Amanda Piccolino
Staff Writer

For countless people, the scariest part of Halloween has nothing to do with witches, zombies or ghosts. For many trick or treaters, the most hair-raising aspect of Halloween is the price of the costumes.

Local costume shops like Party City, Party Hardy, and Happy Daze, have prices that range from approximately 25 to 150 dollars. While a great deal of Staples students will visit these shops before the 31^st, many plan to assemble their costumes by hand.

Charlotte Weber’12 always makes her own costume. “If you buy a costume, you wear it once and then never touch it again. It couldn’t be a bigger waste of money and material,” she said.

Others feel that the convenience of purchasing a costume is worth the expense.

“It is definitely not more cost efficient to buy a pre-made costume, however it saves a great deal of effort,” Jay Kaplan’12 said.

Weber believes that student’s willingness to spend an exorbitant amount on costumes has risen from the growing enthusiasm about the holiday.

“Halloween has turned into something with so much hype that people feel it’s necessary to pay a great deal for their costumes,” Weber said.

Such zeal is evident in Party City’s most recent sale. Store manager Dave Krause saw a group of 20 Staples girls spend 50 dollars each on matching Avatar costumes.

According to Krause, these kinds of purchases are frequent throughout the end of October. However, he emphasizes the advantage of shopping early.

“We run a sale every week starting in September. Some of the prices can be up to 50% off on a selected costume,” Krause said.

While Weber is in favor of these cheaper prices, she and many others will proceed to make their own costumes for the sake of “being unique and original.”

For those that do decide to spend on a pre-made costume, discount coupons to Party City are available on www.partycity.com.

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