Corporate Halloween

If you've been reading my blog lately, you are probably aware of how much I love Halloween.

Another love I have is a ghastly website called HorrorFactory.com. In my many years of procuring Halloween paraphernalia, I have made some mistakes, and discovered some rare treasures. This website is most definitely the latter.

Years ago there was no place to buy anything Halloween-related, save for the local Big-V Drug Stores, and only during the month of October. Occasionally, they actually had some great stuff. At nine years old I used to whine and cry that there wasn't enough Halloween stuff around.

My whining stopped when I discovered "The It Store..." and my dream had been realized. At that age, and at their prices, I barely had enough money to buy one bag of seven-dollar spiderwebs. But just like clockwork, that glorious day would come where everything was 70% off -- November 1st.

I didn't understand why my mom cringed at the life-like skulls, and severed arms and legs that I brought home each year. I was further baffled as to why I was not allowed to do my homework under the light of candles that I melted onto those skulls. And I didn't understand why my mom kept taking my red lightbulbs out of my lamps.

The It Store... finally outgrew its usefulness, and succumbed to whatever it was that caused it to go bankrupt. When it disappeared from Canada, another store sprung up to take its place. Party City was even more expensive, but had 100x more stuff. Their merchandise was so incredible, and so unique (and by then I had a good job) that I didn't mind paying their exorbitant prices. Once in a while Wal-mart carried the exact same product for about 75% less, and of course, I would buy it there. Over the years Party City slowly became more and more expensive until they had become synonymous with Greed.

That's when the bubble burst.

Party City's own greed did them in and the chain vanished. If a completely devoted Halloween freak like me wasn't willing to pay their insane prices, then nobody was. By then, I was glad to see them go. Like I mentioned before, I hate businesses that take advantage of the season.

This is when I started to discover the plethora of online specialty companies. HorrorFactory.com is one of them. Fright Catalogue is another. But HorrorFactory is different in that they create their own designs, from the moulds to the detailed and incredible paint schemes. You can even contact James to have something custom-made. The stuff is top notch. And above all, they are far from greedy.

Check out their catalogue. If you're like me, you'll be impressed. If you're like my mom, you'll run away, screaming.