As Halloween gets closer, retailers and local businesses up and down the UK benefit from a big boost in spending. That’s a record-breaking jump in consumer demand this trend is riding! This year, Halloween has truly become the second-busiest season for many. Charlotte Brennan, owner of Bloom & Brew—a combined destination gift shop and café—attracts some of them. Halloween has now surpassed sales from Valentine’s Day and Easter combined. This holiday season is catching consumers’ attentions sooner than ever!
Brennan wouldn’t trade it — they’re busy with the most active Halloween of their lives. She notes that shoppers are starting to purchase non-functional reusable decorative items to build re-usable installations, similar to collections installed at Christmas. “It’s been our busiest year yet for Halloween,” she stated. Shoppers have enthusiastically embraced all aspects of Halloween shopping this year. Thousands of students already began their back-to-school preparations as early as July, and social media trends on TikTok show how contagious this excitement can be.
Looking at our Worldpanel data, it’s clear that our creepy spending season is stretching even more. By early October, more than a million shoppers have already purchased pumpkins! Supermarkets had a spook-tacular £1.4 million worth of pumpkin sales in the four weeks up to Halloween. All candy sales had nearly doubled compared to the same pre-Halloween period in 2022. In the four weeks ending September 29, 2024, just shy of £1 million was spent on pumpkins in UK supermarkets.
Fiona Eastwood, global head of strategic planning at Merlin Entertainment, announced a potentially thrilling trend. At this point, Halloween’s economic impact has easily surpassed summer peak seasons for many entertainment destinations. “Take Thorpe Park: increasingly Halloween is almost half of its annual profit,” she explained. Purpose-built attractions themed specifically around Halloween feed this growing trend. Most importantly, they provide a remarkable visitor experience filled with exciting, story-driven dark rides and intricate, immersive haunts.
Andy Owens is the 6th generation on his family farm in Herefordshire. He’s seen a huge surge in his pumpkin patch and agritourism business. Since opening in 2021, his new pumpkin patch has tripled in size. Today, families travel there to pick out their pumpkins to carve for Halloween. “Halloween in this country has grown massively,” Owens remarked. When I was a kid there was hardly such a thing as trick-or-treating. Now you can find it anywhere.
The broader retail landscape reflects similar trends. Kantar senior retail analyst Vikash Kaansili pointed to a new trend in Halloween spending. It’s no longer just dressing up and classic pumpkin carving, there’s so much more to Halloween! In the two weeks ending October 31, 2024, retail spending on Halloween-related goods increased by 37%. That’s up from an average two-week period of 875 cases. Sales of candles were up 18%, sales of pajamas were up 19%. Even grown-ups seem to be fully welcoming Halloween as an opportunity for hygge-ified evenings at home.
Even with the cost-of-living crisis, Halloween has shown its robust nature,” Kaansili added. Shoppers are taking fewer trips as Halloween approaches. They’ve spent 16% more than usual, proving that this expanded holiday has turned into a “can’t-miss” event for families across the country.
The growing consumer spend on Halloween is largely due to the rise of experiential consumerism. Brennan noted that social media influences are significant in determining what items people buy and when they choose to purchase them. “People have been asking for pumpkin spiced lattes since August, so I feel like it’s getting earlier,” she said.