Favorite Wichita costume and novelty shop closing after 50 years in business
For almost 50 years, it’s been the place in Wichita to get Halloween costumes, Santa suits and gag gifts.
After it downsized five years ago and moved, it became — oddly — the place in town to get colored contacts.
But by the end of 2021, Kays This N’ That — the business that Kay Hettenbach founded as a secondhand shop in the early 1970s, will close for good, her son Travis said Monday. He shared the news on Facebook early Monday with the store’s customers.
Kay died last summer at age 78. And though her son Doug has been running the shop since it moved in 2016, her husband, Robert, has decided it’s time to sell the business. He’s been having his own health problems, Travis Hettenbach said, and business isn’t what it used to be.
“It’s one of those things you know at some point is probably going to come,” he said of the end of his family’s business. “We’ve heard in the industry that we’re not alone. A lot of costume shops are closing down because they can’t maintain business.”
In the early 1970s, Kay was a young mother and a garage sale enthusiast who had accumulated so many things, she decided to open her own second-hand shop. Her first space was at 519 N. Anna.
But she quickly outgrew it and moved to the spot where the shop was located the longest — at 4730 W. Second St.
In 1975, she bid on and acquired the inventory of Ben Truex Attractions, which included costumes, makeup, magic tricks and Christmas decor. After that, Kay’s transformed from a second-hand store to a costume shop, and from the 1970s through the early 2000s, it was where people went to rent quality costumes — from Tarzan and Jane accessories to gorilla suits to Ronald Reagan getups.
By 2016, Hettenbach had stopped renting costumes. She sold off her inventory, which included more than 2,000 different costumes. By then, Travis said, people had started buying their costumes and other accessories online.
Kay was ready to retire anyway, so in 2016, she announced plans to close the shop.
But there was such a customer outcry, she decided to stay open but move to a smaller spot at 4625 W. Central and put Doug in charge. Since then, the store has remained a popular Halloween destination for people in search of wigs, hats, beards and makeup, though the biggest seller in recent years, Travis said, has been those colored contact lenses, which can temporarily turn people’s eyes into all sorts of scary colors.
The family doesn’t know exactly when the last day for Kays This N That will be. They plan to stay open through the Halloween season, though the only new inventory they intend to order is colored contacts. Through Halloween, almost everything in the store will be 25% off, excluding contacts and wigs. More markdowns are likely after Halloween.
In November, the family will see how many Santa suits, wigs and beards it has and put them out on markdown. The store will close sometime after that, Travis said.
Travis, who authored the Facebook post that was shared by the Kays This N That page on Monday, thanked loyal customers for their years of patronage.
“Mom/Kay adored you all - she loved hearing the stories of your Halloween parties and how you won the top prize, how none of your friends recognized you, or how you scared the local trick-or-treaters,” he wrote. “Most of all she cherished the laughs, smiles, and excitement in your eyes as you let her live vicariously through you. THAT is her legacy and that is what we will remember and hope you will too in the coming years.”
Until closing day arrives, the shop will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays.
This story was originally published July 19, 2021 at 2:31 PM.
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