BROWNSTOWN
Whether you want to portray a witch, a pirate, a zombie, a popular movie character or a real person, Fright Night Halloween has the costume for you.
With more than 2,000 costumes in stock at the store at 1029 W. Commerce St., Brownstown, from infant to adult plus size, there’s something for everyone.
Plus, customers can browse the Halloween decorations, makeup and accessories and even pick up pumpkins and a carving kit.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
"We have a bigger selection than giant retail stores," said Chris Wiese of Seymour, who operates the store with his wife, Amanda Wiese.
The front of the store features a wall full of Halloween and Christmas decorations that many people will recognize as vintage.
"Some of them date back to 1915, 1920. They just reprinted them," Chris said of the distributor. "A lot of people remember them being in Grandma’s house."
The vintage theme continues on shelves behind the counter with boxes containing vinyl jumpsuits with the mask and full costume. Those, however, are just for show, not for purchase.
"These guys, they are a big conversation starter," Chris said. "We’ve been collecting these 24 years. We don’t sell them. They are more of display. Some of them we have had so long, it would be hard to part with them."
In the next room, accessories and makeup are found hanging on pegs to the left.
Liquid latex is a big seller, Chris said.
"A lot of people are making their own prosthetics now," he said. "We sell a lot of liquid latex. In fact, we’ve gone from carrying just the little tube — people were coming in buying six, eight at a time, so I was like, ‘Well, let’s jump it up’ — so now, we’ve got quarts and gallons. They really get into it. They’ll tell us they’ll take toilet paper and school glue to make scars."
The rest of the room features a large selection of costumes for girls and women and also a wall full of vinyl masks for a variety of real and fictional characters, including Michael Jackson, George Bush, Napoleon Dynamite, Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, Frankenstein and more.
"We’re probably one of the only ones in a 45-mile radius, maybe more than that, that sells the Trick or Treat Studios (masks)," Chris said.
A smaller room on the right side of the building features costumes for boys and men.
So how do the Wieses decide what costumes to stock in their store?
"It’s really a coin toss from year to year because we never know (what will be popular)," Chris said. "We’ll research next year, 2021 movies that are coming out. There was a new ‘Halloween’ this year that got pushed back because of COVID, so the new Michael (Myers) mask, it got pushed back also, so we’ll get that next year."
They also keep up with other trends.
"We’ve got a granddaughter that will be 5 in January, so we pay attention to cartoons that she likes watching," Chris said. "Last year, it was Vampirina and Paw Patrol, so we made sure we got that (for this year)."
They also make sure to stock the classic costumes, including Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, witches, pirates, zombies and superheroes.
The store opened in mid-September, but Chris said business has been a little slow because people were waiting to hear communities’ decisions on trick-or-treating before buying costumes.
Brownstown, Crothersville, Medora and Seymour all plan to allow residential trick-or-treating from 6 to 8 p.m. Oct. 31 and are encouraging people to take precautions to stay safe, including going to homes of people they know and trust, maintaining social distance, using a face mask that covers the nose and mouth and keeping hands sanitized throughout the night.
The store is open from noon to 7 p.m. seven days a week.
"Closer to Halloween, we’ll open at 10 a.m. to midnight if needed," Chris said. "If people are coming in the doors, we’ll stay all night."
The store will close at 4 p.m. Oct. 31.
"Trick-or-treating is at 6, and I figure if they don’t have (their costume) by 4 o’clock, we’ve got five grandkids and two more on the way and I’d rather be out with them," Chris said.
Chris and Amanda like talking to people as they come into the store to buy costumes and decorations.
"Just seeing new people and seeing a lot of regulars," Chris said. "People come in with their home haunts on their phone like, ‘Look at this.’ They’ll set up their carport or whatever they have, front yard. We get a lot of stories."
This is the fourth year for the Wieses to operate a Halloween store in Brownstown. For 10 years, they have operated Freedom Fireworks in the main building in the summertime up to the Fourth of July and seven other area locations.
"Some of the guys we know that are in the fireworks business do Halloween, and we just kind of transitioned into it," Chris said of how Fright Night Halloween started. "We always got into the Halloween horror movies and that type of thing. Our distributors for the fireworks, they would give us recommendations of who to contact and stuff like that."
The first year, Chris said it was real simple and small. It has since grown to where it takes six weeks to set up the store.
"All of these little pegs, it’s tedious," he said. "The last few years, we’ve accumulated a lot of inventory."
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”At a glance” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Fright Night Halloween is at 1029 W. Commerce St., Brownstown.
The store sells Halloween costumes, decorations, makeup and accessories along with pumpkins and carving kits.
Hours are noon to 7 p.m. seven days a week, but closer to Halloween, the store will open at 10 a.m. and stay open later.
The store will close at 4 p.m. Oct. 31.
Information: Call 812-521-2304, visit facebook.com/frightnighthalloween or email [email protected]
[sc:pullout-text-end]