As the year transitions into autumn, downtown Pleasanton fills its streets with fall festivities. Stores make room for costumes and trinkets, cafes bring out their seasonal flavors, and neighborhoods put up their yearly decorations.

“We released our Halloween collection on the first week of October and set up our decorations at pretty much the same time. Everything’s kind of cohesive— we just get everything done at once,” said Angelica Martinez, employee at Good Common Sense Naturals.

Just as Good Common Sense began preparing early on to order and display their holiday specials, some shops like Gourmet Works were especially proactive when it came to organizing their shelves to match the season’s occasions.

“We have a whole section of the shop for where we put our monster cake pops and Halloween chocolate. And we have our usual caramel apples in the display case, which we only started making around now. We decorated them to look like little mummies. We just keep making and making and making them all the time so that they stay really fresh,” said Kayla Mueller, the owner of Gourmet Works.

There are many shops that switch things up for holidays, and Meadowlark Dairy can’t be left out of the list. The dairy has updated their classic selection of soft serves to include several more seasonal flavors.

“We always have pumpkin spice and salted caramel around Halloween, but sometimes we will add new ones on top of it depending on what we’re feeling. This year in particular, we’ve definitely had more different flavors than we’ve had most years. It’s kind of always a surprise to everybody,” said Reilly Reese, employee at Meadowlark.

Besides redecorating to keep up with the Halloween spirit, the city has also worked to organize fun events. There’s the annual downtown Brew Crawl, children’s pumpkin hunt, and Halloween Spirit Run.

“There’s the annual spirit run on the 30th, and anyone can participate. It’s just a fun event downtown that also fundraises at the same time,” said Jim Hansen, a member of the Pleasanton Rotary Club’s scholarship committee.

Stores of all kinds have dusted off their fall ornaments and set up their seasonal collections. From Primrose Bakery to Towne Center Books, downtown Pleasanton is completely decked out with seasonal festivities.

“When people come in here, they’re usually about finding seasonal products, but it still depends on the person. But I know our store is usually excited about [Halloween], and I am too, of course” said Martinez.