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San Antonio customers race to shop for last-minute Halloween outfits at Alamo City institution

Starline Costume shop owner Jacob Dell poses next to The Spurs Coyote head while they refresh the mascots look.
Gabriella Alcorta-Solorio
/
TPR
Starline Costume shop owner Jacob Dell poses next to The Spurs Coyote head while they refresh the mascots look.

Starline Costumes has offered last-minute costumes to customers for decades, and 2024 was no different.

Barbara Moore opened the store on Bandera Road by St. Mary’s University in 1972. She managed it until her daughter, Julie Keck, took over.

In 2022, Keck retired and announced the store would close. But local businessman Jacob Dell negotiated to buy the store, and now, two years later, the store still serves the community.

Starline doesn't just have Halloween outfits — it offers mascots and costumes for rental all year long.

Luckier customers may spot the Spurs Coyote and H-E-Buddy or see the UTSA Roadrunner getting a spa day.

Dell said the business was a bit slow last Halloween, but this year it’s back to booming. He couldn’t be happier. “I think a lot of folks obviously changed the way they celebrated Halloween during the pandemic,” he explained. “I think it just took a couple years for people to get back to being excited about being out and about in the community.”

Some of the most common costumes among kids are superheroes and princesses, according to Dell. He added that a major winner among all ages is Art the Clown, from the Terrifier movie franchise.

Terrifier was the runaway winner. We ran out of that early October, and we still get calls today,” he explained. “Another one was the Beetlejuice costume. I think that came back.”

The store was busy on the last day of the spooky season. Last-minute Halloween costume shoppers filled the store, asking about rentals, fake blood and scary costumes for the evening's celebrations.

Amanda Davis and Jose Olivan were among the shoppers. They said they wanted something fun and unique: “A costume so I can scare the kiddos when passing out candy,” Davis said.

Here are some tips on how to make it through the night, mixed in with a look back over the years at how TPR and NPR have explored and celebrated the creepiness.

Olivan said he was looking for something out of the norm. When asked about his favorite childhood costume, he said it was a “vampire with cheap plastic teeth and cheap face paint, very '80s.”

He also reflected on why adults still dress up for Halloween: “I’d say the nostalgia, The feeling of it — to be a kid again, carefree behind the mask.”

Davis agreed and said it was a chance for those to step out of their normal character and their daily tasks.

“Everybody has a little kid inside them," Dell said, agreeing with Davis and Olivan, "and it’s kind of a unique opportunity to be able to act like a kid again. Even older folks — we saw some folks come in from the American Legion in their 70s and got really excited about being in costume this year.”

He added that he appreciates the devoted customers who he sees year after year — ready to be young again for one special night.

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Gabriella Alcorta-Solorio is a reporter for Texas Public Radio. She recently graduated from Texas State University with a major in journalism, minoring in women’s studies. She has previously worked as a photojournalist with The Ranger and has reported on Alzheimer’s and dementia in South Texas using public health data. Her main focuses include reporting on health as well as military and veterans issues. Alcorta-Solorio is a U.S. Army veteran.