NEW YORK — With Halloween on the horizon, Chicago Costume is stuffed. Packaged costumes dangle near colorful wigs and bottles of fake blood. Downstairs, vintage clothes from the 1970s beg for one more boogie night.

The frightening possibilities mask the work that's gone on behind the scenes to stock the family-owned shop and its sister store for spooky season. Owner Courtland Hickey said he ordered 40% fewer costumes this year because of President Donald Trump's tariffs on products from China.

To fill the gap, Hickey and his mother, Chicago Costume founder Mary Hickey Panayotou, looked to their decade's worth of unsold costumes and accessories to see what could be repackaged or repurposed. The tariffs made new imports more expensive, and storewide price increases might spook customers, h

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