Lisa Nguyen, 29, and her boyfriend, Sung Kwon, 28, will discount herve leger wear costumes all weekend behind the bar at the downtown L.A. restaurant where they work. Their bosses, hoping to attract the Halloween party crowd, encouraged the staff to dress up.
Nguyen picked out an Oktoberfest beer maid costume Tuesday at Pure Seasons Inc., a holiday specialty warehouse in South El Monte. Kwon will be dressed as her beer bottle.
This is the first time they have dressed up as a couple, and they didn't want to break the bank, Nguyen said. Pure Seasons was cheaper than three other traditional costume stores she visited. Still, Nguyen shelled out more than $40 for the sexy Gretchen getup.
Almost half of Americans are expected to dress up as their favorite character or celebrity this year. Packaged costumes like the one Nguyen bought are the driving force behind Halloween spending. More people are chucking the glue gun cheap herve leger dress used for homemade costumes in favor of ready-made versions, according to IBISWorld, a market research firm.
At the Halloween Club store in Westwood, it was clear that the holiday appeals to all ages. College students and parents walked the aisles surveying the costumes.
Russ Ford of Culver City was ahead of the crowd. The 63-year-old said he bought his cowboy costume weeks ago. But he was at the store Tuesday to pick up decorations for a party at his house Saturday. He was looking for the creepiest cobwebs and the most lifelike bones to scatter around his house to scare his guests.
The main reason Ford celebrates the holiday: "Escapism. You get to be a kid for the day," he said.
Meanwhile, a few aisles over, Darren Ong of Brentwood was helping herve leger red a friend sift through the racks of costumes. They avoided the popular characters and instead searched for creative, unconventional outfits that nobody else would wear.
On their list of costumes to avoid? "Angry birds!" they shouted in unison, referring to characters from the popular smartphone game.
Some travelers interviewed by local TV stations said they would return by train while others said that they would wait, hoping they would be able to return by plane in the coming days.
Government minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet criticized the unions, primarily over the timing.
"Air France is in a delicate position," she told Europe 1 radio in an interview. She said she hoped to get away herself on an evening flight to Israel for government business.
Shares in Air France-KLM, which is due to publish financial results on November 9, took a hit this week when a media outlet said it was preparing to issue a profit warning. The carrier said last Tuesday, in response to that media report, that it would not publish any financial information before November 9.
Air France-KLM, Europe's largest airline when measured by revenue, was formed by the merger in 2004 of Air France and Dutch carrier KLM. The industrial action concerns only the French side of the operation.
Another major world airline, Australia's Qantas Airways, has grounded its entire fleet in a bitter labor dispute that led to cancellation of 447 flights over Saturday and Sunday, compared to about 400 Air France flight cancellations over the same period.
