Everyone seems to love Halloween
By Tenisha Mercer
The Detroit News
CLINTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Dennis McDonnell makes his living rotating tires, changing oil and replacing water pumps at the auto repair shop he owns in Warren, Mich. But from September to November, he's obsessed with his other passion — running a haunted house.
"I just love Halloween," said McDonnell, 26. Each year, his Fright Zone haunted house draws about 10,000 visitors from as far away as Toledo, Ohio, and grosses about $100,000. "It's something that I enjoy that I've turned into a business."
You could say the same for Halloween.
The event has become one big selling bonanza, with dollar stores, drugstores, craft shops and other retailers rolling out merchandise as soon as Labor Day ends.
Halloween spending is expected to reach $3.12 billion this year, up from $2.96 billion last year, according to the National Retail Federation.
"Retailers have understood that for years consumers have enjoyed Halloween and have been looking for more merchandise to buy, eat or wear," said Ellen Tolley, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based federation. "Consumers like it because it's no-strings-attached."
Once limited to kids going trick-or-treating in homemade costumes, Halloween has morphed into a one-month event with themed parties, over-the-top home decorations and professionally made costumes with adults as the focus.
"Young adults grew up with Halloween and they don't want to let go of it. They want to make it their own and take it to a new level. They view it as an annual opportunity to act like a kid," Tolley said.
Halloween USA, owned by Games and Gifts Inc., gets just as many adult customers buying costumes for themselves as it has customers buying for their children, said marketing director Amy Gajda. The Livonia, Mich.-based chain opens 40 temporary stores and converts 40 of its Party City USA stores in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio into Halloween retail outlets.
"I think it becomes more and more popular every year," said Gajda. "The feeling of Halloween stays with you every year as you get older. People like to decorate their houses and adults love to have parties."
Retailers might need Halloween more than ever this year.
Soft spending from late summer is expected to continue throughout the early fall, according to the Index of Future Spending by Retail Forward, a market research firm in Toledo, Ohio. The index, based on surveys of 4,000 shoppers, fell to 100.7 in October from 102.7 in September. The projected lower spending is attributed to concerns about the nation's jobs outlook, the report said.
Still, October is the third-largest sales month in terms of volume, behind November and December, with many of those purchases prompted by Halloween, said Garry Butcher, vice president of marketing and consumer research for Macerich Co. in Santa Monica, Calif. The firm leases, owns and manages regional shopping malls.
This year, consumers are expected to spend an average of $43.57 on Halloween merchandise, according to the National Retail Federation. And nearly 70 percent of those in the 18-to-34 age group are expected to celebrate Halloween in costume or at a party, according to the National Retail Federation.
"Halloween is a major holiday, and it's been that way for several years," Butcher said. "It really is the start of the holiday season. Halloween is part of American culture, and Americans seem to have really embraced the holiday."
