According to USA Today, Halloween is quickly approaching and is expected to generate around $10 billion of economic activity this year. The news agency received the data from the National Retail Federation (NRF). Last year’s holiday generated $8 billion even though many places around the country were adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. While the virus is still not contained, the NRF has projected an increase in economic activity.
The NRF projects: the average consumer will spend $102.74 on costumes, candy, decorations and greeting cards. $3.32 billion are expected to be spent on costumes alone this year, $3.17 billion on decorations and $3 billion on candy.
“Americans plan to spend more than ever to make this Halloween a memorable one,” said NRF president and CEO Matthew Shay in a statement.
Overall, 65% of Americans are expected to participate in the holiday, which is a significant increase from last year’s 58%. The numbers increase significantly for households with children, these households are projected to participate in the holiday at 82%.
66% will hand out candy to trick-or-treaters. 52% of homes will be decorated. 46% will wear costumes. 44% will carve pumpkins. 25% will host or go to at least one Halloween party.
69% of consumers have already purchased their costume or pieces of it. Batman and Spider-Man are expected to be the most popular costumes for children. 4.6 million adults will dress as witches, 1.6 million vampires, 1.4 million ghosts, 1.1 million cats, and 1.1 million pirates. About 20% of people will dress their pets in a costume.
The NRF also reports that many consumers are worried about the availability of Halloween products in late October, many of them are doing their holiday shopping now in order to get everything they need for the celebration.
Nikki Baird, vice president of retail innovation at Aptos provides the following commentary:
“Retailers tried to roll out Halloween inventory earlier this year, a combination of awareness of consumers moving up their timeline but also a reflection of needing to fill in inventory gaps coming out of back to school,” Baird said in a statement. “Throw in that kids under 12 may potentially have access to Covid-19 vaccines by the end of October, and NRF may actually be under-estimating willingness to spend.”