IN FOCUS WITH: HALLOWEEN HOUSE
Outside of the US, Halloween products are mainly stocked within party retailers and grocers throughout October, but West Midlands entrepreneur, Tom Cheema, has changed that by launching a pop-up store entirely dedicated to all things spooky, and it’s growing every year. Progressive Party talked to him to find out all about the business… Left: Creating in-store experience for customers has been the USP for Halloween House Below: After Halloween, Tom and his team will turn the store into Christmas House for the remainder of the year
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he very first book that Tom Cheema bought at the age of eight, after badgering his mother for some time, was The History of Horror Movies. The book is still on his bedside today and is testament to his lifelong interest in all things horror and Halloween. It was this passion that fuelled his desire to start up his own Halloween store. He tells us: “I travelled to America with my wife and saw the Halloween stores over there, and we were just wowed by them because obviously America is the home of Halloween. Some of the stores over there are absolutely incredible and we just thought to ourselves, Halloween is obviously getting bigger and bigger by the year in the UK, but there’s not really anything similar here, so let’s try and bring some of that magic from America to the UK.” And that’s how Halloween House was born. Tom started with a small store in Wolverhampton. He remembers: “Compared to what we have now, it was tiny. We thought we’d done a great job, we were getting a lot of praise from the industry but it was probably a tenth of the size of the store we’ve got now.
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“We did really well and realised there was potential there for growth, so what we’ve tried to do for the three years after that, was to make it bigger and better year by year. And although last year was a bit different because of COVID,
we still took a bit of a risk by opening a bigger store. And even with COVID, we did really well. Like for like, we still managed to do more than the previous year, so we were quite surprised.” This year, the store in the Intu Merry Hill centre is double the size of last year’s outlet, with around 8,500 - 9,000 sq ft dedicated entirely to scary stuff. The store opened on 20 August and is currently employing around 15 staff, but that team will grow significantly in the run-up to the 31st. So far, things are going well. Tom says: “We’re really busy, the clock is ticking and we’re getting closer and closer to the big day. So far so good, business is pretty buoyant at the moment and I’m optimistic that we are going to have the best ever Halloween as far as sales are concerned. We’ve been a lot busier than we were anticipating and I think as long as we don’t have any problems with COVID, which I don’t think we will, then it’s going to be a good year. “You can just tell from people who are coming into the store, there are so many people saying they are going to have parties this year, it’s staggering. Everybody seems to be having a big party and the decorations are selling so well, sales are off the scale at the moment.” Interaction with customers is a key part of the retailer’s business and despite not selling online, the team are regularly connecting with customers through the screen. Tom explains: “Retail has changed over the last few years, and it’s been difficult for bricks and mortar retailers, so you have to engage with your potential customers and the way you engage has changed. We do that through
OCTOBER 2021 PROGRESSIVE PARTY EUROPE
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04/10/2021 14:16