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Halloween Adventure in the East Village has been providing costumes for kids, adults and even pets year-round since 1981 but earlier this month, we learned that it will close in the near future.
Now, it's asking the community for help to make it to one more Halloween celebration in NYC.
The block-long store at 808 Broadway/104 Fourth Avenue has been holding a massive clearance sale for 50 percent off the entire store, including shop props and fixtures. When reached by phone on January 6, a staff member confirmed that the store would be closing soon but did not have a specific date yet.
Because of COVID-19, the shop has had so few sales that it lost more than $2 million. To help compensate, it's been selling off all its items at a 75 percent discount. Still, it hasn't been enough to help.
"While the store has always been open all year, Halloween is always the critical season that funds the rest of our year," its management said in a statement. "At this rate, we will not even be able to celebrate Halloween 2021 with the East Village and our last Halloween will have been one that had severely muted celebrations because of COVID. Nothing would mean more to us than to have at least one more full, true Halloween celebration with the community. After seeing the outpouring of support over the past two weeks across social media and in the store, we have realized there could be a light at the end of this dark tunnel."
To that end, Halloween Adventure is asking the community to buy gift cards—even half of the $2 million it lost last year would help it stay open for Halloween 2021, they said.
Already, it's made it to nearly $300,000 of its $1 million goal.
If you want to help, its gift cards can be purchased online here. The store has extended its hours, too. It's now open Monday through Saturday, 11am to 7pm and on Sundays from noon to 6pm.
The store, which has three permanent locations—two in Pennsylvania and one in NYC—first opened a temporary pop-up store in 1991 and continued to open pop-ups in the East Village until 1996, including at spaces that now house Forbidden Planet on East 13th and Broadway and the Fed/Ex Kinkos on Astor Place. In 1996, it found its permanent home in what used to be a World Gym at 104 Fourth Avenue and in 2004, it expanded and got a second entrance at 808 Broadway. The beloved shop was even featured in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt in 2019.
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