2019 Sees Near-Record Halloween spending

It’s almost scary how much we spend on Halloween.

172 million of us will celebrate the holiday and, according to the annual survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics for the National Retail Federation, we’re poised to spend an average $86.27 per person this year, just short of last year’s record $86.79. That’s $8.8 billion in total U.S. consumer spending, down from last year’s $9 billion. The survey attributes at least some of that drop to consumer uncertainty regarding our country’s ongoing trade war with China.

If you’re like most of the houses I trick-or-treated at as a kid, you’re not giving out full-size candy bars (boo! – and that’s the disappointed boo, not the scary boo). So, where’s all that money going?

The survey says we’re spending $3.2 billion on costumes (purchased by 67 percent of Halloween shoppers), $2.6 billion on candy (95 percent), $2.7 billion on decorations (72 percent) and $390 million on greeting cards (34 percent).

What? You don’t send out Halloween cards? What kind of a monster are you?

At least some of that holiday money is going to the dogs (and cats, etc.) — 29 million of you plan to dress up your pets for Halloween. The top costume for critters? Pumpkin, followed by hot dog, superhero, bumble bee and the super-creative “cat”.

That’s like me dressing up as a blogger.

The survey of 7,419 consumers was conducted September 3-10 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.2 percentage points.