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One of NYC's iconic shops, Halloween Adventure, officially reopened today for the Halloween season!
The East Village store, which has been around since 1981, announced last year that it would be closing permanently unless it could raise enough money to keep its doors open.
The year-round costume shop had so few sales during the pandemic that it lost more than $2 million as of May 2020. To help compensate and stay open, it sold off items at a 75 percent discount and asked the community to buy gift cards. Fortunately, it was enough to reopen its doors for last year's Halloween season. Because of that, it is able to open this season.
RECOMMENDED: The Village Halloween Parade is returning this year!
"The community wanted to help save us—an NYC landmark and essential business," store manager Stitch Azintine told us. "People are really excited to see us coming back, which shows that in New York things can literally be revived and resurrected. We actually managed to fight and conquer our way through."
Last year's Halloween was an odd one, he said. People weren't celebrating and the Village Halloween Parade got canceled, which hurt business a bit.
The shop, which has three permanent locations—two in Pennsylvania and one in NYC, plans to stay open through December (with a collection of holiday decorations) at the very least, but if sales are up this year on par with the before times, it's possible it could stay open year-round again, Azintine said.
"We've been here for so long and people are used to seeing us as part of the community," he added. "It would be amazing could get enough business this year to keep going strong...and forever."
Halloween Adventure 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.
You can find Halloween Adventure at 808 Broadway/104 Fourth Avenue. It's open 11am-8pm daily and from 11am-7pm on Sundays.