Admittedly, I had never been to The Costume Shoppe until about a month ago. I had the luck to attend a VIP shopping night and see what it was all about, although I didn't make any purchases that evening.
The store has something for everyone. Pretty much any costume or accessory you might need is at the store. While you want to get your gear well in advance (a week +) of Halloween (the last week is complete mayhem) otherwise it's a pretty slick operation. Look through the books, write down your choices, and the staff bring it up to you.
A little inconvenient that they only give you one costume at a time to try on, but I totally get it - otherwise, the costume pieces would be everywhere & missing, things would be wrinkled, put in wrong packages, etc. Definitely a good way to keep things organized but slows down the process a little. What can you do?
They've also got a website (www.costumechik.com) where you can look up what's in stock in prep for coming down to the store. Voila!
(5/30)