Mankato Family One of the World’s Largest Halloween Retailers
If you've purchased or rented a Halloween costume online, there's a good chance it came from this Mankato family. The four Fallenstein siblings (Tom, Heather, Lisa, and Julie) and their mom have been doing this for 30 years. They have become one of the world's largest Halloween retailers!
Their mom, Jenice, made all of their Halloween costumes as kids. When Julie and Lisa were in college, the Star Tribune says they decided to try to rent out the costumes their mom had made. It became super popular! Eventually, their brother Tom got involved. He's now the CEO of the company.
The Star Tribune writes that in the beginning when the operation was out of their parent's home, "the living room and hallways were stacked with shipping boxes. The kitchen: boxes." Tom begged his sisters in the weeks leading up to Halloween to help him and they would sometimes need to pull all-nighters.
They now own halloweencostumes.com. They have 2,000 seasonal workers with 10,000 styles of costumes. Their warehouse is located in North Mankato and their mom Jenice still fixes the costumes if one comes back with a missing button or something of that nature.
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