Holiday becoming big-ticket event
Lockport — The only thing scarier than the severed limbs, deformed faces and gory props on sale at your local big-box store this month might be the credit card bill that arrives in November.
Halloween, once an innocuous excuse for children to beg for candy from their neighbors, has grown into a full-blown, all-ages marketing event, second only to Christmas in per-capita spending for home decorating.
Add in costumes, candy and various impulse purchases, and the average Oct. 31 enthusiast is spending more than $64 on the non-holiday, totaling more than $5 billion in spending across the United States, according to the National Retail Federation.
Around the Niagara region, some celebrate and accommodate the growing social enthusiasm for all things spooky, some try to channel it into useful pursuits and others can only shake their heads as they watch grown men and women drop hard-earned money on sumo wrestler costumes.
At the Target department store in Niagara Falls, Manager Kathleen Schreiber has watched for nine years as more adults lug their own costumes to the checkout aisles along with their children’s.
