Ann’s Costume & Magic Shop

First off let me say that the store is in complete disarray. The woman working there (Ann i presume) was very overbearing and had trouble with just letting us look around and figure out what we wanted. She was down our throats from the second we walked in. My wife finally settled on a cat costume that she bought new, and I settled on Hanibal Lecter … however the mask (even though it was plastic) cost $ 35 to buy so she suggested I rent the whole costume for $ 40 which included the straight jacket and the whole shebang. I was grateful she was forthcoming at the time … However we went down the shore (NJ) to the Halloween party and when I went to change into the costume one strap on the straight jacket was hanging on by a thread, and the other was completely off but was attached with a SAFETY PIN. When I returned the costume I was prepared to let it go if she appeared she didn’t know (maybe a customer returned it that way and she never realized it — however unlikely) but instead she tried to claim it was supposed to be that way because «some people like it without the buckles and some don’t.» Needless to say I made it clear that she was insulting my intelligence and left. I will never go back in to that store again, and you shouldn’t either.

I rented an Elvis costume from Ann for a middle school play. I was personally responsible for more than 40 costumes, some custom made, some reconfigured from existing costumes and many alterations. I worked day and night on this project and had no concerns about the rental piece. The day of the first dress rehearsal I got a good look at this costume. It was filthy. There were stains throughout it including urine stains at the fly. The zipper, hooks and eyes, and crotch all needed to be re sewn. I spent at least 2 hours trying to clean up this mess and when I pressed it the stench of body odor was intense. I was too fearful to wash it so I doused it in Febreeze and let it air outside. I returned it today with my litany of complaints. The most she would do is take $ 15.00 off the rental fee of $ 130.00. I was down to crunch time and needed this additional job like a hole in the head. Fortunately the victim who had to wear it (a teacher at the school) was a very good sport about it and wore it despite being grossed out. If you chose to rent a costume from her, be sure you can either wash or dry clean it before use. Disgusting experience.