Annual spending at Halloween increasing rapidly with millions spent on decorations, pumpkins, costumes, food and entertainment
The run-up to Halloween has been a busy time for British retailers with spending on decorations, fancy dress, food and entertainment set to reach more than £450 million in the UK.
Halloween has been big business across the Atlantic for decades but spending in the UK around the annual ‘spooky’ celebration hit £442 million in 2014 and was set to be even greater this year.
Figures collated by Voucherbox.co.uk highlighted that Britons are likely to spend around £157 million on their 2015 Halloween costumes, enough to dress 3.4 million families in Halloween outfits, and £136 million on Halloween food, sufficient to purchase 27.2 million large tubs of sweets from an average high street retailer.
A further £98 million will be spent nationwide on decorations, enough to buy 65 million pumpkins, whilst £75 million more will go on Halloween entertainment, the equivalent of 30 million children’s DVDs. The total predicted spend is set to be equivalent to £7.17 for each individual in the UK.
Last year at Halloween 50% of Britons stated they would not open the door to trick-or-treaters, but the celebration of Halloween in the UK appears to be growing each year.
Meanwhile spending on the celebrations in the U.S. for 2015 is predicted to be equivalent to $21.61 (£14.09) per American citizen, with U.S. consumers expected to spend about $6.89 billion (£4.46 billion) in total this Halloween.
The total predicted 2015 UK Halloween spend of £466 million equates to a total of £28.68 between a family of four people. Putting the spending figures in context British families spend over £800 per year at Christmas, whilst nearly half of UK parents spend up to £500 on their children’s birthdays, whereas British men usually spend around £40 on Valentine’s Day, according to various studies.
In 2014 37% of people who were buying costumes said they would purchase them from supermarkets, with a UK family looking at a total cost of £59.11 on costumes for parents and children, plus standard decorations, Halloween sweets and entertainment from a high street retailer.
Shane Forster from Voucherbox.co.uk said: “Due to a visible pattern in recent years, the increasing popularity of Halloween in the UK comes as no surprise. However, the amount of money invested in this holiday is still slightly staggering. An estimated spend equal to £7.17 for each UK citizen is a real eye opener of how much the holiday has become accepted as part of British culture. Although 50% of individuals in 2014 stated they wouldn’t open the door to trick-or-treaters, the increase in spending indicates this is likely to be a percentage that lowers year on year. It will be interesting to see how this holiday is further adopted by the British public, and how spending relating to it develops in the coming years.”
