HALLOWEEN SPENDING | 2005 likely to be topped

Pirate-trend holiday bodes well for booty

Retailers this year can expect sales of $4.96 billion on costumes and other plunder

This story originally appeared in the Saturday, October 14, 2006 edition of The Kansas City Star

Watch out, witches and ghouls.

Plundering pirates and prissy princesses plan to pilfer your Halloween holiday this year, thanks in a large part to the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie franchise.

But more Americans also are celebrating the holiday this year and will spend an estimated $4.96 billion on candy, costumes, decorations, tickets to haunted houses and other booty, according to the National Retail Federation in Washington, D.C. That would be up significantly from $3.29 billion spent in 2005.

Halloween -- which helps get retailers over the hump between the end of summer and the winter holidays -- is now the sixth-largest spending holiday of the year. It would rank even higher if it were a gift-giving or an apparel holiday.

Consumers are expected to spend an average of $59.06 this year, compared with $48.48 a year ago, partly because the holiday falls on a Tuesday. Some young adults are expected to spend several days celebrating.

The survey, conducted by BIGresearch for the federation, found that nearly 60 percent of consumers planned to buy a Halloween costume this year, up from 53.3 percent in 2005, at an average cost of $21.57.

Traditional costumes never seem to go out of style, with princess outfits the most popular costume for children for the second year in a row, followed by pop-culture icons such as Spider-Man, Superman, and Power Rangers. Top costumes for adults will be witches, pirates and vampires.

"This year pirate costumes are popular among consumers of all ages, due largely to the widespread success of the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ franchise," said Phil Rist, vice president of strategy for BIGresearch. "Knowing the competitive spirit that exists among young adults when it comes to sporting the best Halloween costume, many retailers have altered their merchandise assortment to appeal to this enthusiastic consumer base."

Skull and crossbones imagery, already trendy among fashionable women and girls, also has helped fuel the pirate trend. Customers of A to Z Theatrical in Waldo in early October had already put reservations in for pirate costumes, but other hot outfits include those for couples -- George and Martha Washington, Pocahontas and Captain John Smith, Bonnie and Clyde, and Attila the Hun and Xena: Warrior Princess.

"Certainly, the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest" has had quite an impact on the growing pirate trend, which embodies skulls and Goth influences," said Doug Braunstein, vice president creative, trend and design for Disney Store.

"It seems to have brought a respectability and mainstream stamp of approval to a genre which has traditionally been more taboo with general audiences."

Pirate costumes have been popular party attire all year for Have Guns ... Will Rent in Kansas City, Kan., but Halloween tends to conjure up more creepy or offbeat outfits. One regular customer dresses as a priest, requesting confessions from other partygoers, especially attractive women, and drawing sneers from those dressed as devils. A simpler costume is a magnet headband with little chicks attached (a chick magnet). Cowboys, medieval outfits, gangsters, roosters, bottles of hot sauce, and hot dogs also are among the selections.

More manufacturers also are carrying plus sizes, said Jerry Vest, co-owner of Have Guns ... Will Rent, but the once-popular pimp and hooker costumes seem to have fallen out of favor.

Waldo’s Dottie Mae’s Costumes & Collectible Clothing has two floors stocked with everything from Elvis suits to sexy school uniforms.

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