Festive Friday: Halloween stories for the biz beat

In some stores, Halloween gear is in competition with Christmas decorations. Photo by Melissa Preddy

If Halloween decorations are a reflection of the economy and consumer sentiment, 2012 is looking pretty good in these parts.  I started seeing cobweb-festooned shrubs and front-yard gravestones weeks ago, when the calendar had barely turned over from summer to autumn.  Pumpkins, cornstalks and hay bales also grace porches and, of course, retailers from drugstores to hardware stores are trying to get in on the spooky-time act.

Others are hedging their bets with early Christmas displays (if such a thing is possible any more) as well, creating some odd merchandise juxtapositions.  On a recent visit to Home Depot I spotted a life-sized witch propped in front of a large artificial tree display; the crone seemed to sway to the perky Yuletide tunes emanating from an electronic ornament.

So, in the first of this year’s Festive Friday takes on the many-faceted holiday spending beat, here’s a cornucopia of story ideas related to Halloween, Christmas, all of the in-between holidays and the spending mania that businesses hope will close out the year on an upbeat note.

According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), more Americans than ever (in the 10 years it’s been surveying the October holiday)  plan to celebrate or indulge for Halloween this year, with some 70 percent of respondents planning some Halloween-related activity or spending.  The average spending of nearly $80 tops last year, and the holiday is expected to generate some $8 billion in sales.

All Hallow’s Eve (Halloween) is so picturesque and fun that perennial story ideas abound, from costume shops to U-pick pumpkin patches to marketing tie-ins by beer distributors, sports bars and other adult venues.  Don’t forget about Halloween attractions from major theme parks to local grass-roots haunts  – the business model could be interesting to dissect; how much do they spend on fake blood, chainless chain saws and plywood each year?

An investment site called KapitalWire has come up with a Halloween index of stocks, from Hershey candy to discounters to a maker of Halloween costumes.  You could have some fun asking local brokers and financial advisers about the so-called “Halloween Indicator”  what stocks and/or area companies stand to benefit the most from Oct. 31.

Look also for grass-roots entrepreneurs capitalizing on Halloween, from eBay and Etsy sellers to makers of jack-o-lantern preservative potions like like Pumpkin Dunk’N.   Thrift stores are reputed to get a Halloween boost as costumer-makers snap up used duds, and I’ve seen some holiday-lighting services zipping around lately, similar to this Los Angeles decorating firm called Dr. Halloween.   I think a snappy round-up showing the array of merchants, service firms, cottage industries, restaurants and other local small business that get a bump from Halloween would make for an informative article or online slide show.

Meanwhile, the “Black Friday” post-Thanksgiving shopping stampede is, incredibly, only six weeks away, so you might want to start mapping out your November/December plan.  (More on that in future Festive Friday posts.) The NRF predicts Christmas/holiday spending will rise about 4 percent this year over 2011;  that’s less than the boost merchants experienced last year but still respectable, and it’s apparently driving holiday hiring to a five-year high, according to a just-out report in Forbes.  Moreover, the article says, more of these temp positions are expected to lead to full-time jobs.  (For more on holiday hiring resources and ideas, see my recent blog post.)

And here’s a cool Freakonomics post from last year that charts Christmas spending by country; no surprise the United States leads most others, but tiny Luxemburg outdoes us all.