If you are looking for good discounts on costumes, accessories, make-up and other products for your store, there’s good news: The NCA Bundle Program has expanded to 18 vendors for 2024. The Bundle Program, which is now in its second year, is designed to combine the orders of NCA members so everyone gets better deals and more certain delivery of what they ordered.
“The Bundle Program is an important way for NCA members to unite and flex their combined purchasing power,” explains Ed Avis, NCA executive director. “By combining our purchases, we show vendors how strong the NCA is. The discounts the vendors are offering this year reveal that they recognize the value of working with us as a united group.”
In 2023, six NCA Vendor Members participated in the program, and 10 Buyer Members made purchases. With triple the number of Vendor Members this year, Avis anticipates that many more Buyer Members will take advantage of the program.
Here’s how the program works: All NCA Buyer Members received an email with a link to a page on www.costumers.org with all 18 vendors listed. Members choose what products they want and place the order online by December 22. The NCA combines the orders and ships one order to each vendor in the first week of January. The vendors ship the combined order to Caufield’s in Louisville, where the orders are broken down and shipped to each store.
The reason vendors can offer better discounts than normal is that they save money when they can ship one order to Caufield’s instead of shipping to multiple stores, and because the vendors receive the orders in early January, so they can include the NCA order with all their other large orders and get the best deals from their factories.
Discounts for 2024 range from 5 to 70 percent off the regular wholesale prices. Participating vendors include Artemix, Blinky, Cinema Secrets, Costume Culture by Franco, Dreamgirl, Ghoulish/Caretas Rev, Graftobian, HMS, Ivy Trading, KBW, Kurt Adler, Manic Panic, Orchid Bloom, Rasta Imposta, Rubies, Starline LA, VEI and Wolfe.
“Saving money is obviously the most important part of this program,” Avis says, “but another benefit is that NCA members get the chance to consider buying products from vendors they may not be familiar with.”
Vendor Members have committed to deliver the product to Caufield’s by July 15. Furthermore, they have promised that no product will be back-ordered. These two promises will help ensure that Caufield’s will be able to ship the products to member stores in plenty of time for Halloween and at the best shipping rates possible.
If you are an NCA member and did not receive the email with the link, please contact Ed Avis at executivedirector@costumers.org or 708-218-7755.