IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
The Halloween shopping season is starting to heat up, and so far Disney products are in the lead, at least at one Inland Empire store.
“We’re starting to sell more Halloween stuff, and so far Disney is the most popular, although it’s still early,” said Jason Murphy, manager of Party City at Citrus Plaza in Redlands.
Murphy, whose store sells Halloween merchandise all year round, said Halloween sales are just now starting to pick up and that he expects to have a good year in that category, though perhaps not a spectacular one.’
“We expect our [Halloween] sales to keep going up until [Oct. 31] arrives,” Murphy said. “We seem go up a little bit every year in our Halloween sales.”
The National Retail Federation in Washington, D.C. is predicting a solid Halloween for U.S. retailers.
More than 157 million Americans are expected to celebrate Halloween this year and spend an average of $74.34 to do so,
according to the federation.
That would be down a little more than $3 per person from last year, but total Halloween spending is still expected to reach nearly $7 billion in 2015, the federation predicted.
The federation also predicted a run on Star Wars costumes and other Star Wars merchandise leading up to Oct. 31, but Murphy said he hasn’t seen that yet.
“Maybe that will happen when the movie comes out,” in December, he said.
