Mr. Fun’s closing its Cuyahoga Falls retailer

• The final year-round costume store in Greater Akron, Mr. Fun’s, is closing its storefront after this vacation season.
• The enterprise, which began over 60 years in the past, is shifting its focus to on-line gross sales and leases.
• Owners cited competitors from on-line retailers and issue discovering employees as causes for the closure.
• Mr. Fun’s will proceed to lease costumes for college and theater productions by way of its web site.

Goodbye, Michael Myers.

Good night time, Dracula.

And thanks for the laughs, you foolish circus clown.

The final remaining year-round costume store in Greater Akron is closing its doorways after this Halloween and Christmas season.

After some 60 years, Mr. Fun’s is closing its final brick-and-mortar retailer on Front Street in downtown Cuyahoga Falls.

The enterprise has referred to as plenty of totally different addresses house through the years earlier than settling within the coronary heart of Cuyahoga Falls.

Andy Pocock mentioned his mother and father Al and Carol began the enterprise a long time in the past as a option to earn some additional money in the summertime once they weren’t educating.

It began small, Andy mentioned, working carnivals with a meals trailer and finally including some video games of likelihood.

The enterprise grew they usually started supplying prizes and placing on fundraising carnivals for colleges and organizations.

Andy mentioned the shop’s identify took place from everybody calling his dad “Mr. Fun” and the moniker simply caught.

The first Mr. Fun’s retailer took place as a option to promote a number of the leftover stuffed animals and different prizes round Christmas from their warehouse.

Andy mentioned sooner or later a provider prompt they begin promoting Halloween costumes and provides.

They carved out a small space of the warehouse retailer and the entire Halloween stuff flew out of the door quicker than a witch on a brush.

At the height, there have been 4 Mr. Fun’s in Northeast Ohio, together with Kent, Medina and the Cleveland suburb of Brooklyn.

They even had small seasonal pop-up shops and kiosks in space malls and procuring facilities.

The assortment of costumes, together with these rented out for particular occasions and faculty performs, finally numbered within the tens of hundreds.

The assortment has since pared down fairly a bit however remains to be effectively into the hundreds.

And lots of these remaining costumes are actually on the market.

A colourful zoot go well with value $500 can now be had for what was the value of a rental − about $50.

Andy’s spouse, Meralie, mentioned it’s time to take a step again and reimagine the enterprise.

A variety of components led them to the choice to shut the storefront and as a substitute give attention to on-line gross sales and leases, together with the occasional popular culture conference.

It has been powerful to search out assist, they are saying, coupled with the lengthy hours and calls for of holding the shop up and operating amid competitors from the likes of on-line retailers like Amazon.

“We are not going away,” Meralie mentioned. “This is not the final curtain call. This is just a costume change.”

During the heyday, Greater Akron was house to 4 or so costume outlets.

Mr. Fun’s is the final one that also had a everlasting storefront.

Meralie mentioned the plan is to maintain a number of the extra fashionable costumes for college and regional theater productions and proceed to supply leases by way of their web site mrfuns.com and different costume and Halloween-related merchandise.

“We’re evolving into our next incarnation,” she mentioned.

She will not miss the lengthy hours, however she’s going to miss the purchasers.

“I will miss the families that have come in year after year,” she mentioned. “We do have a lot of multigenerational customers.”

Andy mentioned they plan to stay round Greater Akron and are on the lookout for a spot to maneuver the remaining stock after the shop closing sale that’s anticipated to run by way of the Christmas season.

But not too large of an area.

“The danger of having a building with nooks and crannies is you will fill it up,” he mentioned.