Hawai'i's tricky retailers conjure up quick treats
By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer
Welcome to The Season for Mark Horsley and Laurinda Titus-Luciano.
Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser
Horsley hasn't left his temporary Halloween store on Cooke Street before 1 a.m. in recent weeks.
For two weeks, Laurinda Titus-Luciano plays Blondie the Witch for 15 hours a day at her Spooky's Halloween Town Haunted House & Costume Store in Kane'ohe.
Looking a bit bleary-eyed from the night before, Horsley pointed to the shelves he hastily installs every year in his temporary Hollywood Express store, which is supposed to be a side job.
"It's not," Horsley said. "It's a full-time job."
Across the island in Kane'ohe, Titus-Luciano just moved into a 2,000-square-foot storefront along Kamehameha Highway that will be this year's home for the combination Halloween shop/haunted house she calls Spooky's Halloween Town Haunted House & Costume Store.
For the next two weeks, Titus-Luciano will take a break from her housekeeping and children's party businesses to dress up as Blondie the Witch every day from 8:45 a.m. until midnight.
"I feel like I'm running a carnival," Titus-Luciano said. "You've really got to like what you do."
The two are the only competitors in a Honolulu retail niche that springs up this time of year and then quietly disappears. Where they are located each year depends largely on finding low-cost rental space available for just a few weeks.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
Halloween Express and Spooky's Halloween Town also are part of a bigger holiday shopping picture.
Yuko Kajino hunts for the perfect get-up at the temporary Halloween Express shop on Cooke Street.
With Oct. 31 falling on a Friday this year, retailers are expecting a bump in business for what is already their second-biggest sales season after Christmas. Halloween sales are projected at $7 billion nationwide, with hopes riding high that Americans are in a mood to spend a little more on fantasy after a year of dwelling on the economy and war.
Yuko Kajino is fairly representative of Halloween shoppers. A massage therapy student by day, Kajino spent 45 minutes at Halloween Express trying to figure out what she wants to be on Halloween night.
The 27-year-old considered costumes of an angel, a bunny and Sailor Moon, the Japanese cartoon superhero. But she ended up buying only a white cape for a friend and continued on her quest.
"I would like to see even more Halloween stores," she said.
Shoppers like her lead Yvette LaFontaine, owner of the Costume Closet, to expect her store off Kapahulu Avenue to be busy as Halloween draws closer.
LaFontaine, a former fashion design student, runs her operation year-round and specializes in high-quality costume rentals, theatrical-quality makeup and some lower-end, prepackaged costumes for sale.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
"I'm going to be slammed," LaFontaine said. "With Halloween coming on a weekend, people are gearing up."
Mark Horsley takes a break from his security business every year to run the Halloween Express shop. The costume shop, which did well at Dole Cannery last year, opened recently on Cooke Street.
Halloween Express, a franchise business, offers a range of dress-up options for Halloween, plus props and party paraphernalia.
Especially in Hawai'i, people enjoy dressing up for make-believe, said Veronica Mokunui, an assistant manager at Party City in Waikele, which turns over half of its floor space to Halloween costumes and decorations each year.
That means the Halloween market is far from saturated, Mokunui said. "More businesses could come in here, and there would be plenty for everybody."
But it also means a lot of work in a hurry for temporary-store owners: construction, renovation, long hours and then breaking everything down into storage containers for next year — all in the space of a few weeks.
Horsley and Titus-Luciano come to the business from different perspectives.
Horsley didn't have much interest in Halloween after he outgrew trick-or-treating around the age of 13. He and his wife, Rie, run a security company, but became partners two years ago in the 5-year-old local franchise of Halloween Express to see if they could make extra money.
Over the years, Halloween Express, which typically has an inventory of about $62,000, has found temporary space in Hilo, Ala Moana Center and Dole Cannery. Last year, in a little more than two months, the Horsleys and their partner, Geri Eberle, grossed $70,000 at Dole Cannery.
This year, they took out a short-term lease on 2,000 square feet of storefront at the corner of Kapi'olani Boulevard and Cooke Street, and aren't sure what kind of sales to expect.
"It's anybody's guess," Horsley said.
As a single mother of two, Titus-Luciano started Spooky's Halloween Town Haunted House & Costume Store 10 years ago as a way to generate extra income.
"Every year, I have to scramble around for a location," she said at the start of another 15-hour day. "It's very difficult to find space, because most of the real estate companies do not want to deal with short-term tenants. They want long-term."
Last year, Titus-Luciano had a one-month lease at Windward Mall. But she couldn't afford the higher rent this year, so she moved into an empty spot next to the Kane'ohe Post Office and unpacked the costumes and pieces of haunted house that she stores in a 10-by-40-foot shipping container.
In the best years, Titus-Luciano said, costume sales and $6 haunted house admissions have grossed a maximum of $15,000.
But she keeps the operation going, in part as a legacy to hand down to her children, Audrey, 17, and Gino, 16, both students at Castle High School.
"We started this as a way to do something as a family," she said. "But it takes everything I've got."
Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8085.
