Spooky start to Halloween sales
Experts say inventory is one factor driving stores
Keansburg resident Joe Pennacchia was amazed when he walked into the Hazlet Costco on July 25.
In the middle of the store, a towering animatronic witch and skeleton pair seemed to emerge from a sprawling Halloween display.
“It’s not even August. You’re used to seeing back-to-school stuff going on — now it’s all the corn and Halloween and home items going on,” he said in an interview. “We’re melted outside and walking in and you’re seeing stuff that you’re expecting to see wearing a sweatshirt and to be freezing somewhere.”
“Everybody was shocked,” he said. “It was like a few different people, amazed and laughing and like ‘what is this thing doing here already?’”
But the move by Costco, which didn’t respond to inquiries for this story, seems par for the course nearly 100 days before Halloween.
Spirit Halloween is opening its first store this weekend in Egg Harbor Township.
Wegmans is already putting out Halloween items for sale.
And many other pharmacies, home improvement stores and grocery outlets plan to deck out for Halloween throughout the summer.
At stake is a multibillion-dollar industry. According to the National Retail Federation, shoppers spent $10.6 billion on Halloween in 2022.
“It’s about getting the money first, getting the shopper spending first” at their store, said Candace Corlett, president of WSL Strategic Retail, a New York City-based industry analyst and consultant.
“The thinking around the spending early, and when those bags of candy are piled up … how many families buy them and finish them before Halloween,” she continued. “So it’s like infinite consumption.”
The tradition of putting out Halloween decorations early is “an old thing,” Corlett said. “You’re going to see holiday shopping before Halloween.”
But David Marcotte, senior vice president for Kantar, said the practice was more because of inventory and supply chain.
Retailers looked at the threat of a railroad strike last December and the COVID-19 lockdowns across China and ordered holiday-related merchandise early this year.
“When you have that much uncertainty, you move up your schedule,” he said. It’s been that way for years.
“It’s really more, I got to get it out of the warehouse — if I put anything in the warehouse, there’s a lot of opportunity in the warehouse for product to get damaged, so you want to get it out of there. Putting it in the store is safer,” Marcotte said.
He denied that the decision had anything to do with getting Halloween products in front of the customer, but rather that retailers are dealing with an “inventory surge.”
What are stores doing?
Retailer Spirit Halloween is holding the grand opening for its flagship store at the Harbor Square shopping center at Egg Harbor Township in Atlantic County this Saturday, a recent announcement said.
Wegmans spokesperson Mandee Puleo said the store has begun selling seasonal Halloween items early, to “give our customers the opportunity to purchase holiday items whenever they prefer.”
Stop & Shop spokesperson Daniel Wolk said Halloween candy will first appear in stores in mid-August, followed by decorations in early September.
Rite Aid said Halloween decorations will be available in stores beginning in mid-August “with a full assortment available by mid-September.” CVS Pharmacy, meanwhile, plans to put out Halloween products “nationally starting in late August,” said spokesperson Ayana Gibbs.
“From winter holidays to back-toschool and more, many consumers like to begin to shop early so they can spread out their budgets, have more time to shop deals and promotions, and avoid the stress of last-minute shopping,” said Katherine Cullen, vice president of industry and consumer insights at the National Retail Federation.