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Filed under: Holidays, News, In The News, Weird But True, New In Pop Culture
Consumers aren't scared to spend on Halloween decorations. Credit: Getty Images
The Great Pumpkin may be bouncing back from the lows of the recession, but expect less candy and seeing last year's costumes again, as some families still try to hold down costs.
Americans will spend about $5.8 billion on candy and costumes this Halloween, with the average American household spending $66.28 per person this year on costumes, candy and decorations, according to a new survey by the National Retail Federation, a merchants' trade group. Most of that will be spent on costumes ($23.37), followed by candy ($20.29), decorations ($18.66) and greeting cards ($3.95).
Spending is expected to grow from $56.31 per person last year, almost back to the $66.54 spent in 2008, when the recession started to hurt.
But parents are still feeling the pain: The survey found 30.1 percent of adults polled say the state of the economy is still affecting their Halloween plans, and 86.8 percent say they plan to spend less overall. Some will buy less candy (45.1 percent), reuse last year's decorations (30.7 percent), cut back on activities such as haunted houses (22.3 percent), make their own costumes (19.5 percent) or recycle last year's (18.5 percent).
"Though Halloween spending will be much more robust than a year ago, consumers will still err on the side of caution," says Phil Rist, executive vice president of strategic initiatives at market research firm BIGresearch. "Americans are excited about Halloween but are still being frugal and pinching their pennies where they can."
Indeed, grownups continue to cut into the kids' trick-or-treating action this year: The survey found 40.1 percent of adults say they will dress up in a costume this Halloween, the highest rate since the NRF started polling. And adults will spend more on costumes for themselves than their kids this year: The NRF is calculating the total spent on adult Halloween costumes will reach $990 million, more than the $837 million that will be spent on children's costumes.
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
9-28-2010 @ 10:30AM
Timithoy said...Alright at what point did we think it was OK to go out and spend 66 bucks on the most unchristian holiday but turn down things we really needed all summer. What is scary is how people keep throwing money at the holidays but not their bills or needs. Http://www.savecreatively.com has lots of free samples and tips to save money and live...well creatively when it comes to living on a budget. This is worth the time.
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9-28-2010 @ 2:51PM
kpernic said...Im totally feeling the economic stress this year, but its no reason not to celebrate. Just use homemade costumes and buy decorations from cheaper places. I actually prepared early this time, I bought this cool little holiday kit thing from this place called HomeSeasons.com which saved me a bunch of money and time. Check it out, its pretty cool.
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