Americans Are Spending Over $9 Billion On Halloween
Halloween spending in the U.S. is getting a bit spookier this year—$1 billion spookier.
Americans are on tap to spend $9.1 billion this Halloween — a record that would smash last year's $8.4 billion, according to an annual survey released by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics.
To put it in perspective, if we all gave our Halloween spending money to one person, he or she could book a flight to the moon and back—90 times. He or she could buy 90 of Donald Trump’s Boeing 757s — or the World Series Champion Chicago Cubs nine times.
But, instead, 179 million Americans will buy costumes, candy and decorations for Halloween.
“Americans are planning to spend more than ever as they gear up for Halloween,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said in a statement.
On an individual level, consumers are expected to spend about $86.13 each, up from last year’s $82.93. That's almost 30 bags of Halloween candy, 45 fidget spinners or about 20 pumpkin spice lattes.
Participating is different for everyone, but some people buy costumes for themselves, their kids and their pets, cards for their family, decorations for their house and candy to pass out. Across the U.S., that adds up to $3.4 billion on costumes, $2.7 billion on candy, $2.7 billion on decorations and $410 million on greeting cards.
And here's what we're getting for that money:
Over 2 million people will dress as a cat, dog, monkey or other animal. And 10 percent of pet owners will dress their animal up as a pumpkin and 7 percent will dress up Fido as a hot dog.
“Halloween continues to be a highly anticipated holiday for Americans, who will spend a record amount this year with increases across all purchasing categories,” Prosper Insights Principal Analyst Pam Goodfellow said in a statement.
The survey asked 7,013 consumers about Halloween shopping plans. It was conducted September 5-13 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.2 candy corns (er, percentage points).
And not just for Halloween. Last year, Americans spent $1 trillion on holidays—that’s 5 percent of our national debt. And this year is expected to be even higher.
The same retail group predicts that retail sales in November and December — the holiday season — will increase as much as 4 percent for a total of $682 billion, up from $655.8 billion last year.
“Our forecast reflects the very realistic steady momentum of the economy and overall strength of the industry,” Shay said.
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