SANTA CRUZ >> Hundreds of trick-or-treaters young and old descended on downtown Santa Cruz Thursday afternoon to show off their costumes and amass a horde of candy one piece at a time from shops on Pacific Avenue.

Shop owners lining the Pacific Garden Mall look forward to the event every year and each buy pounds upon pounds of sweet treats to pass out to trick-or-treaters such as Bookshop Santa Cruz owner Casey Coonerty-Protti.

“We buy 2,000 pieces of candy to give out, which is usually about $400 to $500,” said Coonerty-Protti. “It’s a lot but it’s always one of my favorite days downtown because it’s so family-friendly and positive. Every store participates and it’s always so worth it.”

Across the street at the Sockshop & Shoe Co., sales associate Lainie Barrett said they stock up on bags of candy at Costco before the annual Halloween event, which Barrett participated in as a kid growing up in Santa Cruz. Despite the many scary costumes, Barrett said the biggest fear of Sockshop staff is running out of candy.“My friend was managing the Urban Outfitters when they ran out of candy and a mom became very mad at her,” Barrett said. “It’s in high demand. We get a lot because we were pretty scared after hearing that story.”

Owner of Toque Blanche, Charles Nelson, said that he purchases about 10 pounds of candy for trick-or-treaters, closes down the shop for a few hours and sends one brave employee out to hand out candy to the hordes of costumed kiddos.

“We enjoy the event and are happy to support downtown Santa Cruz,” said Nelson.

Outside of the bookshop, Santa Cruz native Matt McCabe and his family set up tables to hand out fresh cotton candy. McCabe will be opening his business “Crepe Cones” in the kiosk outside of the bookstore in November.

“We just wanted to hand out candy and let everyone know that we’re going to be here,” said McCabe. “When we open, we’ll have handheld crepes and we’ll do shaved and Italian ice. Today, we’re handing out cotton candy.”

Among the many unique costumes such as creepy clowns, boss babies and super heroes, Elsa Cedeno and her daughters, 13-year-old Haley and 2-year-old Sophia were among the best dressed with Elsa dressed as Lady Deadpool, Haley as Wolverine and Sophia as Spider-Woman from the Marvel Universe.

“Every year we do a family theme,” said Elsa Cedeno. “Last year we were Tim Burton characters. Dressing up for us is really fun.”

Santa Cruz City Councilmember Scott Newsome was trick-or-treating downtown, which is a part of his district, with his wife and two children.

“This is such a wonderful event for families,” said Newsome. “It’s fun for the community to come out and enjoy the downtown.”