Costumed Occasions

The first thing I noticed about this place upon walking in is that it’s cluttered and musty. It wasn’t very inviting, but I was there to rent a costume, not have a tea party, so I let it slide. The thing about this place is that they rent out costumes, so you pay a daily fee for your rental until it is returned to the store. Last year I came here on a last minute costume run on the recommendation of a friend. I wanted to go as a super hero of some sort, and the only thing I needed to make my costume complete was a cape and tiara befitting a super hero. They didn’t have any capes that weren’t of the Renaissance festival persuasion and when I did find a tiara, they wouldn’t let me rent it because it apparently belonged with another costume and had been misplaced with the other headgear where I found it. Did I mention that this place is disorganized? The costumes here are in varying states of repair and some should have been trashed a while ago. Last year I ended up not getting anything from them, I was so annoyed with their state of disarray and lack of quality customer service (the woman at the counter who told me I couldn’t rent/​buy the tiara was very rude). This year I briefly stopped in to see what sort of selection of pirate outfits they had, if any at all, and was not impressed with their selection. Besides, I could buy a costume of the same mediocre quality for the cost of renting one for the weekend. Maybe there is some secret to working the system here that I haven’t figured out, but if that’s the case then they should make their system less confusing. This is costume shopping, not buying a used car. It should be relatively cheap and straightforward. Alas, I have not found that to be the case.