Cramer and business partner Stu Neft opened their store in 2012, among the boutiques and cafes of trendy Lawrenceville.
It stocks all the undead paraphernalia you could need: T-shirts, DVDs, zombie make-up kits, greeting cards and gruesomely creepy "zombears" - teddies dripping with blood and gore. Popular souvenirs include Pittsburgh Department of Zombie Disposal T-shirts and undead bride and groom wedding cake toppers.
Chuck says it's all part of the city's place in the "pantheon of zombie legend".
"We're a proud, working-class city and we embrace things that we recognise or identify as ours," he says.
"Good or bad, beautiful or ugly."
Just around the corner in Lawrenceville is Arsenal Park, current home of Pittsburgh's World Zombie Day festival.
This year, it was held on Saturday, October 11, and runners dressed up as either flesh-eaters or zombie victims for a 5km run, followed by an undead bar crawl through the neighbourhood's watering holes.
But to find true zombie ground zero, you'll need to make a 45-minute drive to Evans City, location for the original Night of the Living Dead, and home to the Living Dead Museum.
The small, quirky museum, (US$3 entry for adults) features life-size figures of film characters, movie memorabilia, signed posters and props - even a scale model of the interior of Monroeville Mall (the real mall has changed so much there's little left of interest for fans - though it is still slightly creepy.)
New Zealand gets a mention in its timeline of cinematic horror through the years through Peter Jackson's Brain Dead - released in the US as Dead Alive.
There's also a good selection of T-shirts and gifts (I brought home a "zombigami" origami book), and there's a film always playing in its private cinema, which visitors can watch.
Ask the museum staff to point you in the direction of the Evans City Cemetery, one of the main locations in the original Living Dead film.
The farmhouse where the living are besieged is long gone; however, the cemetery where the first zombie made his appearance has barely changed at all.
Fans will instantly recognise the opening scenes - the winding country road, the entrance sign, and the former chapel building seen in the background. The old building was slated for demolition but local zombie fans banded together to raise enough money to ensure it was preserved.
For Pittsburghers, even their undead history is worth holding on to.
WHAT A FEELING
Pittsburgh's silver screen appearances aren't always splattered with gore. It's also the setting for 1980s dance phenomenon Flashdance; the city's steel mills the workplace for Jennifer Beals' welder character. The Monroeville Mall was in an ice-skating scene but the most picturesque Flashdance location is the Duquesne Incline, a restored 1877 cable car with spectacular views. Pittsburgh also provided some of the steel town settings for The Deer Hunter, doubled for Gotham City in The Dark Knight Rises and was the university backdrop for Wonder Boys. More recently, The Perks of Being a Wallflower used the city's Fort Pitt tunnel for a scene with Emma Watson's character standing up in the back of a pick-up. Though the film's director made a public plea for fans not to try a copycat stunt, the view across the city as you exit the tunnel is pretty special, even from inside the car.
CHECKLIST
Getting there: Air New Zealand flies twice daily to Los Angeles from Auckland, increasing to three from December to March. From there, US domestic carriers continue to Pittsburgh.
Visit: House of the Dead and The Living Dead Museum.
Further information: See DiscoverAmerica.com for more on visiting Pennsylvania.
