(Filed Under wholesale Costume News). Ted Vayos, associate publisher of BODY, interviewed several Halloween costume retailers about their experiences in the market this past season. According to most, sales were better this year than those in the recent past. A number of store interviews will appear in this series over the next few weeks.

Performance Studios

Ted Vayos, BODY: How was your Halloween this year?

Gary Broadrick of Performance Studios: We have not had a chance to tally up all the numbers but, I would say that Halloween was flat this year. This has been our 4th Halloween at this location, we made money but, our primary business is makeup. Every year Halloween is a very big and expensive production for us. It is getting more expensive every year. Halloween is also very tiring since we have to be here every hour. Frankly, I would skip Halloween if I could but we have to do it, every year we go from 16 to 48 employees for the month of October. We run some very expensive television spots with a goofy branded character named Spike. This year he turned 11 years old. Its a big production. Spike reminds them to shop us all year long. He has been on TV so long the Kids are dressing up as Spike for Halloween. I smile when I see kids trying to imitate Spike. This past Halloween he was super Spike, running into a telephone booth and coming out as super Spike, zapping people and putting them into their costume of choice. We have 10 retail rooms, multiple changing rooms, a separate area for costumes, rentals, hats, shoes, a full staff for make up.

Ted Vayos: How did sexy costumes sell this year?

Gary Broadrick: They did like they usually do. The females where coming it are looking for something a little different than just a short costume. The sexy costume generation in our area are growing up. Leg Avenues Disney costumes did very well because they have a longer skirt and a higher neck line. Those girls are a little older and want more than a typical short skirt.

Ted Vayos: Who gave you the best buying advice for this season?

Gary Broadrick: No one really, Ive been doing this for a while, no one is going to try and sell me something that doesn’t work.

Ted Vayos: Who was your key suppliers this season for sexy costumes?

Gary Broadrick: Leg Avenue and Dreamgirl were our primary suppliers for sexy costumes.

Ted Vayos: What else did well in the costume section this year?

Gary Broadrick: Classic horror characters did more than in the past this year. Our Super Hero sales have increased and was the largest retail section in the store replacing pirates which was still very strong this year. We also saw an increase in female hats sales, our customers bought more pretty hats this year, Leg Avenue and Rubies where our prime suppliers.

Ted Vayos: What did not sell well this year?

Gary Broadrick: We saw a decrease in sexy shoes this year. In a bad economy if you had to cut something out it was shoes. Our primary suppliers were Ellie and Pleaser.

more wholesale Costume News >>

Published 12-04-2013 by Ted Vayos