By Ed Avis
The ghosts have flown off, the zombies are truly dead, and the vampires are back in their coffins. Halloween 2025 is over! And based on a preliminary review of data from the NCA Halloween survey, it was a very good Halloween for most stores, but a few were left out of the fun.
Note: If you didn’t take the survey, please do! We will write a longer article based on the survey data in the upcoming edition of Costumer magazine, so your input now is still valuable. Please click here to take the survey.
So far the survey has been answered by 33 people, representing 27 retailers and 6 vendors.
Most Retailers Happy
Among the retailers, 47 percent said costume/mask sales were “Much better than 2024” and 21 percent said they were “Somewhat better.” Eleven percent said sales were even with 2024, and the unlucky rest – 21 percent – said sales were “Somewhat worse” or “Much worse.”
Sales and accessories and make-up were also encouraging. Thirty-five percent of retailers said those sales were “Much better than 2024” and 30 percent said “Somewhat better.” Twenty-five percent said those sales were flat, and the remaining 10 percent said sales in those categories were “Somewhat worse” or “Much worse.”
One of the questions in the survey was open-ended: “Overall, were you pleased with Halloween this year? Why or why not?” Here are two examples of those responses:
"Overall I was pleased with Halloween - even though it was kind of scary at first as the first three weeks of October was slower than the year before. 50% of our sales were made the last week of Halloween. We feel we would have done better if we had been able to get some of the top selling costumes at a reasonable pricepoint."
"No, people were afraid to spend money. It's the economy right now that has people put off.”
Vendors: Insufficient Data
As noted above, only six vendors responded to the survey, so the data from them is not statistically significant. Nevertheless, it’s interesting to look at: Two of them said their sales to retailers were “Much better” this year; one said “Better”; one said “Worse”; and one said “Much worse.”
Again, if you didn’t take the survey yet, please do! Click here to take the survey.
And look for many more details in the upcoming issue of Costumer magazine, which will be delivered in late November. If you don’t get Costumer, please click here for information about joining the NCA.