I recently attended the Halloween and Party Expo in Houston (as well as HauntCon, which was held simultaneously in the same building). I was able to justify this luxury by attending their excellent business seminars, where I learned lots of very useful administrative stuff.
But like any good retailer I spent many hours on the trade show floor, shopping around for useful things and potential merchandise for the store. Alex Blue came along too. She’s quite a good assistant.
With a clipboard and a cup of coffee, people will always know you’re in charge.
One of the first booths I visited was that of the U.S. Playing Card Company. I was lured over by their specialty deck display and, seeing how many of their playing cards would be an excellent fit for our shop, promptly placed an order. All of these are your standard 52-card poker decks, which can be used for divination if you know how to read them (here’s another tutorial), but can also be used for games like poker, spades, slapjack etc.
This is not the kind of Slapjack I was talking about. Johnny Depp really sells it, doesn’t he?
Below is a list of what is on the way right now – please follow the links to their pages to see more of the designs in each deck. We can order anything from their catalogue so if you see something you would like us to carry, please let us know and we’ll get it for you the next time we order from them.
In addition to these playing cards, I have placed orders for some Halloweeny merchandise to arrive in September. I’ll post photos closer to the date – I don’t want to give away all the surprises just yet!
I also ordered a set of glitter stencils for face “paint” because it just felt like it would be a lot of fun. These will ship in late March.
Despite the fact that this is really not “new age”, I think that offering glitter tattoos will be a lot of fun, especially at any of our Red Cup Square parties, shop events, or psychic fairs.
Many vendors had all kinds of party merchandise. Some of it was just weird, but oddly tempting nonetheless. We can’t decide on these helium balloon animals, what do you think about them? I think they would be fun at the Pride Parade!
Alex examines this dinosaur balloon, pondering if it will fit into our store. They have “feet” – weighted legs – and come with a leash. So you can “walk” them around with you. Cats, dogs, giraffes, ducks, bunnies, and wow, a T. Rex! We can’t make up our minds on them but we agree they are very cute.
Fun World, a Halloween costume company, had a green screen photo booth and props for the guests to play with. Blue went with a gangsta look but I like to keep things natural. Praeternatural, even.
Here, birdy birdy… how about a nice skully? Oh yes, come hither, my pretty.
Of course there were things to buy (order), such as costumes and accessories. I got information from several companies for cloaks and capes… it is tempting to put in a gothic clothing section but it would be so expensive to open that line of products! We tried out two different styles of fangs. I don’t know yet if we’ll be ordering any for the store. Perhaps we can do a fang-fitting party in early October, just get them as a one-shot order.
Alex models fangs fit with thermal plastic (Sexy Bites Fangs), while Ande blings it out with some that use a not-so-tasty but dental-friendly resin (Scarecrow Fangs). Both stay in equally well. What do you think, should we have a Fang Party?
People did demos on the showroom floor to show off their products and skillz. There were pumpkin carving demos by Pumpkin Masters all weekend long, and a costume contest held by the Costume Designers Guild too. I didn’t get a photo of the huge castle (we could walk through it, and it had several rooms) made entirely of balloons.
Costume contests, pumpkin carving demos, and many other things go on at the Halloween and Party Expo. Look closely at the dress – it’s made from Hefty Bags and Family Dollar sacks!
You can find all kinds of props there too, everything from cheezy & cheap to life-size animatronics. This guy from They Live may have been a costume. Not sure.
Who doesn’t need one of these guys from They Live? Oh wait, we have a lot of them already in Congress. That explains a lot right? Nevermind.
This trade show doesn’t feed people (ILS does, which is damn nice of them!!) but they do have some perks. They offered FREE chair massages in the Zen Lounge, which Blue and I enjoyed, and the Boo-Hemian Lounge, a place for guests to rest, with poofy pillows and fluffy rugs and a cash bar that served up Bloody Mary cocktails with a bacon garnish.
Alex Blue kicks back on a fluffy chill pad while Ande sips a bacon-garnished Bloody Mary (inset). This was a great place to go through catalogues we’d picked up and figure out what we wanted to order.
We had a great time and came back with lots of catalogues and ideas. And now, without further ado, here is the list of playing cards which are winging their way to our shop!
