Halloween is definitely my favorite of all the holidays. I like the costumes and the candy, but I like the "fun" of the holiday - it's the collective spirit of fun and silliness of Halloween that endears it so much to me. I love Halloween costume shops and could spend much longer browsing the various costumes than most people, I suppose.
But you might not be like me. Halloween costume shops are notoriously untidy and often woefully understocked. Navigating through Halloween costume shops is difficult at best, and if you've waited until the week before, best of luck. Most Halloween costume shops are only seasonal - that is, they are only open a month or two before Halloween. What's worse, is that it's hard enough to find one - what if that one shop doesn't have what you're looking for? You might end up picking out something you didn't really want, simply because who wants to go through Halloween without a costume?
This problem has a solution: online Halloween costume shops. Searching through these Halloween costume web sites has an obvious number of benefits that a physical store simply doesn't. First of all, while items sell out of stock from web sites, they do a much better job of keeping costumes in stock. We can all agree it's much easier to find a particular costume on a web site than in a cluttered store with overwhelmed sales associates struggling to keep up.
Of course, there are a couple of major disadvantages to not going to one of the physical Halloween costume shops. If you are simply looking, browsing, if you will, for an idea, the shop is the way to go. This is best if you're not sure what you want to dress up as and want to see ideas. Sure, you can do this with a web site, but invariably, you'll miss something, simply because you don't know you're not looking for it. Also, online photos can be misleading, and while costume shops don't generally allow you to, you can get away with trying a costume on before purchase. Not possible through your computer, so please don't try.
Overall, buying a Halloween costume should not be a difficult task. There are pros and cons to both buying online or in one of the various Halloween costume shops that pop up in September and October. The only thing that really matters, reegardless of where or how you purchase your costume is get your costume early.