On this episode of the Business Beat, Jeff shares consumer spending expectations for Halloween and the news is spookily good for retailers.
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Good morning, Paul!
With summer now in our rearview mirror, retail businesses are turning their attention to the critical fall retail season and prognostications are already coming out that portend good things ahead. Amazingly, many believe that consumer spending will be strong during this season because of the pent-up demand to gather together and enjoy all of the fall holidays this year in spite of inflation and concern relating to a looming recession.
So this morning on the Business Beat, we’re sharing news specifically about how the Halloween season is projected to shape up. Sarah Mahoney published an encouraging piece in the MediaPost publication Marketing Daily, which focuses on how Party City views the Halloween retail season ahead.
“This is our Super Bowl,” says Odette Welling, the retailer’s vice president, of Halloween. And she goes on to say, “We’ve hired an additional 20,000 seasonal associates to meet the anticipated demand with Halloween, getting canceled again for a second year in a row last year, people are ready to celebrate this year,” she tells Marketing Daily. “And it’s not just adults, although we see plenty of interest there, it’s schools, too, and people are looking for ways to go beyond just the simple trick-or-treat experience.”
Home Depot CEO Ted Decker had this to say in a recent earnings call about the upcoming Halloween spending season. “Inflation has inspired a lot of hemming and hawing,” he says, “in shopping malls and grocery stores, but it barely dampens the excitement for Halloween and spending is expected to be brisk.”
Now to put this all in perspective. According to the National Retail Federation, Americans spent around $10 billion last year on Halloween. That’s a record spend and it’s projected this year we’ll meet or exceed that the average American consumer spends around $102.74 each on costumes, candy and decorations for the Halloween season.
So, all in all, things look to be off to a good spending season, a season critical to our retailers, both brick and mortar and online.
I’m Jeff Sloan, founder and CEO of startupnation.com, and that’s today’s Business Beat on the Great Voice of the Great Lakes, WJR.
