20-Somethings Fuel Boom in Halloween Spending

By: Jason Davis
Posted In: News

It was the night every diehard Red Sox fan had waited 86 years for. It was the night when the curse would be broken, and everyone knew it, even before the first pitch. Therein lies the problem that faced Lauren Burke, a junior at Salve Regina. The game, as she recounts, just happened to land on the same night as the annual Halloween Dance. For Burke, who is a huge Red Sox fan, the choice was simple.

“See, I really must love Halloween, because I chose the Hal

loween Dance last year over watching the end of the playoffs. That’s big. And I love the Red Sox… I was at the game the night before.”

Burke has always been surrounded by Halloween, which she considers to be a very big holiday. “Mom and I like to go get the Halloween decorations,” Burke says. “Even when I went home a few weekends ago and we went shopping, she bought like $50 worth of decorations.”

According to a survey done by The National Retail Federation, consumers are expected to spend $3.3 billion this Halloween holiday season. This number would prove to be a 5.4 percent increase from last year’s total. The NRF predicts that consumers will spend an average of $48.48 on Halloween-related merchandise, up 11 percent from last year.

Burke, who says she usually spends about $50 and another $20 on decorations, is turning the tables this year. “On the costume itself, I’ll probably spend about $20, if that much, but on the party, we want to go all out, so we’ll probably spend like $40 each on that.”

Burke says that she and her friends will only be dressing up for the Halloween party, which they plan to celebrate on Saturday. The report found that young adults would be purchasing the most this year, with 18-24 year olds spending an average of $50.75, a 30 percent jump from 2004.

Fay Thompson, owner of Pole to Pole Imports in Newport, says that she has part of her market in Salve students like Burke. The store, located on Thames Street in what she calls “a decent location,” is up against some heavy competition with a Wal-Mart located in Middletown. “Even though we’re only small, we really survive basically because we have a lot of costumes that you can’t buy at Wal-Mart or Target.” These costumes include lab coats with suggestive “occupations” on them, the always-popular Pimp costume for the men, and the classic French maids and Naughty Nurses for the women.

Thompson says that much of the business has to do with understanding one’s demographic. In the Newport area she found, “they have all the parties at the mansions, so all the couples come down; they want a “his and a hers.” That’s always big because they’re pretty good parties and they don’t want some cheap costume. They want the good quality and they want to look good.” She also said that Saint Michaels, a Country Day School in Newport, has a father/daughter dance, and that attracts some of their sales as well.

Thompson has an idea of what this year will bring in terms of sales, but does not foresee any sudden change. “I’m predicting that it’s going to be the same as last year and the year before that.” Consistency, however, is hard in this business, Thompson said, with changing trends each year and such a small window to establish a store and draw in new customers.

How can you avoid the rush and get the costume you really want before it sells out? “Ninety percent of your business is in the last 10 days. And were only open now so people will know that there’s a Halloween store here.” Thompson says that after Halloween, they usually have a sale on merchandise from 50-70 percent off to try and make back some of the money from what they did not sell before the holiday.

The Halloween spending will hopefully be the kick-off for the $435.3 billion holiday season this winter, reported CNN Money, who covered this story. Walter Rocha, an assistant manager at the Brooks Pharmacy in Middletown, says that Halloween is probably their second most profitable holiday. “The best time for revenue is Christmas,” Rocha said.

“This year’s [sales have] been a lot more than last year’s,” Rocha said of the candy sales, “[It] flies out of the store.” He also says that the candy sales are being boosted with many adults purchasing the treats for themselves. Rocha even admits to doing it himself. “You spend a little more to get a lot more.” The key to the increased sales: “Big front page [advertisements] every week… [It] gets the most visuals.”

Rocha said that the rush usually occurs during the week prior to Halloween. “Everyone’s last minute,” he said, “We’ll get bombarded the last week.”

A cautionary note to potential Halloween participants of 2005: this may not be the year that you can wait