Kay’s This N’ That moving to new space instead of closing

UPDATED – After more than 45 years in business, Kay’s This N’ That won’t be closing as planned but moving to a new site instead.

“My son, Doug, is going to be taking over Kay’s This N’ That,” Kay Hettenbach says.

The store is moving to 4625 W. Central, which is several blocks west of West Street and not far from its current address.

“It’s a better location – new, smaller,” she says.

Hettenbach says the traffic will be better on Central.

The store has been at 4730 W. Second for almost its whole existence.

Hettenbach will sell the building after the store moves.

“It definitely will be after Halloween,” she says of the move.

There will be downsized inventory at the new space.

“I haven’t rented costumes for a long time, so that part’s been kind of wasted space,” Hettenbach says of her existing space.

“I got old,” she says of why she quit renting costumes. “I had, like, 3,000 costumes, and it got to be too much for me to do by myself.”

She has sold a lot of the costumes and is still selling some of them to liquidate her costume inventory.

Now, the store mainly sells accessories for costumes. That includes masquerade masks, though not big overhead masks as in the past.

Hettenbach will order new merchandise for the new store for her son to sell.

“We have so many memories there … and made so many friends,” she says. “It won’t be like a stranger’s coming in.”

This story was originally published October 24, 2016 at 9:27 AM.