It’s the season for ghosts and goblins, but for Ricky Kenig, founder of quirky drugstore chain Ricky’s NYC, Halloween is anything but scary.
the retailer’s 22 stores swell with a motley assortment of hats, masks, fake beards and false teeth. The goods draw hordes of New Yorkers who want to go undercover as pirate ghosts, superheroes and naughty nurses.
“It’s our Christmas season,” said Kenig, 45, who has stores in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Easthampton, L.I., and Miami’s trendy South Beach.
It all began a decade ago when, on a whim, Kenig stocked an extra $5,000 worth of glitter and hair-color gel ahead of Halloween and ended up reaping an additional $25,000 that week.
He had stumbled into a huge and growing market: Nationally, spending on Halloween costumes and goodies will hit an estimated $5.1 billion this year, up 72% from 2003, according to the National Retail Federation.
This year, Ricky’s has 16 temporary stores open for about a month, stocked with items such as vampy vampire gowns and cockroach bodysuits.
Kenig’s brother and business partner Todd spends half the year focused solely on Halloween operations, which now make up about a fifth of the company’s $33 million in annual sales.
Photo by name.
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