Madisen Weisensel
Mr. Reuter
Economics- A3
Halloween
As we head into the month of October we all can’t wait for the next holiday to come around. That holiday would be halloween. Many activities take place on this day or the week of halloween. There’s trick or treating, halloween parties and costume parties. This causes an increase in demand for these specific products that are needed in preparation for this holiday. In general as a whole this holiday has 7.4 billion dollars spent.
When we think of the holiday coming up the first thought that pops into most of our heads, especially kids is what am I going to be this year for halloween. We all go to the halloween costume stores such as Halloween Express, or venues set up in malls. Each year there are 2.5 billion dollars spent on costumes. The adult costumes are normally $20 more than the kids costumes. Of course there is an opportunity cost of getting a new costume. This opportunity cost is that you could be saving your money for something else, especially the adults who have to pay extra for their costumes, you could just use a costume that you already had. Many people, believe it or not spend money to dress up their animals. Annually there are 300 million dollars spent on finding that perfect costume for your animal.
Another major category that has money spent on it is candy. Annually there is about 2 million dollars spent on candy. Kids look forward to the candy that will be dropped into their buckets. Along with the money spent on candy, there is about 2 billion dollars spent on decorations. This money is spent on making the holiday fun and showing off your house to the neighborhood. All of these expenses have an opportunity cost because the money didn’t have to be spent on halloween and there are other things that consumers could be buying instead.
October has one of the highest number of shoppers than any other month. This is because halloween is in this month.This month brings in the second highest revenue. Consumers are going to go shopping more to buy all of the necessities needed for halloween. Halloween will continue to be a holiday where a great deal of money is being spent.
Works Cited
"Halloween." Arbiter Online. Web. 7 Oct. 2015.
Lam, Bourree. "Wait, Americans Spend How Much on Halloween?" The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 21 Oct. 2014. Web. 7 Oct. 2015.
"The Real Cost, and Value, of Halloween Is More Than $10 Billion." 247wallst.com. Web. 7 Oct. 2015.
Weissmann, Jordan. "The Halloween Economy." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 28 Oct. 2011. Web. 7 Oct. 2015.
2 million dollars spent on candy is a huge amount of money. Alongside that, 2 billion spend on decorations alone. Halloween definitely seems to be a great source of income for the companies that decide to sell these products. I had no idea that October, out of any month, happened to be one of the highest months when the most shopping is done; I would have assumed December in general due to Christmas, but it seems from the graph provided that not even that is true.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea that 7.4 billion dollars is spent on Halloween, but I agree with you that it will continue to be a costly holiday. I was surprised that the most money was spent on buying costumes, because more people are making costumes themselves from materials they already have. Has the amount consumers spent on costumes decreased over the years? It was also interesting to see that customers go shopping the most in November. I think this could be a result of the decreasing price of Halloween costumes, decorations, and candy since the demand for them is low after the holiday is over. Also with Thanksgiving, Christmas, and other winter holidays following shortly after, it makes sense that people would want to stock up while the prices are lower.
ReplyDeleteHalloween is by far one of my favorite holidays, and though not an official holiday by government standards people still treat (no pun intended) it as such. Many people, including myself, take off of work for it as well. I was surprised to find out most of this information, especially the amount of money that we actually spend on Halloween, like costumes, candy, and decorations. Also, I don’t get why people spend so much to dress their pets/animals. we may enjoy it, but the pets seem like they hate, so why spend so much for something you’ll probably only use once, and something their pets don’t enjoy in the first place. Seems like a colossal waste of not only time, but money, Good topic!
ReplyDeleteIn retrospect it doesn't seem like 2 million dollars spent on candy is that much at all but when you think about how the price ratio between candy and costumes is so drastically different it makes more sense. It is funny to find out that Halloween is certainly a fan favorite among the American consensus while all people buy are decorations, costumes, and candy, and this holiday still manages to pull in the second highest amount of revenue for holidays in America.
ReplyDeleteI agree that people tend to spend an immense amount of money on this holiday, but I believe it is worth it. The opportunity cost of not celebrating would be missing out on a whole day of fun. Costume expenses do often get out of control, but since many consumers are willing to buy extravagant outfits, the demand is very high.
ReplyDeleteThe opportunity cost seems to be very high for Halloween. If individuals were least focused on the idea of consuming and preparing for one day then maybe they could save for Thanksgiving or Christmas. However I don't think the chances of our population decreasing there consuming for Halloween on costumes or candy or even costumes for their dogs. if this were to happen the festivities for Halloween would slowly decline and that's not likely to happen in our pop culture
ReplyDeleteSpending money on Halloween is really personal preference. While the opportunity cost of buying a 70$ costume is saving that money that could be used for multiple other things, people seem to put this expensive costume that they only wear for one night as a high priority in their October budget. During October, there is a huge increase in demand for products like candy and Halloween, due to change in costumers tastes. The funny thing is, if you go in the day after Halloween, there is a sharp decrease in demand. Costumes and candy are all on mega sale and there is a huge supply that no one no longer wants because in just one day, their tastes have already changed. All this demand, also causes major competition. Stores like Halloween Express, Walmart, Target, and Goodwill all fight to create the greatest revenue. Although everything about this holiday seems like a waste of money, it creates a spike in the economy.
ReplyDeleteI find it easy to believe the fact that Halloween has the highest amount of shoppers and think it will remain that way. Previous posts have talked about buying online and that that has decreased the amount of people shopping in-store. Food is just one of those things that can't be shipped as easily because it can spoil and different temperature conditions could ruin it. As a result, I believe Halloween will continue to have the most shoppers just because people have to go to the stores and not everyone celebrates Christmas taking away from it's shoppers even though it would seem like it would have the most shoppers.
ReplyDeleteThe amount of money spent on Halloween blows me away. If it's already at $7.4 billion for Halloween, I can't even imagine how much money would be spent on Christmas. Although it makes sense that adult costumes are more expensive because they use more fabric, $20 more seems excessive. I have started to realize this year just how much money goes towards Halloween because of my job at Walgreens. At a simple convenience store, we have a full aisle of Halloween candy and another aisle of costumes, along with half an aisle of decorations.
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