Clearance Spot Light

Adult sized Clearance section

Beauty and the Beast Costumes, Chattanooga has a huge clearance section.  It's so big, that this author believes a lot of cool things get over looked.  So, I'm going to try to shine some light on items that have recently been reduced or that have been there for quite some time, but never seem to get noticed. 


This bright pink and purple 80's dress has just been marked down to $24.   The bodice is made of light weight polyester, pink with purple and hot pink dots.  It is gathered at the bust with a tie belt to the back.  The asymmetrical, dropped waist line is accented with fuchsia sequin trim.   The gathered skirt is violet taffeta with lavender and hot pink tulle overlays.

Shown here with red, purple and blue beads sold separately.

This dress comes with red fishnet glovelets.  The outfit captures the  miss matched, kitschy style of the 80's.  The artwork on the package shows a Cindy Lauper type, but I believe this would work as almost any pop star.

OR - Think outside the box!  Ad wings, tiara and wand for a fabulous fairy that is exclusively yours!

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This exquisite, full length black velvet cape with short red velvet capelet overlay is a much over looked gem!  It gathers at the neck with a thick, black satin drapery cord draw string.  The same cording trims the capelet as shown in the close up. 

This is an example of a great costume accessory which has been cursed with poor art direction on the packaging.  The cape's misfortune is your gain!  You can pick these up for just $17 each while supplies last.

At Beauty and the Beast Costumes, Chattanooga, you will find these capes in the adult sized clearance section with the Vampires, but it would also look great over any number of other costumes or garments for men or women.  It would be just as striking with a Devil, Black Cat, Witch, or even a medieval knight, king or queen.  (Look for the Perfect Queen dress in our next update!)

New Avengers from Rubies

Most customers probably won't notice, but the manufacturing license for Avenger's and Spider-Man Costumes has changed hands.  Disguise, who is best known for making Disney brand costumes, has held the rights to produce all Marvel Comic costumes for many years. This year, that prize piece of franchising has passed to Rubies.

This year, Rubies, the long time license holder for all things DC, has been given the chance to show what they can do with Avengers and the hottest movie of the decade, Guardians of the Galaxy.  This is really big news in some circles!  Rubies has been the sole supplier of costumes for the Batman, Superman, and Justice League franchises as well as the mega line of Star Wars costumes and accessories.  Now they have another slice of the Disney empire with the currently top selling Super Heroes, including the Ninja Turtles.

We at Beauty and the Beast Costumes, Chattanooga are thrilled that our favorite company will be handling both DC and Marvel comic characters!  Anyone who has wandered through a Halloween section at any chain store has seen the excellent quality of the Rubies brand Super Hero costumes.  Those who have shopped at Beauty & the Beast may have also noticed the truly beautiful princess dresses they make.  Who knows?  Since Rubies has done a great job with DC super heroes, Disney now owns Star Wars, which have been superbly handled by Rubies for decades, could Rubies get the Disney princess line next?  You may rest assured that this author is keeping her fingers crossed!

So, let's take a better look at the new Rubies Iron Man Costume shown above. 



The  photo on the right, above is the front of the Adult sized Iron Man, back shown on right. 
B&B price is $55, compared to $70 for the Disguise brand costume.  The Disguise brand had larger padded muscles and a two piece mask with a very pretty metallic paint job.  The Rubies brand has light padding only in the chest, abdomen and shoulder areas and the upper back is not printed.  However, the color of the Rubies suit is much brighter and the mask is made of a thicker, more durable plastic.

While you will be able to find the muscled versions of the Avengers costumes at most chain stores for $25-30, you better snap those up before November 1st or they will be GONE until next Halloween.  Beauty and the Beast only has the un-padded suits for children, similar to the adult sized shown above, for $24, but you will be able to get them all year long.  These suits may also prove to have more "play time value" than the more heavily padded ones. 

For an 'Economics 101' explanation on pricing differences, please see our blog post  "Why you can't find Frozen Costumes".







The Avengers costume licensing was SO NEW this year, that Rubies didn't even have time to print a proper catalog for everything.  Stores like Beauty and the Beast were ordering from catalogs that didn't even have pictures of the finished product as many designs were still pending approval by the licensee, aka Marvel / Disney.  Since B&B is open all year, we don't return 'left over' costumes after Halloween.  Therefore, we still have some Disguise brand Avenger and Spider-Man costumes in stock. Our purchasing agent was concerned about confusing our customers by having two brands of the same costume on the shelves at the same time.  These factors influenced our decision to only order the items we were out of, or very low on. 

As of mid October, 2014, we only have the Rubies brand Avenger Super Heroes listed above.  Our Rubies brand Spider-Man costumes are still on back order, although we do have a few of the Disguise brand left.  We also have one last Disguise Iron man that was hiding in the wrong box, Ironetts (sexy girl Iron Man side kicks), War Machine, Hulk, Thor and Captain America.

Please see our Quick Shots! and Quick Shots, Kids! pages of our Website 2BCostumes.com  for a better overview of available Super Hero Costumes.  Apologies for not having the website completely finished in time for the holiday.  We are doing our best to keep the public informed in ways we never have before.  It takes a little time to get all the wrinkles ironed out.  Thank you for your patience.

This Just In!

Late arrivals at Beauty and the Beast Costumes, Chattanooga.  Sometimes, we order items that come in quickly, some arrive by September, many times the newest items don't come at all.... but sometimes, the really cool stuff gets here Just In Time!

Three awesome new masks, left to right, Deluxe Freddy Kruger Double Mask, Original Planet of the Apes General Ursus, Pennywise the clown.  Each of these three deluxe masks sells for $55.

The Freddy mask has a 'tear away' face!  It is actually a full over the head mask with a 2nd mask 'patch' over the forehead, down to the chin.  It comes with oddly placed Velcro tabs to hold it on, but veteran Mask Man Jeff Stringer bought the first one commenting that he plans to remove the Velcro and attach small magnets to hold the face patch in place.


General Ursus is a full latex mask with long fur overlay.   The removable helmet is cloth with an EVA foam glyph on the front.

Pennywise is the monstrous clown from Steven King's novel IT.  Tim Curry portrayed the character in the movie.  The mask is pure white latex with very long clown hair all the way around.  The full Pennywise costume is also available for $60 and comes with a smaller, front face vinyl mask with hair.

Lake Winnie SPOOK House

Lake WinnepeSPOOKah

Photo from 2012 Lake WinnepeSPOOKah Haunted House

It's up and running!  Grab your kids and grandparents and hit the road for Lake WinnepeSPOOKah this October.  I strongly suggest that you go on a Friday night if you're not going to a local football game.... because lots of other parents WILL be at the ball game, you'll find shorter lines and less crowding at the park.

Things are just a little different for the event.  First, it's only open from 6 pm until 11 pm on Friday and Saturday nights in October.  Luckily, 2014 will have FIVE Fridays, including Halloween night, the 31st.  You will not be able to get into the park at a reduced price and then buy ride tickets separately.  It's just one admission price lets you in, and into all the fun and rides.  The Water Park area will be closed, but all the regular rides will be running.  The whole park is decorated for the season and many of the park employees will be dressed in Halloween Finery.  Local performers will be doing free shows and parades throughout the night.

Some confusion has arisen in the last couple of years about the location of the Haunted House.  It's NOT in the Wacky Shack as many believe.  It's at the back of the park, near Jukebox Junction.  Take the train from the station near the front gates to the back of the park and then walk through the scariest show at the park. 

PLEASE LEAVE THE KIDS OUTSIDE!  The haunt is to scary for most children.  It is not fair to other people in a group to have parents with small children yelling "Don't Scare my Kids!"  Most people go to haunted attractions to be frightened.  If they get stuck in a group with children, no one gets to have any fun.

 

Free Pirate Sword - Coupon

Friday, September 19, 2015 is International "Talk Like a Pirate Day".  Many groups and businesses are finding all kinds of fun ways to celebrate this ever growing holiday.  Krispy Kreme Donuts will be giving away free donuts to people who talk like a pirate on that day.  If you dress in a costume you can get a full dozen! (See KrispyKream.com for details)

Beauty and the Beast Costumes, Chattanooga had been planning on running a Pirates VS Ninjas promotion for this Halloween season with free swords to match your costumes.  However, with "Talk Like a Pirate Day" just around the corner, we thought it might be nice to start the Pirate side a little early!

Just print out the above coupon, or show it to the cashier on your mobile devise when you check out.  You'll get one free pirate sword, a $2.50 value with each pirate costume or set of accessories totaling $15 or more.  Pirate shirts or costumes may be adult or child sized.  Costumes from the Clearance sections DO COUNT, but must be pirates.  Accessories may include pirate or tricorn hats, boot tops, bandanas, eye patches, parrots, shoe buckles, gold coins, hoop earrings, striped socks, pirate tights, toy pirate pistol or other pirate swords.  Accessories may be used to bring costumes priced less than $15 up to the minimum, or as the costume itself.  (Example:  $25 Pirate costume = Free Sword.  $18 Pirate shirt  = Free Sword.  $13 Pirate hat Plus $6 Red & White striped socks  = Free Sword.) 

Limit One Free sword per costume or set of accessories up to 5 free swords per customer.


Arrr!  Now get your booty over to Dayton Blvd. before all the goodies are gone.

Why You Can't Find Frozen Costumes

Why you can't find Frozen Costumes

It's Economics 101.  Big chain stores kill the market for popular costumes.  Chain stores, like K-Mart, Walmart, Target, Toys R Us, Party City and others, have huge buying power because they buy thousands (possibly hundreds of thousands) of copies of the most popular costumes and send them across the country to all their locations.  They get the lowest possible price per unit and they get their shipments first.  So, by the time the costumes reach the independent retailer, the consumer base already has that low price point ingrained in their price conscious psyche.

According to Walmart, Inc., they have about 4,000 locations in the USA alone, plus abroad.  If you estimate that each store could sell at least 24 pieces of a hot movie costume, which I'm sure would be on the low end for most locations, that would be a minimum purchase of almost 100,000 units.  Now, let's count in all those other chain stores and pop up stores that also carry costumes.  The numbers start to become staggering, don't they?

A small, independent store like Beauty and the Beast Costumes, Chattanooga could only hope to sell about 12 units of any one costume in a single season.  So, let's say that you are a manufacturer for the Disney Corporation and you make the costume for that hot movie of the year.  You have Walmart who is going to purchase costumes, quite literally by the boat load, and all you have to do is put the full containers on the dock.  Walmart will pick those containers up and put them on their own trucks and do all the distributing across the country.  Then you have all those other chain stores who will be doing pretty much the same thing, just on a slightly smaller scale.  Finally, you have thousands of little Mom & Pop stores all across the country who want 3 to 12 units each of a whole bunch of different costumes.  You will have to send one container of costumes to your own distribution center, have your people pull and pack all the orders and send them out via UPS to all those little shops.  Which customer is going to get the best price, biggest discounts and fastest service?  The guy who bought 100K each of each costume or the guy who bought 12 of each?

There is also one more little twist in the price wars for Halloween dollars.  Chain stores like Walmart and Party City want to get the customer in the door to buy other items.  They can sell a popular costume very close to their cost, which was much lower than Mom & Pop's cost, to persuade people to buy other things while they are there.  It's called a "Loss Leader".  The store intentionally sells the costume for less than it paid, but they have very high mark ups on candy, party supplies, decorations, accessories, etc.  They take a loss on the costume, knowing it will bring you into the store, and then make up for it with higher markup items like the candy and decorations.

Now you are the parent who's daughter is crying for a Frozen Elsa or a son who just discovered Ninja Turtles decades after you thought that was over.  You only have limited resources of your own so you're going to look for the best price on what your children want.  Slick ads are all over the TV and in the mail touting "Costumes starting at $9.95!"  They show you pictures of sparkling Elsa and muscled Heroes with full masks, but when you arrive at the store, those costumes are actually priced $25 to $30 and you pick up the phone to try to find it at a better cost.  That's normal!  It's what parents DO.

Then you, the parent, call an independent costume shop.  We don't have that one costume, the shipment hasn't come in yet.  We have tons of other items, that are NOT at those chain stores, but still, you think "They don't have THAT?  Gees!  They don't have ANYTHING!"  Or worse, when you call, we do have what you want, but the price is much higher than at the chain store.  You think "Holy Cow!  They sure are expensive!"  Either way, you vow to never darken the door of a small business.  Sadly, you'll never know that Mom & Pop stores like Beauty and the Beast Costumes, Chattanooga have tons of other items that are frequently priced within a dollar or two of the chain stores, or even LOWER on many accessories.

So what is the moral of the story?  If you think your child MIGHT want one of the 12 most popular costumes of the season, JUMP ON IT at the chain store during the Halloween season because after November 1st, those costumes will not be available for your birthday party, trip to Disney World or school function.  Those pop up stores will be gone.  The department stores will cut back to only toddler sized princess dresses in the toy department.  Real costume shops who are open for you all year long won't have them because our wholesale prices are to close to the chain store retail price.

Facts!  
In 2002, when Tobey Maguire played Spiderman in the block buster movie, the wholesale price directly from Disguise, Inc. was $13.50 per unit.  The exact same costume was at Walmart for $9.95.  When the buyer for Beauty and the Beast Costumes, Chattanooga called her sales representative to complain, she was told, quote:  "I suggest that you go to Walmart and buy all they have.  Then the customers will have to come to you."  We didn't do that.

The wholesale price of a child sized Elsa Costume to an independent store is over $20.   Beauty and the Beast Costumes has canceled our orders.  We are sorry for the inconvenience to our customers, but we can not sell at cost.

If you and your children do NOT want to wear the same costume that everyone else on the block is wearing, please check us out.  You will be pleasantly surprised at the vast amount of costumes and accessories that we stock and thrilled with our low prices on make up, wigs, hats, toy weapons and other accessories.

Knock Off Better than Licensed!

In the world of high fashion, the name brand is always better, right?  That's not always true when it comes to Costumes!  One of the hardest parts of my job at Beauty and the Beast Costumes, Chattanooga, is to explain to people that quite frequently, the "Look-a-like" or "Kock off" is actually the better product.

Working on new costumes for the stage musical Grease, Jr., I'm reminded of how many customers Pooh-Poohed our inventory of "Look-a-Like" Pink Ladies and T-Birds costumes.  They all insisted that they only wanted the "REAL" licensed product.  Naturally, trying to give my customers what they wanted, I ordered  a large number of the Pony Express brand, licensed Grease costumes as soon as I saw them become available from one of my regular suppliers, Fun World.   The Grease Pink Ladies costume package is shown above on the left. 

At the same time, Fun World, Inc. also carried a "look a like" costume called "T-Bird Sweetie"  which was less expensive, and featured a bright pink jacket with black sequin trim.  It is shown on the right of the photo above.  Both outfits sold for about $35.

Last year, due to overwhelming demand, Fun World stepped up to the plate offering the new "50's Ladies' Jacket"by itself without additional pieces for a more price conscious audience.  This jacket was intended to be worn with other items from the Fun World 50's line or with items from other sources.

Now, let's do a side by side comparison! Click any of these photos for the larger image to see the details discussed. 

Above, Left is the Grease branded jacket.  You can tell by the GREASE logo prominently printed on the chest.  This jacket has a number of issues.  The light pink fabric is so thin, you can see through it.  The collar only has fabric on one side.  The reverse is only white interfacing so you can't Pop the color without the white side showing.  The opening edges have zipper teeth, but no zipper pull, so it won't close.  The collar, cuff and tail of the jacket are not finished.  They are only serged off.

Above Right is the T-Bird Sweetie jacket.  It is a heavier, fuchsia satin.  The collar, cuffs and waist ban are all black sequin fabric which has been properly turned and finished.  The front zipper is fairly heavy and functions.

The 50's Ladies's Jacket is a light weight satin in baby pink.  The collar, cuff and waist band are all ribbed cotton knit, much like a normal fashion jacket might have.  The black zipper functions and is even set in satin to the bottom edge for ease of use.

The Grease jacket (above, left) does say "Pink Ladies" on the back, but it's not the same font as what was used in the film.  The T-Bird Sweetie jacket (above, right) also says "Pink Ladies", but the print has a hint of glitter to better match the trim.

The only major issue with the 50's Ladies jacket is that it does not say "Pink Ladies" on the back.  It only announces it's own name.  As it is only the jacket, it will not be included in the 'costume' comparison.

The Grease costume does have more pieces than the other costume.  It includes a shirt, pants, scarf and belt.  It's nice that they provide a see through shirt to go under the jacket that won't close.  To bad they didn't finish any of the edges, like the jacket, all edges are just serged.  Keeping in line with that fashion faux pas, the triangle of fabric scarf and the pants are also unfinished.  The waist line of the pants is just a thin piece of elastic caught in the serging.  The belt is a sad little piece of white vinyl with a matching one ply vinyl 'buckle' decoration.


The T-Bird Sweetie costume doesn't waist your time with a white t-shirt and worthless belt.  You get two extra pieces, but at least they are of a quality you might want to wear out of the house.  The pants have an actual waist band encasing elastic wide enough to function.  The cuffs have been serged, then turned up and sewn in place.  The scarf is double sided, with the seams properly turned inside.


Now, would you rather pay the same price for a crappy costume just because it's a name brand?  Or would you like to have an outfit you can be proud to be seen in for about the same price?

Yeah, everyone else thought the same.  That's why the sad branded one is in the Clearance.