By Manya Kaczkowski
A priest, a prostitute and a prehistoric beast walk into a bar … What sounds like the beginning of a joke is really a story about New Berlin’s scariest employer. Scary good, that is.
At the tender age of 12, BuySeasons’ BuyCostumes.com is the largest online costume retailer in the world – supplying consumers directly, plus retailers such as Target, QVC and Toys’R’Us. But that’s only part of the tale.
Meet Dan Haight, as comfortable in a costume as he is in his everyday role as BuySeasons’ CEO. He’s leading me through the 360,000-square-foot manufacturing and distribution facility on Moorland Road, which was built in 2008. As other companies continue to fold and downsize, BuySeasons is growing again – a 110,000-square-foot expansion will be finished by the end of this year.
“This is our customer service center,” Haight says, sweeping his arm wide. The room is huge, with 300 associates speaking, e-mailing and live-chatting with consumers. More than 125,000 calls flood the phones each week in fall with orders, questions, shipping issues and exchanges.
And Halloween is just the beginning. In addition to BuyCostumes.com and CostumeExpress.com, the company, recently acquired by Liberty Media Corporation, now owns CelebrateExpress.com, BirthdayExpress.com, and 1stWishes.com. These folks mean to corner the party market.
It takes a lot of people-power to generate all that fun. “We really believe that our associates are the most important asset we have,” says Haight, leading the way through the sunny break room and outdoor patio. BuySeasons has 530 permanent associates; of those, 80 percent started as seasonal workers. During the peak season, the number of employees swells to more than 2,000.
It’s a casual atmosphere, with various company celebrations and prizes for the best costume at Halloween. Associates can personalize their cubicles, and “I Survived Halloween” T-shirts are prized possessions.
But the aftermath of October 31 can be grim, with more than 70 percent of the workers looking for a job. That’s why BuySeasons founded the Wisconsin Seasonal Workforce Coalition, partnering with other seasonal employers such as UPS and H&R Block to try to provide year-round work. The Coalition provides interview-skills training, resume review and job opportunities. “The idea is really to be committed to helping the associates,” Haight says. “To me, it’s the right thing to do.”
Another “right thing” BuySeasons does is to partner with nonprofit organizations – mostly schools – in a give-back program where volunteers help out in the warehouse during the busy season in exchange for corporate donations. According to Haight, the company donated $190,000 to various organizations last year.
Haight says hello to every employee we see on the tour – many of whom he seems to know personally. We approach the manufacturing lines and he becomes animated, showing me materials and pointing out various aspects of the processes. “This is my favorite machine,” he says, gesturing. Paper cups are printed on an eight-color press, then formed in this machine, where the bottom is sealed on. Excess materials are recycled, generating cash for the company. “We like to say it’s green (environmentally) – and it’s green (makes money) – so we win on both counts,” Haight says.
In-house manufacturing of personalized items such as banners, cups and plates began in 2009. “Fifty percent of the party goods we make are our exclusive designs,” says Haight, brandishing a WWE plate. The designs, created in BuySeasons’ second locale in Seattle, include Sonic the Hedgehog, Yo Gabba Gabba and Mario.
Costumes, however, are supplied to BuySeasons from other manufacturers. They range from sweet and simple (pumpkins and cowgirls) to dark and dangerous (Lord Lucifer). Oh, and some are naughty. “We can make any costume sexy and it will sell,” Haight says. “We even had a sexy Sponge Bob costume. And it did very well!”
He pulls out his cell phone to show me a picture of his own 2010 Halloween costume. “If I’m going to do something, I like to do it big,” he says, holding the phone out. I’m a little afraid to look – will I see sexy Sponge Bob? – but on it is a picture of Haight dressed as a freaky bat-like monster with huge purple wings. “I was going for a devil-beast kind of thing,” he says, smiling innocently, “and then it just kept morphing into something else.” The evil beast is a far cry from the man before me now: handsome, polite and, well, likeable.
Now we’re in what feels like the heart of the organization: the picking, packing and shipping area. It’s huge, and there’s a lot of movement: people with carts, packers filling shipping boxes and a large conveyor system carrying loads of merchandise. During the summer and early fall, 65,000 items ship each day. “There are four orders to a list, and pickers go up and down the aisles in a serpentine fashion,” Haight says, eyes gleaming. He was, after all, instrumental in designing the current distribution system. “When I started we had 23 associates, and there was no automation,” he says. “Back then, someone came up to me after Halloween was over with a box of orders he’d found. We had no idea if they’d been filled, if they were outstanding – nothing.”
That’s all changed. Systems are now in place to catch errors before they impact the customer: color-coded carts, quality assurance checks, weekly meetings with associates to discuss issues from the floor. Haight has never forgotten the time an irate mother called him about her son, who desperately wanted to be Spiderman for Halloween, but found a Disney Princess costume when he opened the box. He uses that example to illustrate to his associates the impact they can have on their customers.
For BuySeasons, it’s all about making customers happy. After all, who wants to tangle with an unhappy Lord Lucifer? That would be far too frightening.
Manya Kaczkowski, from Menomonee Falls, hangs out at local haunts this time of year. See her work at stylusedit.com.
