Halloween ‘like Christmas’ for thrift shops

MARYSVILLE – Halloween is big at the thrift shops in Marysville.

MARYSVILLE – Halloween is big at the thrift shops in Marysville.

“Halloween is the big thing here – like our Christmas,” said Jackie Little, retail supervisor for the Goodwill.

This year, she is noticing little kids are liking to dress up like animals, while women are liking the flapper costumes.

“We have so many” costumes “it’s hard to pinpoint” favorites, she said.

Other popular costumes include Minions, Frozen characters, Care Bears, firefighters and lady bugs. For adults there are wedding dresses, nurse outfits and leather coats for bikers. They also have a lot of accessories, such as wigs, teeth, eye patches, devil horns and tails.

Suicide Squad characters have been hot sellers at the Value Village in Marysville.

Front-end supervisor Maria Kissell said Halloween costume sales are up this year because, “We have newer items than in previous years.”

Among adults, popular costumes are presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

But she said many adults “like to have their own look, and build their own costumes.” Many like Mario, Where’s Waldo and even I Dream of Jeannie. Game of Thrones medieval Renaissance costumes also are hot sellers. Superhero and clowns are popular for all ages.

“We have a lot of masks,” Kissell said. “It depends on what you’re looking for.”

Ashley Voag and her family were looking for costumes related to bugs: like a butterfly, bumblebee and lady bug. Her son, Keagan Hessen, 6, was going to be the bug catcher. Jackie Wharton, a Halloween consultant, helped them with Keagan’s costume. She had the idea of taking a patch off an Army shirt and putting a bug pin on instead.

Voag said she likes to shop at Value Village because it gives back to the community.

“Our family likes to help people,” she said, adding they go to the Goodwill, too.

But that’s not the only reason they shop there.

“Look at all the cool stuff,” Voag said, adding it also helps on the budget.

Nationally, the top-selling Halloween costumes for kids are: superheroes, princesses, animals, Star Wars, witches, Frozen characters and zombies.

For millennials, the favorite costumes are: vampires, video game characters, slasher villains and pirates.

For older adults, they like to dress up as Clinton and Trump, ghosts and with scary monster masks.