News
Athens Halloween Costume Countdown
By: Taylor Petras
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With the infamous Halloween block party just around the corner, Ohio University students and Athens residents are shopping for last minute costumes.
For businesses likae Uptown Costumes on Court Street, it’s a very busy time of year.
“It’s kind of all hands on deck. It gets pretty busy in here especially the closer that you get toward block party,” said Jessica Zimmerman, an Uptown Costumes employee. “The closer you get to Saturday, the more hectic it gets.”
Zimmerman was hired on for just this week leading up to the big block party due to the large volume of customers.
While it may be easy to order a costume online and have it rushed shipped to make it in time for this Saturday, many students are looking to save a couple bucks and the authenticity of their costumes.
“There’s so much to look at here, it’s kind of fun to sift through all the different stuff because there’s such a big selection,” Zimmerman said. “You have the more generic costumes that you can get from regular stores, but you can get the more rare type of pieces here.”
John Armour, an Ohio University freshman student decided he wanted to be the Lone Ranger for Halloween the Wednesday morning before the block party. Despite his last minute decision, he rather shop for his costume in stores.
“I’d rather not just buy a costume version of it and actually find real clothes,” he said.
Freshman student Joy Hoile stopped in Uptown Costumes to find pieces for her 80s inspired costume. She rather shop at places close to her rather than having to pay more online.
“I love the costume shop. I think it’s so cool to have something so close,” Hoile said. It’s kind of cool to be like ‘Hey, I got this right down the street and not online.’”
Another place students may have been able to find an affordable costume was at the Baker Student Center. OU’s Office of Sustainability held a costume exchange Wednesday afternoon as a part of the university’s Sustainability Day.
“A lot of students probably don’t have their costumes yet so we were thinking this would be a good way to attract people since it’s on their mind and scrambling to do right now,” said Leigh Wagner, Office of Sustainability Event Coordinating Intern.
Student could bring their old costumes and swap it out for another. The event was held to spark a conversation about the university’s sustainability efforts and promote the idea of reusing items such as Halloween costumes.
“Even if they don’t want any of our costumes, we can give them tips on how to go out and find costumes or make their own,” Wagner said.