For most people, Halloween is a day to dress up, be someone else for a day and collect mounds of candy. For Rocky Deckert, a former United States Marine from Paduka, Kentucky, Halloween is an opportunity to start a business. She is the proprietor of newly opened New Orleans Party and Costume (705 Camp St., 525-4744), a downtown shop offering costumes and accessories along with an assortment of party supplies.

The shop is located in a century old building across Camp Street from St. Patrick's Church, a national historic landmark. The brand new shelves, racks, and merchandise stand in contrast to the aged, but clean industrial building containing them. The first floor is mostly dedicated to party supplies. A staircase along the right wall leads to the second level, where there is a plethora of costumes ranging from Batman to Zeus.

This is Deckert's second business venture. While back home after a term in California, Deckert planned and opened a coffee shop with her mother, Janet Lyles, in 1995. Janet's Java, as the shop is called, was turned over to Lyles in 2000. Deckert compared Janet's Java to opening New Orleans Party and Costume. "With the coffee shop, you're talking about a very limited amount of things that you're selling... they all relate to one another... they're all coffee based." On the other hand, a retail establishment like Dekert's costume and party supply store is considerably more involved. "Here, there's about 2,000 different little items that you're selling, and those all need to be programmed into the [point of sale] system." Deckert also said that she has several more vendors to work with in running her costume shop. Deckert purchases from over 20 suppliers, as opposed to about five in running the coffee shop.

Deckert started critical planning for her shop back in January. She signed the lease on the Camp St. building in mid August. After six weeks of preparing the location, installing and stocking shelves, and preparing the point of sale system, New Orleans Party and Costume opened its doors on October 1.

To publicize the store's opening, Deckert placed ads in local publications including Gambit Weekly. Her family members placed flyers downtown and on college campuses including Tulane University in an effort to reach young people, who would be the most likely people to patronize a costume shop.

Opening her shop was quite the family affair. Deckert had the help of several family members including her husband Paul and his mother. Deckert's brother, Roady, flew in from Paduka to help set up the computers. She also had the assistance of several young nephews in setting up the store and stocking merchandise. Deckert said they enjoyed "...playing store in real time."

"It's a family thing, everyone's here on the weekends," said Andre Deckert, mother-in-law of Rocky Deckert. While conventional wisdom states that mixing family and business is usually a bad idea, Rocky Deckert said she had no such problems and thoroughly appreciated the help of her husband's family, most of which live in the New Orleans area.

Rocky Deckert joined the Marines when she was 18, and served for 12 years. During that time she attended college, opened a coffee shop and traveled the world. Most recently, she served a six month tour of in Kuwait which started in February of 2003.

Deckert served a tour in New Orleans starting in 1997. During that time she held employment at Party City, where she learned the trade of selling costumes and various party supplies. While here in New Orleans, she met the man that would be her husband and dropped into the Reserves so she could continue to live New Orleans. Deckert said making costumes was a past time she thoroughly enjoyed and thought she would like to start her own costume shop. She also said she enjoys seeing a customer find the right costume.

New Orleans Party and Costume is open seven days a week from 8 AM to 9 PM.