Frightful spending
Americans will spend about $8.8B on Halloween this year, retail group says
A few steps away from the ghoul and goblin getups, the sexy nurse costumes and the
superhero outfits, Matthew Wright, social media manager for Halloween Warehouse at 2820 NE 50, pointed to another staple of the spooky holiday.
“Here we keep our spider webs,” he said. “This is like our home decor section.”
The store was busy this week as Halloween enthusiasts at the last minute tried on masks, perused costumes and
video chatted on the phone with friends, asking for tips about how to look their best — or scariest, or funniest, or sauciest — for the annual fright night.
Americans this year are spending an average of $86.27 for Halloween, down slightly from a record $86.79 in 2018, according to the National Retail Federation. That's about $8.8 billion in total spending, down from last year's $9 billion.
Halloween spending t his year was expected to be the third-highest in the retail group' ssurvey' s 15- year history, behind the high benchmark of $9.1 billion set in 2017.
“Spending hasn' t changed much over the past few years, but we are seeing a noticeable increase in consumers whose Halloween purchases are inspired by their friends, neighbors and even celebrities on social media,” retail federation President and CEO Matthew Shay said in a news release.
At Halloween Warehouse, Tiffany Holland-Clark said she's spent around $80 for her two children's costumes. She'll spend Halloween taking the kids trickor-treating, but with near-record cold temperatures predicted for Oklahoma, the candy hunt may not last long.
“We'll probably play games or find something inside to do,” she said.
If her kids are in your neighborhood, her son Dristan, who is turning 9 soon, prefers Skittles. He'll be dressed as an “assassin” from the Assassin's Creed video game franchise.
“I already have the costume,” Dristan said.
Consumers planned to spend a total of $3.2 billion on costumes this year, according to the retail group. Around $2.6 billion will be spent on candy, $2.7 billion on decorations and $390 million on greeting cards.
Most porch lights will be on this year, according to the survey, with 69% of Americans handing out candy. Forty-four percent will carve a pumpkin.
Some of America' s dogs and cats will endure another Halloween ignominy. Roughly 29 million Americans said they would dress their pets in costume.