Moonlight Madness is fast approaching on Nov. 17 and many local businesses are preparing for the busy night, where the stores stay open from 6 p.m. until late.
One of those businesses is the Work ‘N’ Play owned by Ken Thomas.
“We’ve been running it for 25 years now, so we’ll pretty much do it the same,” said Thomas.
“Everybody will get a discount, for sure. We’ll roll the dice again.”
The ten additional staff who are brought in just for the day, roll four dice to determine how much of a discount a customer will get. If they roll two pairs of snake eyes (four ones) they get 50 per cent off.
“We always get a ton of people in here for Moonlight Madness, wall-to-wall people here, they’re touching elbows,” said Thomas, who enlisted help from Irene, his wife, to determine an estimate of how many people come into the store. They settled at 100 customers at any given time.
The Outlaw uses a wheel to determine the discount customers can get after they spin it, giving them a chance to get anywhere between 15-50 per cent off.
“Customers really love it,” said Frankie Vitorino, owner.
“We did a survey on it because three years ago I thought we could try something different because we’ve had it for so many years but nope, people just want the wheel.”
Pajama-wearing will be encouraged inside The Outlaw, where the staff will be wearing onesies.
“That’s how it all started,” said Vitorino about Moonlight Madness (sometimes called Midnight Madness). “Everybody used to wear pajamas. We want to bring that old tradition back.”
Typically, they also have a float in the parade but didn’t have one last year because of a shortage of staff and is undecided if they will have one this year.
Another business using a game to entice people to come into their store is the Nuthatch Books store.
“Our thing is, we put balloons up with the discount in and people pop the balloon and then the discount falls out,” said co-owner Joy Gawne. “It just seems to be a thing that took off and people enjoy.”
All three stores have their sales going all day, some until midnight while others close their doors sooner, depending on how busy they get. But everyone agrees it’s their busiest day of the year.
For Vitorino and the staff at The Outlaw, it’s also looking to be one of the more exciting days of the year.
“I think people are ready for excitement after the summer we’ve had,” Vitorino said.
Allan Roberts, owner of A & B Photo echoed this sentiment.
“I hope it’s a success for everybody, the summer was detrimental to every businessman I spoke to,” he said.
Unlike the aforementioned businesses, Roberts’ business won’t have any games to determine the discounts customers get but have fixed discounts at 50 per cent for an assortment of tripods, as well as clocks.
Customers at Whimsey Gifts will draw their discount from a basket once they get to the till, also offering 15-50 per cent discount on items.