“Welcome to Total Fright,” an unexpected, eerie voice says, greeting you as you enter the small Halloween store in the basement of the Shops at Georgetown Park on M Street.
The sound of thunder and screams – along with large creepy statues – puts the store in a true Halloween atmosphere. And while the store will set up customers with costumes, black lights, spooky statues and figurines, fake cobwebs, face paint, colored hair sprays, hats, T-shirts and a variety of other costume accessories, it will be shut down and gone as quickly as it came.
Total Fright is one of several Halloween shops that is only open for two months out of the year – September and October. The Georgetown mall store is a way for two brothers to make some extra cash during the Halloween season.
Mark Caltagirone, manager of the store, said that it was his brother Lorenzo’s idea to set up this temporary shop.
“It used to be a moving store from fair to fair,” Mark Caltagirone said.
Fairs only provide a small section to display goods. The Caltagirone brothers used to sell a selection of different Halloween items, but as their success grew, the brothers wanted the ability to sell more items to a greater number of customers.
Transitioning their mobile shop to a permanent location has some real advantages – including giving them more space for a full Halloween experience. This was the brother’s first year opening an actual store. Total Fright also has a haunted house, where customers can get their fill of scares for $3.
“It worked out pretty well because we were able to have the store, the haunted house and a lot of storage in the back, too,” Caltagirone said.
He said the majority of Total Fright’s business comes from college students because the store provides them with a 10 percent discount. He said having a store in Georgetown is a perfect location because Halloween is very popular on college campuses, especially because many fraternities and sororities host costume parties.
“One of the fraternities was having a pirate party, so a bunch of college students wiped out all of the pirate stuff,” Caltagirone said.
Though the store had plenty of stock in September, as Halloween gets nearer and nearer, they run low on some of the more popular items, he said. Things like cat ears and tails as well as witch paraphernalia, tend to run out quickly.
“In September we did some business, but the main hit was at the beginning of October,” Caltagirone said.
Although running the Halloween shop is time consuming, this new venture of the Caltagirones’ does not keep them from their everyday jobs. Throughout the two months, Lorenzo continues working as an area coordinator, where he oversees different projects, while Mark is an information technology consultant.
Prior to being the Total Fright store, the site had been occupied by a Hallmark, Mark Caltagirone said. The two brothers were able to sign a two-month contract for September and October.
“We were lucky to find this location,” he said.
The Caltagirone brothers do not know if they will be back again next year, but with the success of Total Fright, Mark Caltagirone said it is possible their shop may pop up again next Halloween season.
