Audrey’s Costume and Dance Wear shop has opened up a temporary store for the Halloween season.
The original store on Star Top Road near Cyrville Road was gutted by a blaze on June 28th.
Damages were estimated at $1 million. It is still not clear what caused the blaze.
Audrey’s says every costume was damaged, and a third of their vintage clothing dating back from the 1930s was destroyed and cannot be replaced.
Employees worked hard for months to get a fire sale temporary location set up on 2253 Gladwin Crescent.
Employee Rob Pitcher says it was “like rebuilding a business from the ground up again.” He says. “Literally like a phoenix rising up from the ashes. Literally restarting again.”
He says he never had any doubt the store would reopen in time for Halloween- the busiest time of the year for the store.
Pitcher says, “We all have a strong will and a fire in our heart and stomach to make Audrey’s better... make it great as it is.”
Dave Travesy comes to Audrey’s every year to get his costume for his charity theme party. This year he found his sock hop theme. “Every year we shop at Audrey’s. We have an event at the resource center and we come here to get out customer for whatever the theme is.”
Travesy says he wanted to come to the fire sale location because he wants to support the store and likes the service. He says, “At least they salvaged some things. And we can look around and figure something out! Or someone will figure something out for us!”
The temporary store will be open until November 3. It is still not clear what will happen after that.