New changes happening for BKE Costume Rental

After a long quiet time there is finally some worthwhile news about BKE Costume Rental:

1. Before the Halloween weekend there should be 14 new costumes arriving. Some are useful for Halloween and some are useful for the rest of the year.

2. A purple dragon costume is being made by someone in Pretoria.

3. The website is undergoing several changes:

3.1. Home page updates with instructions on how to use the website since many seem to not know.

3.2. A "coming soon" section on the home page that only shows if new costumes are being expected.

3.3. The search filters are getting new choices like age range (adult, child, teenager) and availability by date as well as a new search results display choice.

3.4. Search results are getting a new view for displaying primarily an image and are grouped by character.

3.5. Image uploading per costume is being created but might only be added later due to security reasons.

4. Plans are being made to replace the old Wendy House and set up something bigger that will last longer.

Various costume requests changes

Lately I have found an interesting shift in costume requests patterns:
Teletubby
Astronaut
Toy Story
Rock 'n Roll
Power Rangers

Teletubby and Astronaut requests got a fairly sharp increase in requests. Barney is requested occasionally by desperate parents, but that costume is not actually available for adults. I have also seen an increase in requests for children size costumes as well Power Rangers.

Most popular costumes over the years

According to some new statistics that I ran recently, I have compiled a list of my top five costumes per year starting since 2006. Left to right is highest to smallest.

2006: Batgirl, Batman, Catwoman, Supergirl, Mr. Incredible
2007: Batgirl, Superman, Batman, Mr. Incredible, Spider-Man
2008: Batman, Batgirl, Spider-Man, Superman, Mr. Incredible
2009: Batman, Dinosaur, Superman, Spider-Man, Supergirl
2010: Dinosaur, Batman, Spider-Man, Supergirl, Bunny
2011: Bunny, Dinosaur, Spider-Man, Power Ranger, Supergirl

Contact lenses experiment

As a new experiment, I am going to start selling or at least taking orders for coloured contact lenses on my website. This is at this stage an experiment, but it might turn out well. The pricing model is based on a percentage of the selling price.

Starting something new

I will be having a meeting with a supplier this coming Sunday to sell coloured contact lenses via my website for enhancing costumes. Due to various reasons, contact lenses should not ever be hired. I might also investigate some rumours that I heard about some interesting costumes in Chinatown.

Various changes

Lately there have been various changes happening:

1. New costumes due to requests.

2. New costumes to replace old costume or those with parts gone missing, this is still ongoing.

3. Website updates being mainly a much improved search filter to make it easier to find costumes. This is mostly done, but also still ongoing.

4. More actual photos on the website to give a better idea how costumes look like.

Costume renting price increase due to losses

Due to costumes not being returned and people not responding on the phone numbers given, all costume and mask renting fees will be adjusted after the next upcoming annual event. This is to be able to recover from losses. The booking form will also request more details plus a possible approval system.

Easter weekend bunny costumes

According to my count, I have eleven bunny costumes for Easter. It seems like that everyone wants to have the deluxe edition even when they know it gets too hot. Probably just because of the name. A lot of people also consider their costume booking for bunny suits urgent with no regard for other urgent bookings by other people. This selfish behaviour causes me some problems if they decide to not return the costume on time or to collect too early. With the too early part they at least cannot get it if it is still out. What does not help is if people just do not bother reading the opening hours and just assume the opening times.

Twitter and Facebook icons

After a very long time, a Twitter acocunt has finalyl been created. Icons for both Twitter and Facebook are now also at the top of the website. An RSS news feed icon is expected soon as well. Three new Sea Captain Uniform costumes have been added to the collection and one Superman costume has been retired.

The Flamjangled Tea Party

The weekend of 18 to 20 March 2011 will have the annual Flamjangled Tea Party. I have never been to the event, but according to my sources it is more or less like a huge costume party over two days. There will be different smaller events happening at the main event, including different DJs, bands, etc. According to one of my sources, it is the best party of the year.

Moulin Rouge dress available

Due to popular demand, a Moulin Rouge dress is available. If needed, additional gloves can be provided.