According to the National Retail Federation 157 million Americans plan to celebrate Halloween this year with spending on Halloween expected to reach $6.9 billion. The average per person spending on candy, costumes, decorations, is down $3.18 from last year to $74.34.
Halloween isn’t just for the kids. In fact, of the $2.5 billion spent on store-bought, homemade, large and small costumes, more money is spent on costumes for adults - $1.2 billion. $950 million is spent on costumes for the kiddos. Remarkably, 20 million pet owners will spend $350 million dressing up the furry members of the family. Have you picked your costume yet? The NRF has provided an excellent list of the top costumes for 2015. The popular costumes on everyone’s lists include Batman, Star Wars, and the Minions.
Now to the sweetest part of Halloween - the candy! The National Confectioners Association puts the spooky holiday’s candy sales at $2.6 billion, the NRF puts it at $2.1 billion - either way that is a lot of candy. What kind of candy can you expect at the neighbor’s house this year? Even though “70% of people say chocolate is their favorite Halloween treat, followed by candy corn (13%), chewy candy (6%) and gummy candy (5%)...63% say they stock their trick-or-treat candy bowls with a mix of chocolate and non-chocolate, so that they can be sure to have something everyone will like.” And, parents are 24% more likely to handout “creepy candy...shaped like spiders, eyeballs and brains.”
JP Morgan reports on the big retailers and shows that “Party City is the second largest Halloween retailer in the U.S. with over $400M in sales and 315 temporary Halloween City stores in 2014... Spirit Halloween [subsidiary of Spencer’s Gifts], is the largest Halloween retailer with over 1,150 stores across the U.S. and Canada...with an estimated ~$250M in sales. Spirit stores are open for as long as eight weeks in advance of the holiday with an estimated productivity of ~$240K vs ~$244K for Halloween City… Party City derives ~25% of revenues from all things Halloween making it undoubtedly the largest holiday.”
Get your costume ready, stock up on candy, and enjoy your Halloween Weekend!