DENVER — The witching hour may be nearing for a Lakewood costume store, as its owner is unsure how much longer it can stave off bankruptcy amid the pandemic.
Business is down a nightmarish 60 percent at Disguises & Costumes Superstore at 9797 W. Colfax Ave., owner Todd Belanger said.
Halloween approaching hasn’t helped as much as hoped. Sales the Saturday before Halloween were half of last year’s mark — a trend that’s persisted all month.
“I haven’t looked (at sales) for several weeks because it just makes me too depressed,” Belanger said.
The family-run shop, founded in 1992 and run by Belanger since 2015, sells and rents costumes in addition to creating them for middle school, high school and community theater productions. The latter side of the business has been non-existent after what Belanger said would’ve been a big theater season was stopped in its tracks.
Demand evaporated when the coronavirus pandemic gripped the U.S., and Belanger was forced to trim his shop’s staff from 30 to two, where it remained from late March to mid-August. That number has rebounded to 26 or 27 in recent weeks, Belanger said, but more layoffs are likely after Halloween.