Kansas City and US ready ‘to go out and have fun’ for Halloween. Record sales expected

The COVID-19 pandemic put a damper on Halloween celebrations the past two years. This year, according to one national survey, the season should see record spending.

In Kansas City, Kansas, Have Guns Will Rent Costumes and Props is counting on it.

“With the pandemic, people are saying the heck with it and want to go out and have fun,” said Jerry Vest, who founded the shop as a home-based business with his wife, Linda, in the 1980s. Now its showroom is stocked with costumes of every variety.

Last Halloween, his shop saw a spike on vampire costumes. This year’s trendy costume? Regency-era ballgowns. Thank Netflix’s hugely popular “Bridgerton” series for that inspiration.

Nationally, sales are expected to reach $10.6 billion compared to $10.1 billion in 2021, according to the National Retail Federation’s annual survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics. On average, consumers plan to spend $100 on Halloween candy, decor, cards and costumes.

Costumes for children and adults will account for about $2.9 billion of the total spending, the highest amount since 2017. Spider-Man will be the most popular children’s costume, followed by princess, witch and ghost. Batman and other superheroes are tied for fifth most popular costume.

For adults nationally, witch and vampire are expected to be top choices, followed by ghost, pirate, cat and Batman.

Sales of pet costumes will reach a record $710 million with the always popular pumpkin, hot dog, bat, bumblebee and witch as top selections.

There is expected to be a slight drop in spending on greeting cards.

Young adults, ages 18 to 24, are amping up their Halloween celebrations more than any other group. The pandemic had them cutting back on parties, bar crawls and haunted houses. This year their costume spending will be the highest in five years and they plan more activities than any other age group.

“Social media is playing an increasingly important role in consumer behavior, and Halloween is no different,” Prosper Insights executive vice president of strategy Phil Rist said in a statement. “Younger consumers, particularly those under the age of 25, will look to platforms like Instagram and TikTok for costume inspiration this year.”

Nearly half of the survey participants (8,283 consumers) began shopping in September or earlier, and 40% plan to shop at discount stores, 36% at specialty stores and 31% online.

Spirit Halloween, one of the nation’s largest Halloween retailers, has opened a record number of seasonal stores this year — more than 1,450 locations including several in the metro.

It claims to be the go-to destination for costumes with a “Hocus Pocus” movie theme, as well as other movie favorites including “Beetlejuice,” “Wizard of Oz,” “It” and “The Addams Family.”

At Kansas City Costume Co. on Raytown Road, flappers and gangsters have been perennial favorites. But this year there’s also been a rush on “Bridgerton”-style ballgowns.

Pirate costumes are among the top choices at Have Guns Will Rent Costumes and Props.

“Very popular, always are. A few witches, ‘The Wizard of Oz’ Dorothys, a few superheros. Steampunk. A lot of ballgowns, we have hundreds in the basement,” Vest said.

He has both sold and rented Santa Claus costumes this fall — a couple as costumes for Christmas but a couple for Halloween.

“But it is frustrating because they are up in the attic, but a buck is a buck,” he said. “People will come in and look for something and spend an hour-and-a-half and walk out with something totally different.”

This story was originally published October 27, 2022 at 5:30 AM.