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If the prognosticators have their numbers correct, Americans will spend $5.07 billion dollars this Halloween season.
That's up significantly from 2006 when we forked over $3.26 billion dollars for decorations, candy and costumes for kids, ourselves and our pets.
According to the National Retailers Federation ,
The average person will spend $23.33 on Halloween costumes (including children’s and pet’s costumes), though young adults will spend far more. In fact, according to the survey, 18-24 year-olds plan to be the most festive, spending $34.06 on costumes, nearly twice as much as they plan to spend on candy ($19.65).
According to the survey, average spending will rise in all categories, including candy ($19.84, decorations ($17.73) and greeting cards ($3.92).
“Halloween is often a time for consumers to set aside their real concerns to focus on the imaginary,” said Phil Rist, Vice President of Strategy for BIGresearch. “As news about the economy floods the airwaves, many Americans want to take a break from reality to have a bit of fun.”
The Shopping Blog has a series of Halloween posts that include everything from trends on candy to pet costumes.
There will be lots of furry devils, witches and pumpkins in people's homes on October 31st. A National Retail Federation (NRF) study has found that 7.4 million households will be dressing up a pet for Halloween this year.
In1996, the marketing agency where I worked hosted a family Halloween party. The planning was extensive. There was a decorating competition between departments - if I remember it correctly the IT department won hands down. Of course, you couldn't get any IT support for days because they were so busy decorating.
All of our children were invited for Halloween parade. The party replaced the company's annual family Christmas party. By the time Halloween 1997 rolled around, I was long gone and i have no idea whether the company continued the Halloween event until it closed its doors several years later.
If companies are planning big Halloween parties,the bloggers are keeping mum about it -- so far. This was not what I expected. Given the increase in Halloween enthusiasts I thought that I would see more written about it in the business press.
That's not to say, that businesses aren't celebrating Halloween.When I walked into my bank last Friday, the Halloween decorations were out in full force and there was plenty of candy for customers. They told me their Halloween decorations have been up since the beginning of October.
According to The New York Times, Halloween decorations start popping up in retail stores as soon as Labor Day is officially over.
This year, the Wal-Mart stores were in Halloween mode by Sept. 8 and 9, the weekend after Labor Day.At the Target division of Target, Halloween products went on display in stores in early September, said Amy von Walter, a spokeswoman in Minneapolis. On the Target Web site (target.com), she added, Halloween merchandise has been available even longer, since Aug. 1.[...]
Similarly, executives at magazines and magazine Web sites ascribe the celebration of Halloween in September to reader demand.“We noticed about five years ago that right after Labor Day, right after back-to-school, we were getting an uptick in hits on the Web site on information about Halloween costumes,” said Dan Hickey, editor in chief at bhg.com in Des Moines, the Web site for Better Homes and Gardens magazine, “and it kept growing.”
As a testament to how big Halloween is, there is an online advertising agency completely devoted to Halloween. It is part of the Halloween Network that offers everything from Halloween Advertising to a SinisterSpace.com which is a social community specifically for those interested in Halloween,Horror, Haunts and Paranormal interests.
The network also offers bloggers this bit of code which provides a daily countdown.
If you are one of the 10 million residents of Second Life, you can now do your costume shopping at Annie's Costumers.com
"Going virtual just seemed like the next step for our costume shop," states Shari McConahay, Marketing Director for Annie's Costumes, "We worked closely with Ten Golden Rules and LeftBank Studios todesign a Second Life costume and clothing line that would reflect the true spirit of Halloween. All the classic Halloween costumes
