Even in 1997, when Halloween Adventure first opened in the East Village of Manhattan, it was already a throwback.
When online shopping was first growing, the expansive store nonetheless embraced an old-fashioned, treasure-hunt experience. These days, it even prints bright orange maps of its overflowing aisles for shoppers.
Halloween Adventure is a mom-and-pop business dedicated to a single holiday all year. Beyond Halloween, the store attracts cosplayers, theater kids, horror movie and science fiction fans, goth and emo devotees, and just about anyone who is serious about playing dress-up.
For a store that is out of step with the times, and maybe because it is, Halloween Adventure has earned a devoted following among customers and loyalty from employees. Much of that can be credited to the contagious enthusiasm of one of the owners, Anthony Bianchi of Red Bank, N.J., who always dresses in black, with his long, silver hair in a ponytail.
“Halloween is a party. New York is Halloween all year round,” Mr. Bianchi, 80, said.
But with every passing year, it becomes harder to keep the doors open, Mr. Bianchi said. E-commerce takes a bigger and bigger bite of sales. The economic turmoil of the pandemic almost shut the place down. And every autumn, the country’s largest retailer of Halloween-themed products, Spirit Halloween, blankets the city with dozens of pop-up stores.
Halloween Adventure does have a website, but it doesn’t sell costumes online. That’s just not how it does business, Mr. Bianchi said. “The internet is so impersonal,” he said. “We’re still touchy-feely.”
Mr. Bianchi still resists changing much about Halloween Adventure. Like a favorite cafe, bar or bookstore, it’s a place where you wile away time. But, for some, it becomes a backdrop for friendships that feel like family and a setting for only-in-New-York tales.
“I genuinely feel like I have a home here — I fit in, I belong here,” Maya Ponds, a 24-year-old store salesperson, said. “I love that you can be and do whatever you want without judgment,” they added.
The operation is sprawling, with entrances on both sides of a city block. There are over 30 sections based on costume genres, including specific movies, like “Harry Potter” and “The Wizard of Oz,” and longtime favorites like clown, nurse, cop (mixed in with their “sexy” variants).
Mr. Bianchi, who was an art student in the 1960s, arrived at his love for costumes and masks as a passionate fan of science fiction, especially “Star Wars.” Around the early 1990s, Mr. Bianchi met Bruce Goldman, a former toy-store owner who was exploring the costume business, at a Halloween trade fair. Halloween Adventure was born.
Memorable years followed. There was the time a snowstorm struck on Halloween. One night, Alice Cooper, the theatrical rock musician, came rushing through the front door, looking for eight gallons of fake blood. (“Red or black?” a staff member recalled asking in response.) On separate occasions, Keanu Reeves and Whoopi Goldberg strolled in. Members of “Saturday Night Live” sometimes dig through the aisles in search of a prop or costume.
“Weird Al Yankovic was literally just here,” Isis Torres, a senior makeup artist, said this week. Ms. Torres, 42, said the store could help just about anyone transform themselves through makeup and costumes. “A lot of the celebrities, film students, productions — they come through here.”
Many members of the staff arrive at Halloween Adventure with a love of costumes and makeup along with niche — some would say eccentric — interests.
Taylor Stevens, 36, a salesperson, was a singer in a pirate sea-shanty band on Long Island. Mav Bier, a 28-year-old cashier, previously performed in a haunted house on Staten Island. Ms. Torres crafts her own fang veneers and wears a different pair of colored contacts every day.
Mr. Stevens said it was fun to work at Halloween Adventure “especially if you’re someone who is not necessarily considered what they would call part of the ‘norms’ — alternative folk, people who enjoy the fun, spooky side.”
There are about 20 full-time staff members, with dozens more seasonal workers. Most people are paid minimum wage, and working in retail can brings headaches.
Greyson Ohana, a 33-year-old security guard, said he had dealt with shoplifters and vagrants. Christian Hammond, 27, a salesperson, said some customers were difficult. “Like any other retail job, you’re going to meet customers who are very rude and disrespectful,” Mr. Hammond said. “At least when you come in here, you get to have fun in your element as well.”
Many customers appreciate that shopping at Halloween Adventure can be an experience more than an errand. Darla Stachecki, 53, who works in real estate, arrived on a recent evening with her 9-year-old Shih Tzu, Coco. She was planning a costume for her dog based on Carrie, the Stephen King character who goes on a rampage after being doused in pig’s blood at prom. Ms. Stachecki first ordered some items from Amazon but wasn’t satisfied, she said. She decided to visit Halloween Adventure.
“I live in this neighborhood. They have everything here, so, honestly, I know to come here,” she said. “They have the weirdest things you will not find anywhere else.”
Orlando Silva, 31, who lives in Brooklyn and works for the United States Postal Service, said he likes to be outfitted at the store for Renaissance Fairs.
“I do know it was going to close a couple years back, and we were pretty upset about that,” Mr. Silva said. “I’m glad it’s still around. I’d like to come here more.”
For Halloween Adventure’s busiest days, Mr. Bianchi has a tradition. He wears a pirate’s cape; a black, floppy hat to which he has glued plastic eyeballs, bugs and bones over the years; and a tattered Batman shirt the staff has often patched up for him.
“You’re always a geek if you run a Halloween store,” Mr. Bianchi said on several occasions, shrugging at the ridiculousness of his look. On the first day this year that he brought out his outfit, several staff members shouted, “Tony means business!”
Although Mr. Bianchi lives in New Jersey, he has temporarily moved to New York City for the busy final days of Halloween season. Whether he is in his office or slashing open boxes of products with his spiky silver rings, he is often stressed by how many products sell out before Halloween, including cat tails and plastic pitchforks.
Mr. Bianchi demands as much from himself as he does from the staff, Ms. Torres said. “He’s a very busy man,” she said. But he is also a caring boss, she added. “He’s more like an uncle to me — the big uncle you never thought you’d have, as far as making sure I keep up with my health and that I get proper rest so I’m in full function for every shift,” she said.
Passing through the aisles on a recent afternoon, Mr. Bianchi waved hello to little children shopping. He has spread his love of Halloween to his five grandchildren, he said. His sense of family extends to longtime staff members. He briefly retired during the pandemic but came back a few years later as a co-owner because he just couldn’t let go.
“At 80 years old, it’s like I’ve got an old habit,” he said. Mr. Bianchi said he wanted Halloween Adventure to remain a place where up-and-coming generations could wander in to try on a Darth Vader mask or anything else to help them escape into their imagination.
“When you come in here, it’s fun,” he said, even when life is tough. “How can you not walk in and smile?”
Through the years, ownership of Halloween Adventure has switched multiple times as the place has struggled and both Mr. Goldman and Mr. Bianchi have stepped away at points. Halloween Adventure was part of a modest franchise, but its handful of satellite stores around the country have closed.
Revenue is not what it used to be, Mr. Bianchi said, declining to give specific figures. Nightclubs, which help drive Halloween sales, have been closing. Online costume shopping offers lower prices and, sometimes, free shipping.
In the store’s early days, “you could print money on Halloween, because there was no real competition,” Mr. Bianchi said. The business may even have to start selling online, he said — whatever it takes to keep the doors open.
Last week, Eitan Katz, 17, was visiting New York from Israel with his father, Barak, when they walked by Halloween Adventure and decided to enter. Eitan bought a green-haired clown mask for himself and a horned devil one for his brother.
“Yes, it costs a lot, $70,” Eitan said. But, he said, it’s worth it.
Graham Dickie is a Times photographer and a member of the 2024-2025 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers.
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