UPS Compass - Summer/Fall 2016 - 11

"I wouldn't have been able to do it without UPS," she says. "They encouraged us and were there when we needed them most. If we had orders coming in after hours, they'd stay just to make sure we got everything out on time." It may seem small, but that kind of attention and care contributed to The Great Gourmet becoming a $5 million business featured on Inc. magazine's 500 fastestgrowing companies list, three years after opening. Support System: Tyler Messner, HalloweenCostumes.com's service director, remembers one instance when UPS went above and beyond to ensure a shipment went out on time. Brian Pike, the UPS major account manager, noticed that a Princess Leia costume had missed the last outbound truck of the night. It was the day before Halloween. Pike grabbed the package, jumped into his car and chased down the UPS truck en route to the airport, ultimately saving someone's Halloween delivery. TAKING THE SCARY OUT OF PEAK SEASON RIGHT: DAN MCMACKIN For Minnesota-based specialty retailer HalloweenCostumes.com, the most hectic time of year commences the day after Labor Day weekend - or more commonly known around the pumpkin-colored headquarters as "Orange Tuesday." Challenge: Not surprisingly, fall is an especially chaotic - and critical - time. Each year between Labor Day and Oct. 31, HalloweenCostumes.com processes about 80 percent of its annual order volume and 80 percent of its annual profit, shipping 50,000 packages on an average day (up from 2,000 a day during the off-season). "The biggest issue we have is transitioning from our day-to-day business during off-season to our business during the peak. There's no room for error whatsoever," says Tom Fallenstein, CEO of HalloweenCostumes.com's parent company, Fun.com. Solution: In addition to reengineering UPS's own operations in southern Minnesota to ensure packages left the warehouse later each night during the surge, UPS put workers inside HalloweenCostumes.com's warehouse to help sort packages and load trucks. In fact, the last pickup of the night was moved from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. just to ensure that the retailer could move more products out on any given day. HALLOWEEN COSTUMES.COM Based: Mankato, Minn. Founded: 2002 Employees: 100+ Website: halloweencostumes.com Tom Fallenstein, CEO, surrounded at HalloweenCostumes.com headquarters FALL 2016 COMPASS 11 http://www.COSTUMES.COM http://www.halloweencostumes.com http://www.HalloweenCostumes.com http://www.HalloweenCostumes.com http://www.Fun.com http://www.HalloweenCostumes.com

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