheap rents, they stood side-by-side with abandoned warehouses, the last remnants of the rag trade and the odd pub and independent business that called the area around Tib Street, Oldham Street and Thomas Street home.

But as gentrification took hold and landlords realised there were a few quid to be made, the rents were hiked up, astronomically in some cases. Meanwhile the internet meant an infinite amount of free porn was available to anyone with a wi-fi connection.

Slowly the sex shops that had been part and parcel of the Northern Quarter since the 70s began to close, until Covid finally killed them off. All, that is, except one.

"There wouldn't be a Northern Quarter without the sex shops," says Colin, behind the counter of the snug Hilton Street store. "Back then all it was was sex shops and bars.

"But I remember one day walking down towards the arts and craft market. I'd not seen a customer all morning, but down there it was absolutely rammed with people sitting outside, eating and drinking. That's when I realised - this is the change.

"Then around 2007-2008 you started noticing the shutters coming down on Oldham Road. That was when the buildings started coming down and the apartments started going up.

"Rents are being quadrupled and you just can't cope with that. There's us, Rustica, the chippy on Tib Street, Clark Brothers and This and That still left. Everyone else from back then has disappeared."

Love Boutique may be the last man standing, but it's had to move with the times to survive. During covid it downsized from its old home on Tib Street, to a new smaller store round the corner on Hilton Street, next door to fellow NQ stalwart Rustica sandwich shop.

"After covid we didn't know what kind of world we were coming back to," said Colin. "But that first day we opened 200 people must have walked in. It was like they were free again."

Perhaps because it represents a link to the Northern Quarter's grittier past, Love Boutique has become something of Manc landmark. It's bright pink and black shopfront - which promises to 'wake up your passions' - has even been immortalised in cross-stitch.

Customers who walk past the velvet rope outside, duck through the pink chain curtain and push open the saloon-style swing doors, are greeted by all manner of toys, novelty items such as candy thongs, and a wide range of pills, poppers, potions and lotions. But one thing that's notable by its near absence is porn.

"We don't do hardcore DVDs," says Colin. "We just do some soft stuff and it's only there for eye candy really, because you can get all the porn you want for free on the internet. The business has moved away from that into experiences."

And while the business has changed over the years, so have the customers. Colin says the old man in a grubby mac stereotype is a thing of the past.

Nowadays he says his punters are more likely to be stag and hen dos buying blow-up dolls and novelty outfits or couples wanting to buy the sex toys they've seen online in person.

"People might think you need a raincoat on to come into a shop like this, but today everyone is much more liberated, " says Colin. "On Friday afternoon and Saturdays it gets very busy.

"You'll get lads on a stag do who will spend £60 on a toy, go outside whack each other round the head with it a few times, then boot it down the road. The cafe next door, from 11.45am to 1.15pm there's always a big queue.

"But our customers aren't bothered - some of them pop in while they're waiting for their sandwich. It's not like they're embarrassed to be seen coming in."

As to what the future holds, Colin is uncertain. He says getting to the end of the financial year in one piece is as far ahead as any small business dare to look in the current climate.

He started out in the trade when he took a part-time role in a mate's sex shop after losing his job. It was meant to be just a short-term thing to tide him over until he got back on his feet.

But more than two decades later, he's still here.

"There's a saying - if you find a job you love you never work a day in your life," he said. "Within the blink of an eye all those years had passed.

"It's just retail. But when people ask what I do I say I work in an adult shop and straight away they're interested and asking questions. Obviously it's intriguing, but I tell you what, they all want a discount!"