By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
Halloween is the favorite holiday of Hays resident Kearsten Koerner. When she and her husband Mike saw a Halloween Express retail store in Colorado Springs last year, Kearsten told Mike “we have to have one of these in Hays.”
And soon there will be.
Halloween Express will open as a pop-up store in Big Creek Crossing, 2918 Vine, Fri., Sept. 1, in the south end of the shopping center and will remain open through Oct. 31.
The national retail franchise offers everything Halloween, including costumes for all ages, yard decorations and even fog machines.
Koerner said operating a seasonal pop-up store “isn’t for everyone.”
“It’s temporary and it’s quick,” she noted.
Halloween Express provides all the inventory and sets the prices. The company also provides the store display racks, shopping carts and baskets and in-store displays.
“They tell us what to order and how much of each, depending on the store location and market size, and what the trends are,” Koerner explained. “It makes it easier for us.”
The company requires its stores to be a minimum of 5,000 sq. ft. The Hays store, in the former Fashion Bug location, is 9,000 sq. ft., nearly double in size. “This allows us to have all of our inventory out at once,” Koerner said.
What are the trends in costumes for Halloween 2017?
“Superheroes, thanks to a lot of recent movies including Wonder Woman and Spider Man, and of course, zombies are always popular,” according to Koerner. Harry Potter remains a favorite as well.”
Koerner has enlisted the help of her family to unpack the inventory, scan it into the computer system, and stock the shelves. Even her mother and her husband, Cheri and Ric Santiago of Salina, have been hard at work in the Hays store.
“Creepy and disturbing” was Cheri’s description of the Snowball mask, a fluffy white bunny with bared bloody teeth. Ric was enthralled with a plastic sword filled with red liquid to simulate blood.
They were also checking out two of many zombie masks, Rancid or Flesh-Eating, customer’s choice. Animated ”talking” masks are expected to be big this year.
Halloween Express will have two checkout scanners that accept cash or credit/debit cards. The store will be open the same hours as other Big Creek Crossing shops.
More information is available on the Halloween Express Hays Facebook page.