A Halifax-based chain of Halloween and party stores is apologizing after mistakenly stocking its shelves with a costume called "Tranny Granny."

The store said the costume pays homage to characters like Mrs. Doubtfire and includes a floral dress, a headscarf with curlers and pads for breasts and a butt.

But its name has raised all sorts of controversy online, where some have called it offensive and transphobic.

Dave O'Connor, the president of Glow Parties, said it was put out in error, most likely by seasonal staff. The company had ordered the costume with the name "Manny Granny." But the costumes showed up to the stores with the other name on them.

No one noticed it before the costumes were put out for purchase.

"We were like, we can't believe they would call it that," O'Connor said, adding he wouldn't have ordered them if he knew they had that name. "I did see the costume briefly and I looked at the picture [when it came in store]. I didn't even read the name. You know, I'm faulted too but we're human. And it certainly wasn't done in bad taste."

Still on sale, with a new name

The store got several complaints, including from the Halifax Pride board. O'Connor first noticed complaints on the store's social media account Sunday evening. He said he had the name removed from each of the costumes for when the stores opened on Monday morning.

The costumes are still on sale but the name has been cut off with scissors and blackened out with marker. He is awaiting new labels with the name "Manny Granny."

Glow Parties' president Dave O'Connor poses with the costume, with the removed name, in the Bayers Lake Halloween Superstore on Wednesday. (Haydn Watters/CBC)

"I don't think it was so much the costume that was the problem. It was certainly the name and the tone. I think the costume was in good humour, if done right."

The costume was also being sold in the U.S. by a third-party on Walmart's Marketplace website but was pulled Tuesday morning. Walmart told CBC Radio it did so because the costume violated its policies.

Screenshots posted online also show the costume for sale on Amazon's website, where it is no longer listed. Multiple requests for comment have not been answered by Amazon.

'You've got to be kidding me'

One of the first people who flagged the costume on Facebook was Chris Cochrane. She is a prominent member of Halifax's transgender community and a grandmother of three.

A friend sent her a photo of the costume, she got "a little frustrated" and took to Facebook to point it out.

Chris Cochrane, who goes by the name Elle Noir, was upset by the name of the costume. 'It’s not really a word you can use, especially for someone who is dressed in woman’s clothing who clearly looks like a man.' (Submitted by Chris Cochrane)

"I was like, 'You've got to be kidding me. Come on, it's 2016.' Gone are the days that we can be ignorant to things like that," she told CBC Radio's Mainstreet on Wednesday.

She took issue with the costume's use of the word tranny, an offensive term for transgender people.

"It's kind of like the N-word for black people. We don't want it used in daily language. You wouldn't put that on a costume," said Cochrane, who is black.

Jacob Rafuse, who also posted about the costume on Facebook, doesn't think Glow Parties' handled the situation correctly. He thinks the costume should have never made it to the shelf and that it should be scrapped entirely.

"[Renaming] it really doesn't address the situation. You're just putting a mask over it now," he said. "That completely defeats the purpose of the situation that was brought forth."

Benefit of the doubt?

Cochrane considered Glow Parties' error to be a teaching moment.

"The first instincts of people all of a sudden these days is just to attack. Maybe you need to give someone the benefit of the doubt. Give them time to rectify the problem and then if it doesn't [get fixed], you can be loud and abrasive."

The costume on the shelf at Glow Parties' Halloween store in Bayers Lake. Note the removed name and black marker streak above the bar code. (Haydn Watters/CBC)

It also helped Cochrane dispel some stereotypes, particularly around what the costume looked like.

"I'm a grandmother of three and I'm a trans woman and I don't even look like that," she said, laughing. "I would never be caught dead in something like that."