By JAZLYN SLACK
You’re walking down the street when you see a large black figure walking toward you. Alarmed, you decide to cross the street.
The cool air is sending a chill down your spine and it doesn’t help that there’s someone crunching through the leaves behind you. You speed up, in a hurry to get home when a group of wolverines, ghosts and witches swoosh by you, laughing.
You’re almost home when a little girl looks up at you and lets out an ear piercing scream. That’s when you look down at yourself and see the hair.
Copious amounts of hair on your legs, chest and arms. Hair where no hair should grow.
Walking down the street, you startle children, babies and even some adults. They’ve never seen anything like it before.
The sasquatch.
If you are looking for a costume this Halloween that will get that reaction, you are in luck. There are multiple stores in the Kitchener-Waterloo area that have a variety of costumes for you to choose from. Value Village and Spirit are only two.
“We have had a lot of teenagers, university and college students coming in already to buy their Halloween costumes for this year,” said Karrie Koebel, manager of Value Village on Ottawa Street North.
We usually back stock our Halloween orders in the last couple of weeks of September, and continue to stock until the end of October.”
The classics have always been popular — the witch, ghost, devil and familiar Disney characters — however, this year things are changing.
Koebel said Value Village has been selling a lot of tutus lately because of the Black Swan craze. She also said Wolverine has been popular as well as the skeleton suit for boys.
Value Village hires temps each year in October because it’s so busy, but costumes aren’t the only thing the popular “Halloween Factory” sells.
“We sell a lot of decorations as well. We have a wide variety of stuff and we see a lot of customers come in to shop and leave ready for Halloween,” said Koebel.
Spirit, on Weber Street East, is ready for the season. The store had Halloween music playing, including the classic Monster Mash getting you in the mood for costume shopping and spooky decorating.
Karen Dool, an employee and Halloween enthusiast, said their store has had more decoration shoppers than costume shoppers.
“We’ve already sold out of the jumping spider in store and online,” she said. “You can’t have Halloween without the essentials — decorations, a black light, cobwebs and spooky music.”
When you’re deciding what to be for Halloween this year, consider your budget.
“The most expensive costume we have is a cigarette girl, and it’s $99.99. They get more expensive when props and add-ons are included,” said Dool.
The sasquatch and gorilla costumes at Value Village are $89.99, but Koebel said they do sell.
There are plenty of costumes to choose from whether you make one yourself with the wide variety of clothing at Value Village or buy a packaged costume from Spirit.
However, when you’re walking down the streets this Halloween, keep an eye out.
Who knows, there could be a sasquatch crunching in the leaves behind you.
