The KTA Super Stores on Puainako Street in Hilo has plenty of surprises in store for East Hawaii families on the lookout this Halloween for a fun, family-oriented fright fest.
The KTA Super Stores on Puainako Street in Hilo has plenty of surprises in store for East Hawaii families on the lookout this Halloween for a fun, family-oriented fright fest.
The grocery store will kick off the holiday season with a mixture of blood-curdling screams and uproarious laughter on Thursday when it opens the doors to its 6th Annual KTA Haunted House.
“We try to balance the screams with the laughter,” said event organizer Tony Armstrong, the store’s front-end supervisor and head of the employees’ creativity committee.
“We want to have tons of screaming and laughing. If it’s just screaming, you know it’s too terrifying for the little ones. We want it to be almost more like a funhouse than a haunted house.”
Frightful decorations, dastardly displays and actors wearing ghoulish costumes will help to seal entrants’ fate once they pass through the entrance of the haunted house, Armstrong said. Participants are asked not to bring any costume swords, lightsabers and the like, as even those on their best behavior can be prone to lashing out at the terrors that lie in wait.
“We also tell our actors they are not allowed to touch or grab, or jump out at your or scream in your face,” he said.
“We want everyone to have fun.”
The annual event began in 2010 as employees were searching for ways they could interact with KTA’s customers, he said, and it has grown quickly as word has spread of the spooky stuff on display.
“Every year it seems it increases,” he said.
“The first year we counted 2,600 people (going through the haunted house), then we went to three days from two and we had about 4,000. The third year we had 4,700. … Last year we had almost 6,000.”
Each year, members of the committee pick a theme, with past themes including the Wizard of Oz, pirates, monsters in the closet and more.
However, Armstrong was unwilling to let the cat out of the bag concerning this year’s theme.
“That would ruin the surprise,” he said with a mischievous — or was it foreboding? — grin.
Volunteers spend a combined total of hundreds of man-hours each year on the preparations and eventual construction of the haunted house, which is situated on the sidewalk in front of the store, Armstrong said.
After a successful tryout last year, students from the Waiakea High School Interact Club will help this year with the preparations and operation of the haunted house.
The haunted house is free and open to the public from 5-9 p.m., Thursday through Saturday. Donations of non-perishable food items will be accepted at the entrance. Children under 12 should be accompanied by an adult.
EMO, aka Energy in Motion, will perform popular music appropriate to the season from 7-8 p.m. during Friday night’s festivities.
The store is located at 50 E. Puainako St. in Hilo. For more information, call 959-9111.
Email Colin M. Stewart at cstewart@hawaiitribune-herald.com.