Halloween will not just be (another) scary day of mask-wearing if the creative retailers, candy companies, decorating devotees, costume queens and pumpkin-obsessed have their way. Yes, it will feel different this year — like every other day on the calendar — but it will still look like Halloween, and the holiday will continue to pack a retail punch.
Consumer spending for Halloween is expected to reach $8.05 billion, down slightly from $8.78 billion in 2019, due to the drop in overall participation, according to National Retail Federation’s annual 2020 Halloween Spending Survey, conducted in early September by Prosper Insights & Analytics. Those in the spirit, however, are spending more this year: $92.12 on average compared with $86.27 in 2019.
Around 95 percent of those responding to NRF said they will buy candy, spending $2.6 billion. Almost 72 percent will purchase Halloween decor, spending $2.7 billion — and that, of course, is an area where retail florists can shine.
This week, we reached out to experienced retailers to find out more about how they are adapting Halloween plans to get more treats and less tricks out of the holiday.
Ghoulish Game Plan: Say “boo” in a big way.
“We’re coming into Halloween like we’ve been approaching everything this year: We’re gonna keep going, reinvent and figure it out,” said Carma Bertran White of the staff mentality at Four Seasons Flowers, the shop she owns in San Diego. “We’re trying to make it fun and special, because everyone is so sick of being at home.”
One glance into Four Season’s main window and you’ll see how serious they are about those efforts.
Ghosts of Halloween Past: Four Seasons Flowers is offering a gothic take on a Halloween arrangement, both for sale, and for recreating in a virtual design class planned to get San Diego residents in the spirit.
White filled the front window with ghosts hovering above a hutch adorned with bewitching home decor, Witch in Charge aprons, Día de Muertos figurines, spine-chilling snow globes, Boo Crew mugs and other porch ware of the “Beware” and “Candy This Way” variety. Her 1,200 square-foot shop sits in strip mall, across from a Starbucks — a prime location to catch the attention of passersby, even during a pandemic.
“We always decorate — always,” she said. “I want people to see something cool, then walk in and be like ‘Oh, this is a flower shop!,’ and now we’re the ones they think of for flowers. It might have been that weird display in the window, but we’ve been here 36 years and you do what you gotta do to get people to notice you’re right in their neighborhood.”
For trick-or-treaters whose neighborhood foraging and festivities will be limited due to local restrictions, Four Season has an “All Treats, No Tricks” basket, full of orange goodies and seasonal sweets stuffed in a pumpkin-shaped container, similar to their popular $49.99 Binge Basket. Four Seasons always kicks off the fall and winter holiday season with classes for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas, and the pandemic has just moved those to Instagram. The Saturday before holiday, she’ll host a Victorian bouquet (read: Gothic chic) design class at 11 a.m., using the white pumpkin container from Teleflora (which will be re-purposed for the Thanksgiving centerpiece design class.)
“You just have to get out there and show you’re not backing down and still coming up with ways to celebrate with flowers,” White said.
Ghoulish Game Plan: Market to those missed connections.
Treat-bestowing grandparents are the target market at Hall’s Flower Shop in Stone Mountain, Georgia, where Betsy Hall plans to tweak the Halloween-themed candy baskets and fresh flower arrangements in store and online to give the grands a way to share in the holiday from a distance.
“We think it might be a year where grandparents treat their grand-kids to a gift that they’ll need delivered, so we’ll be offering candy and a cute plush toy along with Halloween-theme balloons,” she said, echoing a love of those rising balloon sales from florists across the country for customers of all ages. (White, at Four Seasons, said the shop’s expanded balloon selection has been a popular way to lift moods of isolated nursing-home residents).
Ghoulish Game Plan: Bring the party to you, safely.
At Lake Forest Flowers in Lake Forest, Illinois, the festivities are kicking off with two in-person design classes, limited in capacity to eight participants to ensure social distancing.
It’s Fall Ya’ll: At Billy Heroman’s in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the heralding of sweater weather, pumpkin spice latte season and all things cozy drives a boost in sales for all things autumn.
On Oct. 29, owner and Society of American Florists Next Gen Task force Member Eileen Weber, AAF, is treating adults to an evening of Sips and Succulents, featuring some spirits to drink and uncarved pumpkins and succulents to fashion into a long-lasting centerpiece. The cost is $95. The under-14 crowd gets an alternative to spending their Saturday afternoons on the soccer field with a workshop just for them Oct. 17. For just $40, they can try their hands at creating a seasonal arrangement with fresh flowers and autumn accents. All participants are required to bring their own clippers or scissors or purchase them at the shop.
Ghoulish Game Plan: Get in on the PSL love.
All this pumpkin talk isn’t lost on Susie Heroman at Billy Heroman’s in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She knows that America’s collective obsession with pumpkin-flavored everything is more than enough reason to carve out significant online and in-store real estate to all things autumn. While the four-location business does carry some strictly orange-and-black, ghost-and-goblin ware, Heroman says they’ve found more success with fall-focused merchandise and autumnal hued arrangements, rich with copper vases and wood elements.
“Plenty of people can’t wait for it to start, and not just for those pumpkin-spiced lattes, but because it puts people in a better mood” she said. “Fall sells great. This year, why not decorate and make things as normal as possible?”
Amanda Long is a contributing writer for the Society of American Florists.