Halloween

[storewanderer]

Halloween looks interesting for many retailers this year.

Target on November 2 is already 90% off Halloween (non food only- 30% off food). I was in Target in Reno and Carson City- these two stores don't even appear to have had 50% sell through on costumes. Oddly decor items seem to have sold really well. Candy probably had 85% sell through in Reno but I'm not sure it even had 50% sell through in Carson City.

Wal Mart did a 50% off Halloween clearance starting on Halloween 10/31. What retailer starts 50% off ON THE DAY OF THE HOLIDAY? Especially one like Halloween where a ton of people wait until the last second to go buy stuff. Clearly they were having big movement problems on this inventory.

[Alpha8472]

My local Walmart was sold out of most of the Halloween merchandise just before Halloween. It really depends on how much each individual store orders. If the store orders too much, then there will be a lot to put on clearance.

The selection of Halloween items at Walmart was not very good this year. There seemed to be much less variety. Spirit Halloween had a much more extensive selection. In previous years, Raley's and Nob Hill had a much more interesting Halloween selection.

My local Target had a very dismal selection of Halloween items this year. A week before Halloween, it seemed like Target sold out of practically everything except for candy. Rite Aid seemed to be low on Halloween items this year also.

[jamcool]

Maybe because chocolate candy is more expensive this year than last year.

[BillyGr]

Wal Mart did a 50% off Halloween clearance starting on Halloween 10/31. What retailer starts 50% off ON THE DAY OF THE HOLIDAY? Especially one like Halloween where a ton of people wait until the last second to go buy stuff. Clearly they were having big movement problems on this inventory.

How many people would really do that?

Not get a costume and risk the kid being upset that they didn't have one left that they liked?
Not decorate until an hour or two before people would be coming around?
Risk having nothing to hand out just to see if they might get 50% off that candy (especially when you can get the same price by buying in advance, since the sales are out there).
Small bags were $1.99 at Walgreens, half off regular price at Walmart is not going to be much (if any at all) less than that.

[ClownLoach]

My observation is that Walmart and Target didn't do the kinds of discounts typical of Halloween, anticipating a big payday, and got burned.

Candy was expensive and pretty much full price up to the last day, last year there were sales starting three weeks out. It is typical for the candy to all move back to full price 3 to 5 days before the holiday.

Some stores bought way down, especially Home Depot and Lowe's who were cleared out of decor by October 1st. Lowe's must have had 100% sell through, they had a folding banquet table with a few odds and ends a week before Halloween that were probably returns. Home Depot didn't fare as well, they went more scary and gory on their decor this year but even then they had a bay of pallet racking left last week. Both had Christmas fully set by October 1st; they have all the Christmas in house by Labor Day now and basically have a strategy to consolidate Halloween as it sells then backfill with Christmas but all that wound up being needed was rearranging all the product into planogram a couple of weeks back.

Halloween big winners are Home Depot and Lowe's this year along with AtHome. Big losers are Target, Walmart, and the grocery stores. I have been avoiding the craft stores but I've heard they're sitting on a lot of Fall and Halloween too.

Seems like the trend was to spend on decorating the outside of the house and not so much on the inside. Also I saw a lot more homemade costumes this year than ever before, more "bounding" (where one wears say the colors or type of clothing of a character but not exactly their costume, very popular with Disney). Very few store bought costumes. We had at least 300 kids for Trick or Treating, we are in a big Halloween neighborhood, and definitely saw the shift away from store bought costumes, heck few candy buckets - saw dozens of kids with old fashioned pillow cases.

[storewanderer]

My observation is that Walmart and Target didn't do the kinds of discounts typical of Halloween, anticipating a big payday, and got burned.

Candy was expensive and pretty much full price up to the last day, last year there were sales starting three weeks out. It is typical for the candy to all move back to full price 3 to 5 days before the holiday.

Some stores bought way down, especially Home Depot and Lowe's who were cleared out of decor by October 1st. Lowe's must have had 100% sell through, they had a folding banquet table with a few odds and ends a week before Halloween that were probably returns. Home Depot didn't fare as well, they went more scary and gory on their decor this year but even then they had a bay of pallet racking left last week. Both had Christmas fully set by October 1st; they have all the Christmas in house by Labor Day now and basically have a strategy to consolidate Halloween as it sells then backfill with Christmas but all that wound up being needed was rearranging all the product into planogram a couple of weeks back.

Halloween big winners are Home Depot and Lowe's this year along with AtHome. Big losers are Target, Walmart, and the grocery stores. I have been avoiding the craft stores but I've heard they're sitting on a lot of Fall and Halloween too.

Seems like the trend was to spend on decorating the outside of the house and not so much on the inside. Also I saw a lot more homemade costumes this year than ever before, more "bounding" (where one wears say the colors or type of clothing of a character but not exactly their costume, very popular with Disney). Very few store bought costumes. We had at least 300 kids for Trick or Treating, we are in a big Halloween neighborhood, and definitely saw the shift away from store bought costumes, heck few candy buckets - saw dozens of kids with old fashioned pillow cases.

I noticed Wal Mart also did 25% off "Harvest" (home decor) maybe 5 days before Halloween. These items typically do not clearance out until after Thanksgiving.

I think candy prices are up close to 40% since 2018. Maybe more after factoring in bag piece count decreases, watering down of the big bags (more non-chocolate fillers like Whoppers or Skittles than ever before mixed into those), etc.

[storewanderer]

Wal Mart did a 50% off Halloween clearance starting on Halloween 10/31. What retailer starts 50% off ON THE DAY OF THE HOLIDAY? Especially one like Halloween where a ton of people wait until the last second to go buy stuff. Clearly they were having big movement problems on this inventory.

How many people would really do that?

Not get a costume and risk the kid being upset that they didn't have one left that they liked?
Not decorate until an hour or two before people would be coming around?
Risk having nothing to hand out just to see if they might get 50% off that candy (especially when you can get the same price by buying in advance, since the sales are out there).
Small bags were $1.99 at Walgreens, half off regular price at Walmart is not going to be much (if any at all) less than that.

It does kind of depend on what day of the week Halloween is on. Since it was on a Tuesday this year, it was pretty easy for a lot of people to make the plans and purchases over the weekend. So on the years when it falls on a Thursday or Friday that is when you really see people wait until the last second to buy items. I have seen stores sell through 20-30% of their Halloween product on Halloween day.

In a store in an area with a lot of families especially with multiple young children, a ton of people wait until the last second to go make Halloween purchases.

In an area with more young adults the main draw is liquor purchases so it isn't as obvious.

[Super S]

Halloween seemed a little "off" this year. Some Halloween events were taking place in the middle of the month, and many things were taking place on the Friday and Saturday before. Halloween itself, I observed very few people in costume or trick-or-treating, instead pushing the organized "trunk or treat" events. As for adults, unless you want to hang out in a bar, you are out of luck for Adult-focused Halloween events. It seems like Covid impacted many Halloween events and still has not fully recovered. My impression is that this day has fallen by the wayside for many people. It also doesn't help that Christmas merchandise is already out on the shelves where Halloween merchandise usually is displayed.

[veteran+]

Halloween (Carnival in West Hollywood) was excruciatingly back en force in West Hollywood.

Pent-up demand from previous festival cancellations was at play. Huge increases in domestic and foreign tourists was noticeable. The traffic was insane due to all the road blocks.

I had to travel in gridlock 5 miles east in order to go south and west to my gym appointment, and then back again for home.

[mbz321]

What retailer starts 50% off ON THE DAY OF THE

While not usually 50% off levels, Costco marks down a lot of seasonal merchandise well before the holiday, sometimes quite significantly. At my store, all we had left into the afternoon on Halloween day was the big boxes of candy bars that are part of normal stock anyway. Decorations and costumes were all gone weeks ago and seasonal food items (like big bags of Dum Dum pops, Halloween-themed Frito Lay snack size assortments, etc.) were pretty much all cleared out the week of.