Speaker 1we're seeing sustained spending and that's sustained across categories nobody's cutting out halloween as we can tell but they're they're being savvy they're looking for ways to save money they're comparative shopping looking for coupons and shopping around welcome to retail
Speaker 2gets real where we hear from retail's most fascinating leaders about the industry that impacts everyone everywhere every day i'm bill thorne from the national retail federation and on today's episode we're talking with nrf's vice president of industry and consumer insights allison zeller now we're going to talk to allison about this year's halloween spending insights and hear how consumers plan to celebrate the spooky holiday most of this information hot off the press allison welcome to retail you it's real thanks bill and this is your first it is it is well congratulations welcome aboard and we're just gonna have a conversation but it's a conversation about a holiday and i use that in air quotes i used to have a real problem yeah we had a former colleague and she's listening i'll hear about it but she used to just this was the holiday i kept arguing this is not a holiday even though i guess it is do you think of it as a
Speaker 1holiday well i'm a libra i was born in october and it it kind of is my holiday too um i don't go all out and decorating but i do go very uh strongly into the costumes
Speaker 2yeah there's i i enjoy watching people take advantage of the holiday to do you know to get a little bit crazy to do fun stuff but man i mean there's a lot to cover today because the one thing that they've been talking a lot about on the media for the last four weeks or more is the early holiday spend holiday air quotes for halloween and so we'll we'll talk about that but yeah anyway let's talk about the spend what are we estimating this year for holiday so we're expecting
Speaker 1consumers to spend 13.5 billion dollars on halloween this year which is sustained from last year's record which was 13.1 billion and consumers are spending an average of 115 dollars of those spending wow and it really has grown into a holiday i was looking back through the archives of the data and we've been doing this study for more than 20 years yeah and 20 years ago only 64 percent of consumers were shopping for halloween and now we have 74 wow so uh three and four consumers are celebrating halloween i don't get that i mean why is there a
Speaker 2reason that you can think of why people are more engaged now than ever before i
Speaker 1i think there's more to do around the holiday there i'm gonna call it a holiday even if you don't i keep referring
Speaker 2to it as that so i guess we could just go
Speaker 1with it there's more to do it's it's really encompassed like i have kids i have two little kids so it is all about trunk or treat trick or treat costume parades and you know even some of my younger cousins who don't have children they go to haunted houses they do big events around scary movies and it's it's very much a month-long social event yeah
Speaker 2the trunk or treat is kind of a new thing to me i just heard about that very recently i'm sure that it's been going on for quite some time but i wasn't aware of it and what a great way to do something for the kids especially if you're in an urban area and stuff and it's been very safe as well so let's talk about that early shopping i mentioned previously that it seems to me that they've started talking about early shopping and i always go back to the fact we get a lot of media that calls and they're like why are retailers going out early why are they putting this stuff out the christmas you know was for years they finally tapered off asking that it's just the way people shop but now this year it seems that halloween coming out much earlier is a media focus and i just i i'm curious as to is there any reason why that's taking place right now
Speaker 1a number of reasons we do a study in august that asks when or what triggers a halloween spending uh just to figure out like what is behind this this phenomenon of early shopping and a lot of consumers say that as soon as the weather ticks down as soon as it starts to get a little chilly in the air they get into the spirit and
Speaker 2want to decorate i'm going to live wherever those people that are getting chilly in the air yeah because we have not had that but continue
Speaker 1but it's also in our study that is hot off the press consumers are shopping earlier 50 say they're going to shop before october and 10 years ago just 34 percent wow so consumers really are shopping earlier than they were a decade ago
Speaker 2wow well you know and i go back to the fact i mean this is one of the things that i've been talking about is that when the media call they say well why you know why are retailers putting this stuff out earlier it's because the consumers are demanding it you know retailers aren't going to put something on a shelf that isn't going to sell and if somebody wants it they're going to buy it and if they're going to buy it the retailer is going to stock it so it's just but it is amazing to me that that that is a tell that stat again it was 50 50
Speaker 1percent are going to shop before october and 10 years ago just 34 percent were shopping before october
Speaker 2that is well i mean the other thing too is though think about it though allison we have the major retailers doing these july you know christmas in july and things of that sort so maybe people are taking advantage of that and buying for halloween as well as buying for school as well as buying for holiday i think it
Speaker 1also has to do with social media as well and you want to have your stuff before it sells out right and so if you're going to do a display and you want to show people you want to get that off that shelf and into your into your store and you're going to have to buy it and you're going to have to buy it into your yard before it's too late and so that way you can promote it and share it with your
Speaker 2friends and family our colleague justine bryce we've asked folks at nrf for their halloween hot takes and and starting with when they think it's appropriate to start shopping for the holiday so let's let's take a listen we have
Speaker 3lisa here from conferences lisa how early is it to be buying decorations and decorating for
Speaker 4halloween no earlier than mid-september and that is from someone who is in the middle of the year and they're going to be shopping for the holiday this is a huge halloween fanatic july is way too early for me to find halloween decorations in my area stores halloween
Speaker 3costumes for kids especially how early is it to be buying prepping
Speaker 4for that back to school time and that is only because that child is inevitably going to want the most popular and supplies are limited
Speaker 3now the autumn pumpkin decorations the psl stuff how early is it for that to start
Speaker 4i'm biased because the pumpkin decorations are multi-serving so i do believe again late august early september back to school time i will accept seeing pumpkins on people's front porches when does
Speaker 3fall start for you when you start putting out your moms your pumpkins like when are we
Speaker 5doing fall decor you know right now i would love to put out my fall decor but i am going to wait until it gets a little bit cooler but you know football's right around the corner so kind of that's like springs into it i think once we get past this week in that 90 degree hump mid-september is when the fall decor comes out
Speaker 3the psl push happening in august too early yeah you're about temperature and sports schedule correct we got luciana here with membership and luciana how early is it to start to get prepared for halloween usually for
Speaker 6me right around the corner i'm going to wait until it gets a little bit cooler but you know after back to school i'm already starting thinking about what my boys want because i don't want to be crazy looking at the internet for the caution like the month like weeks before so i'll say september it's a good time i'm on it already
Speaker 2it was good i you know and it really does back up your point allison it was weather it was making sure that the supply was there and looking at the other things that they're having to buy for when they start thinking about fall spending they get back to school to bed and then they focus on halloween it's very interesting my first grader
Speaker 1came home on day two of back to school and declared what he was going to be for halloween so i identify but he wants to be a ghost a ghost he wants to be a classic ghost like white sheet and black eyes cut out yeah perfect perfect
Speaker 2perfect well that saves you some money it
Speaker 1does
Speaker 2it does and you reuse the sheets for other things so celebrations how are people celebrating this year i mean we've got that big spend what are
Speaker 1they spending on candy costumes and decorations and you know 61 percent plan to hand out candy this year so these are evergreen ways of celebrating but you know looking back into the history of the the survey they they don't really change
Speaker 2no do you remember so when i was young very young and would go out halloween and trick-or-treat it got to the point though where i really wanted to just stay home and hand out the candy did you do you like handing or did you prefer to go
Speaker 1out i prefer to go out i wanted to see how many houses and blocks i could hit before i needed to be
Speaker 2home so the candy i'm very interested we polled nrf colleagues on what their favorite candy is and what they think is the most overrated so let's hear what they have to say
Speaker 3all right so we have scott here from our hr department so question what do you think is the most overrated halloween candy
Speaker 7oh the candy corn is the most overrated halloween candy oh it's terrible where people always want to go out and get it for some reason.
Speaker 3Yeah, I would like to know the retail sales on that candy corn. I feel like people buy it because it's an aesthetic thing. It's not really like no one wants to eat it.
Speaker 7Yeah, that's a good call. You want to know another one I think that's actually pretty terrible? Yeah. Milky Way. I have never really liked Milky Ways at all.
Speaker 8Oh, well, my favorite candy is Reese's Cups. I assume those are probably up there in terms of most popular candy. But outside of that, probably, you know, the basics like chocolate bars.
Speaker 6Almond Joy. Almond Joy. All the Almond Joys come to me. It's like my tax. Okay, I will say Almond Joy, kind of a deep track. Another one, another thing. I do have a couple kids in our neighborhood that are allergic to chocolate and peanuts. So I like to go to Oriental Trading, which is one of our members. And I buy a bag of mixed trinkets just to give out like fidgets. I put it out as well. So considerate. So that
Speaker 2is interesting to me. Those were very interesting responses. I love candy corn.
Speaker 1I don't really have a feeling about candy corn either way. I will eat it, but I'm not going to go out and buy it, I think. No, you don't.
Speaker 2Well, I don't buy candy anyway because if I buy it, I eat it and I regret it. But at the end of the day, if candy corn is sitting out, it's interesting. You don't eat candy corn. You don't pop it in your mouth. You eat the little tip, then you eat the middle, and then you eat the end. That's what I do. And that makes it fun. And it drags it out a little bit. Anyhow, what's your favorite candy?
Speaker 1I have a theme of candy that I gravitate towards. Candy-coated candy. So Nerds gummy clusters are my current. I've got a pack in my drawer if you haven't had them before.
Speaker 2I've never had it. Tell me what they are.
Speaker 1They are a gummy covered in Nerd candy.
Speaker 2And you shake them out.
Speaker 1They're crunchy. They're gooey.
Speaker 2I've never had one.
Speaker 1My kids know that they're mom candies, so they don't even touch them. I've never had one.
Speaker 2Oh, that's good. What's your second favorite?
Speaker 1Twix bars. Twix. Candy-coated candy. Yeah.
Speaker 2I guess. But there's a lot of candy-coated candy, though. I mean, think about it. Somebody just mentioned Almond Joy. That's kind of like, you know, you've got the coconut.
Speaker 1My heart's candy-coated healthy.
Speaker 2Oh, yeah. Okay. Well, I love coconuts. So I like Almond Joy. My favorite is Kit Kat. I mean, I just. I cannot. I cannot get enough Kit Kat. So what are you getting to hand out this year?
Speaker 1So, like one of our colleagues, we have some allergies in the neighborhood. So I usually buy one of those mixed bags. And then I also bought. I was at Five Below earlier this week and bought a pack of mini Slinkys. Oh, that's nice. For anybody who can't have the candy and wants to stay out of the safe.
Speaker 2Better than an apple. Yes. Much better than an apple. That became a rage for a while. I mean, people doing fruit.
Speaker 1My mom used to hand out pencils. Did she really? Yeah. We were the worst house in the neighborhood by far. But I do have a good stat for you from the study. Okay. You ready for this? For Mr. Doesn't Buy Candy. This year, 96% of people celebrating Halloween plan to buy candy. So nearly everybody. But only 61% plan to hand out candy. Really? So while. So that means a lot of people are buying candy to keep it for themselves.
Speaker 2It's like Christmas presents sometimes. You know, go out Christmas shopping. One for them. Two for me. I think that makes sense. Yeah, that's very, very interesting.
Speaker 1Pencils. She was a teacher. She really lived that.
Speaker 2I love that because I feel like if I were talking to somebody and they said, oh, yeah, there was this lady on the street that used to hand out pencils. I'm like, I know who that lady is. It's so unique. Oh, my God. I love that. Okay. Let's get into costumes. How much are people spending on costumes this year?
Speaker 1All right. Okay. So people buying $52 is the average amount to spend on costumes. And those with children in the house plan to spend $60 on costumes this year.
Speaker 2Boy, your son is doing you a real favor.
Speaker 1My daughter hasn't determined what she's being yet, but she's my big spender.
Speaker 2So I'm sure it's not going to be cheap. I think there's something to be said for going out and just buying a costume as opposed to making one. Do you? I mean, your son, of course, gets to make his own. He's just going to be a ghost. Yeah. Little sheet, two black-out eyes.
Speaker 1I set a horrible precedent since my children were born that I make their costume because they are very specific asks. This is, I'm relieved. One time he wanted to be a green dragon with a purple belly and four horns on his head. You can't buy that. So I had to pull out the sewing machine.
Speaker 2That's good. No pencils, though. All right. So we always look forward to hearing. Every year about the costumes, the most popular costumes. And I personally have no idea what those might be. However, people love to dress up their pets. And every year, anybody that's listened to this podcast knows I hated when Bo would dress up our dog as a dragon or a pumpkin or and the dog hated it, too. Some of the worst pictures of my dog are just him looking up with these mournful eyes. Like, are you really going to make me go out like this? So. Anyway, let's hear from some of our colleagues about what they're thinking about costumes this year.
Speaker 3April, you got a really cute dog. Are we pet costume or no pet costume?
Speaker 5Oh, that's a tough one. I am pet costume. He is not so much. Interesting. So do you still force
Speaker 3him into the pet costume? You know, for one quick pick and then I take it off. OK. Now, do you make the costume? Absolutely not. I'm not a DIYer. OK. What are we doing this year?
Speaker 5You know, that's a great question. Great question. Now that we're in September, I really got to start thinking about it.
Speaker 3Post Labor Day, we're only dedicated to that. What do you think is going to be the hot costume for children this Halloween?
Speaker 8For children, I'm thinking Spider-Man, especially with the new movie that just released. I could definitely see a lot of kids dress up as that. But also for girls, I feel like the tried and true safe costume, dressing up as a princess will probably also remain very popular this year.
Speaker 3What do you think is going to be the hot Halloween costume? I have no idea.
Speaker 6My boys like this game called Brawl Stars, and I know they talk about it. So that's, I don't even know where to find the costume. So I hope that's not going to be the highest ticket item. But I never know. Pokemon is always a safe one for us. But other than that, I don't have much idea. So do you DIY or do you prefer to buy the costume? They leave it at my door. Yes, I buy online.
Speaker 3Costumes. We DIYing or we buying?
Speaker 7We buying. So we're looking to buy, but add a DIY component to it.
Speaker 3Is it because you're doing a family thing?
Speaker 7Yeah, my daughter has been really into Toy Story lately. So I actually am thinking about being Mrs.
Speaker 2Nesbitt. All right. So we've got the popular costumes that our colleagues are thinking about. Allison, what are our consumers saying?
Speaker 1Adults are quite boring this year. They are sticking to the tried and true classics, which Vampire. Ghost Clown remain in the top 10 as, as I think they do almost every year. Batman is beating out Spider-Man. Yeah. Batman's the number three spot and Spider-Man is the number four spot.
Speaker 2Whoa. Wow. I am surprised by that. Yeah. Is the popularity of the Spider-Man series?
Speaker 1Well, in kids, kids costumes, Spider-Man is number one. Okay. It was number one last year, but what is interesting is it's doubled in the rate. Really? So last year. Right. 25% of kids were dressing up like Spider-Man. This year we have almost 11%. Wow. It's, yeah, it's very strongly in the lead.
Speaker 2Congratulations, Tom Holland. Yeah. I mean, that's phenomenal. When, when you think about pets.
Speaker 1Pets are exactly, uh, the ones that you do not like. Dragons. We, yeah, uh, pumpkin, hot dog.
Speaker 2Hot dog. We got the hot dog.
Speaker 1Pumpkin and hot dog are the number one and number two, uh, up there. So, uh, we'll be seeing a lot of those out there. Lord. Where are people shopping for them?
Speaker 2Where are people shopping for this? Is it mostly online or the, or the, they've got Halloween stores, there's pop-ups and things of that sort.
Speaker 1So where they're shopping for costumes is, or, or actually for all their, their categories. I don't think we break out where they're shopping for costumes specifically, but we actually this year have a survey high of consumer shopping at small and local businesses.
Speaker 2Oh, nice. Very nice.
Speaker 1For their costumes. That's great. Yeah. And also similar to our back to school data, we have a slight dip in the number of people who are shopping online. Right. So it's, you know. Certainly thrift stores, discount stores and neighborhood stores are, are growing in popularity for where people are getting their, their costumes and their decor for Halloween.
Speaker 2Cool. So, you know, we've got, we've got some stiff headwinds in the economy right now. How is that impacting the psyche of the consumers they prepare for Halloween?
Speaker 1Many are saying that the economy is impacting their plans for Halloween and 43% say, which is the highest, you know, we've been tracking this as well, is also a survey high on how they say the economy is having an impact. Really? Wow. And this year they, you know, 79% expect prices to be higher because of tariffs.
Speaker 2Wow. You know, it is, it is amazing when you think, it's, it's been kind of all year in what we've found in our research and not just this year, kind of going into the end of last year as well. People want to have fun. They just want to kind of put the news aside and put the anxiousness aside and all the world events aside and just kind of focus on one evening. of fun and so I think no matter how bad the economy me is to some degree they're all say, well, you know, 43% say, yeah, it drives some of my decisions, but it's not driving them from buying for all it does.
Speaker 1Definitely not. And, you know, we're seeing sustained spending and that's sustained across categories. Nobody's cutting out Halloween as we can tell, but they're, they're being savvy. They're looking for ways to save money. They're comparative shopping, looking for coupons and shopping around.
Speaker 2Cool. So Alison, let's conclude. Let me ask you this question. When you go out, do you go out with the kids? Does dad go out with the kids? And if you go out with the kids, do you dress up?
Speaker 1Yes. I didn't even know it. We both go out and we dress up. We have been reusing the same costume for the last couple of years. So I think this year might be the year that we try something new. Yeah. We will
Speaker 2come back and visit that someday. Alison Zeller. It has been a distinct. Pleasure talking with you. Thank you. Thanks Bill. And thank you all for listening to another episode of retail gets real. You can find more information about this episode at retail gets real.com. I'm Bill Thorne. This is retail gets real. Have a great Halloween. And thanks for listening.
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