By Audrey Levine Staff Writer
MANVILLE — A mad scientist stands at the door, greeting customers at a warehouse filled with the makings of very spooky characters. Inside a cemetery looms, draped in black netting and spiders, while music rings out with spine-tingling wails and the high-pitched voices of the Munchkins.
At Halloween Adventures on North Main Street this setup is its way of bringing customers to a store that will be vacant a couple days after Oct. 31.
The shop opened for its second year Saturday as a seasonal shop for those looking for costumes, props or decorations for Halloween.
”We did well here last year, so we decided to open again,” said Craig Acosta, assistant manager for the store. “A lot of customers walk by from Main Street.”
Mr. Acosta said the store serves people of all ages, looking for costumes or ways to decorate their lawns for the scary celebrations. At this point, he said, the store has already gone through almost three shipments of Star Wars costumes.
”Those are our most popular costumes so far,” he said. “Our most popular decoration is a tombstone.”
But for this particular store, its sales are measured through a period of about two months before it closes its doors for 10 months. As a part of Masquerade LLC, based in Pennsylvania, it is one of about 100 seasonal stores that are only open during September and October.
”The stores stay open until a couple of days after Halloween for a big blow-out sale,” said Joe Purifico, CEO of Masquerade LLC. “These stores are very popular. Seasonal specialty leasing is very big for holidays.”
In addition to the seasonal stores, Mr. Purifico said, the company owns about 25 year-round stores, with its flagship Halloween Adventures shop located in Manhattan.
Still, Mr. Purifico said, these seasonal shops are very popular, especially in malls where owners try to avoid having any vacant space.
”Halloween is second to Christmas in retail,” he said. “There are thousands of shoppers in the malls, and a great amount of traffic.”
According to Mr. Purifico, he begins looking for locations for the shops in November and continues finalizing plans throughout the year, before the openings in September.
”It takes a lot of time and effort,” he said. “It is quite a show that our people put on, but we set a plan in process. We would love to know where the locations are by June.”
After his seasonal shops close for the year, Mr. Purifico said, Christmas tenants take over to prepare for the December holiday.
The Manville shop, he said, is in a great location, because it is in a “power center,” situated near Wal-Mart and Reading Cinemas.
At the store, Mr. Acosta said, he helps the customers choose their outfits, working with them to pick out the best props from a collection that includes beards, chains, cleavers, flapper headbands and different types of makeup, among other items.
Mr. Acosta said the store offers every kind of costume and caters to all ages, with Disney princesses, Harry Potter characters and pirates.
”The kids know what they want to be when they come in,” he said. “I accessorize them and help point them in the right direction.”
On the weekends, Mr. Acosta said, an employee dresses in a costume and hands out coupons to customers as they enter. Last weekend, he said, the choice costume was the Joker, from the “Batman” movie.
Despite being open only two months out of the year, Mr. Acosta said, the store does great business, and there is usually a steady stream of customers, from infants to adults, looking for any type of costume.
”We have anything to complete who you want to be for Halloween,” he said.
