Costello Avenue Market

The Costello Avenue Market is a small corner grocery store in Derry, Maine, that serves as a recurring landmark in the childhoods of the Losers' Club. It is a place of small transactions and sudden violence, where the ordinary routines of summer vacation intersect with the escalating terror that defines the summer of 1958. For the children of Derry, it is a familiar stop for penny candy and soda; for the Losers, it becomes a site of both innocent pleasure and brutal ambush.

Location and Character

The market is situated on Costello Avenue, a street that runs between Kansas Street and the Derry Public Library. It is a typical small-town grocery, with a penny-candy window where children can spend their meager allowances. Ben Hanscom, after finding bottles under a hedge, trades them in at the market for cash and then spends most of it on candy: five red licorice whips, five black, ten rootbeer barrels, a nickel strip of buttons, a packet of Likem Ade, and a package of Pez. The storekeeper slides the candy-window door along its track, a sound Ben finds delightful. The market is also where Eddie Kaspbrak, after being beaten by Henry Bowers, buys a chocolate milk to pour on his shirt, hoping to disguise the bloodstains from his mother.

A Site of Ambush

The market's most significant role in the narrative is as the setting for a violent attack. On July 20, 1958, Eddie Kaspbrak, his arm already in a cast from a previous encounter, stops at the market after a disturbing conversation with Mr. Keene at the Center Street Drug. As he exits, he is ambushed by Henry Bowers, Victor Criss, Moose Sadler, and Patrick Hockstetter. The confrontation escalates quickly. Henry Bowers, enraged by the Losers' defiance, grabs Eddie and forces gravel into his face, cutting his gums and lips. The store's owner, Mr. Gedreau, intervenes, but Henry pushes him down the steps, shattering the adult's authority. Eddie manages to flee, but is caught and his arm is broken when Henry twists it behind his back. The attack is only stopped by the approach of a police siren.

Narrative Significance

The Costello Avenue Market functions as a liminal space in the children's geography of Derry. It is a place of commerce and small, innocent pleasures—Ben's candy, Eddie's chocolate milk—that is violently ruptured by the intrusion of Henry Bowers's cruelty. The attack on Eddie is a direct consequence of the Losers' growing defiance, and it marks a turning point in the summer's violence. The market itself remains a neutral, everyday location, but the events that transpire there underscore the constant threat that the Losers face, even in the most mundane corners of their town. It is a place where the normal rules of childhood are suspended, and where the line between a simple errand and a life-altering assault is terrifyingly thin.