• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, October 5, 2003

Goblins Second Only to St. Nick

According to the findings of the 2003 Halloween Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey of 7,569 consumer,s from the National Retail Federation (NRF), conducted by BIGresearch, 55.8 percent of consumers plan to celebrate Halloween, spending an average of $41.77 on the upcoming holiday. Spending will be virtually unchanged from 2002, when consumers spent an average of $44.20.

"Halloween continues to be important for retailers because it represents the beginning of a new season, not just one holiday," said NRF President and CEO Tracy Mullin.

Halloween continues to be the second-biggest holiday for decorating next to the winter holidays. 46.6% of consumers celebrating Halloween plan to decorate their homes or yards with a Halloween theme this year, and plan to spend $10.37 each on Halloween decorations. Consumers will also spend an average of $14.85 on costumes, $14.41 on candy, and $2.14 on greeting cards.

57.3% of young adults aged 18-24 plan to celebrate Halloween by dressing in costume, and 48.6% throwing or attending a party. 52.8% of consumers aged 25-44 will take children trick-or-treating (and 54.3% will carve a pumpkin) this Halloween. 86.9% or consumers over the age of 45 will spend their Halloween night at home and hand out candy.

A variety of retailers will benefit from sales of Halloween merchandise. Discounters will continue to see the majority of traffic for Halloween merchandise, with 69.2 percent of consumers planning to shop for Halloween merchandise at a discount store. Consumers will also be heading to grocery stores (45.5%), specialty stores like Halloween or party stores (23.4%), department stores (19.1%), and drug stores (16.9%).

The survey, which polled 7,569 consumers, was conducted for NRF by BIGresearch from September 4-10, 2003.