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Halloween Is Handing Out Many Treats (Not Tricks) To Retailers

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Halloween has become one of the fastest-growing consumer holidays, making it big business for retailers with an estimated tw0-thirds of Americans gearing up to celebrate the scariest holiday of the year. The National Retail Federation recently shared their annual Halloween Consumer Spending Survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics, which reported that "more costumes than ever will be flying off the shelves" with the average person spending $77.52 this Halloween, compared to $75.03 last year. Collectively, this is estimated to equal $7.4 billion in sales - a number hard to ignore.

Christine Arvanigian, President of the world's largest Halloween Superstore - Halloween Outlet located in Worcester, Massachusetts - believes that the idea of escaping reality is among one of the main reasons Halloween is so profitable.

People are looking for a way to their escape their day to day lives.  Halloween is a form of escapism and a no pressure holiday.  You don't need to buy presents for people or stress out about cooking a meal. Instead, Halloween offers a one night opportunity for a fun time to be whoever you want to be," Arvanigian explains.

Escaping reality - if even temporarily - is something kids and adults alike can appreciate. Movie characters such as Elsa and Anna costumes from the movie Frozen are all fast-selling items right now, as are any other licensed characters such as Spiderman or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Additionally, Arvanigan states that dressing up "sexy has somewhat died down in recent years and instead, scary is making a comeback." It also helps that today's consumers regularly see costumes thanks to mainstream media.

Costumes in general are fast becoming a year-long state of mind. With popular television shows such as Making Monsters, Face Off, True Blood and The Walking Dead infiltrating pop culture, ghost, goblins and ghouls are becoming an everyday part of life," shares Jonathan Erwin of the Halloween & Party Expo, the industry's leading trade show for Halloween, fantasy costume and party themed stores.

Friday Night Lights 

As if escaping reality alone wasn't enough to generate big business and sales for Halloween retailers, that fact that Halloween falls on a Friday this year is an added perk that all Halloween merchants and vendors can appreciate. From alcohol distributors to candy suppliers to costume vendors and more, sales are expected to increase across the board in all categories that support Halloween sales.

Sales are always best when Halloween falls on the weekend,” says Kim Dean, the lead buyer for Wally’s Party Factory, a large chain of Halloween and party-supplies stores in Texas and Oklahoma. “We will definitely need to replenish our inventory after this season, especially in preparation for a Saturday Halloween in 2015. We are already having an outstanding year sales-wise, and we are still two weeks out,” Dean further stated.

As Dean clearly explained, Halloween landing on a Friday is far from scary but rather a treat. With this in mind, decorations alone are expected to reach $2 billion, with 46.7% of homeowners reported to take part in decorating their house or yards. Another $350 million is expected to be spent on pet costumes and about 33.4% of people are planning to attend or throw a Halloween party according to the Halloween Consumer Spending Survey recently released from the National Retail Federation.

Commerce and Community 

Beyond neighbors and friends getting together to celebrate the spookiest day of the year, retailers, communities and organizations are using Halloween as an excuse to bring people together and increase retail revenue along the way. One example of this is the town of Parker, Colorado's Trick or Treat on Mainstreet event, which encourages residents to bring their families to the downtown area of Parker and visit local businesses in exchange for candy. Marketed as a "fun and safe environment" by their organizer - the Cherry Creek Valley Rotary Club - this alternative to trick-or-treating door to door is becoming increasingly popular. Not only does it provide an alternative to trick-or-treating, but it offers visibility to local businesses and introduces potential consumers to stores and other businesses they may not have been familiar with otherwise.

One more alternative to old fashioned trick-or-treating is trunk-or-treating, where people come together in an organized fashion with their cars decked out in Halloween decor and trunks popped up to share treats with Halloween goers. Colorado community Thornton offers this to Halloween goers the Saturday prior to October 31st and charges $1 admission for all participants - a win-win in gaining local awareness and additional sales.

Arvanigian, President of Halloween Outlet in Massachusetts, also notes that hosting events within her own retail space has helped increase sales as well as add year-round visibility.

What I have found is that during October and even in September, we are steady during the week days but business explodes on the weekends. One reason for this is that we have unique events every weekend, which drives customers to the store leading up to Halloween.  For example, we offer Special Effects makeup classes all year round, but they increase in popularity this time of year. We also host free children's events that are wildly popular," Arvanigian explains.

From in-store events to Main Street marketing - and with the added benefit of a weekend holiday - there's nothing spooky about the retail potential for this year's Halloween season. The only question left? What will you be dressing up as?

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