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Halloween items already appearing on retailers' shelves
Web exclusive: Halloween items already appearing on retailers' shelves
08/27/2008, 7:40 am
By Kristin Szremski
Business editor
kszremski@daily-journal.com
815-937-3388
Kids have been in school for merely a week and temperatures are holding steady in the upper 80s, but that hasn't stopped some local retailers from decking the aisles with paraphernalia more appropriate for fall and winter holidays than the waning days of summer.
At Walgreens on Kennedy Drive in Kankakee, boxes of Halloween candy are piled high on shelves above the leftover stock of back-to-school supplies. The orange candy boxes decorated with spiders lurking in webs sit directly opposite colorful cases of Christmas lights, strands of icicles and grid lights, and extension cords.
Walgreens, Kmart and Blaine's Farm and Fleet are among area stores already selling items for holidays that are still months away.
Kathy Grannis, spokesperson for the National Retailers Association, which tracks retail sales, was surprised to hear of the early merchandising. The association won't even have its Halloween sales projections in hand until Sept. 30, she said.
"It's the first of our hearing about it," she said Monday when asked about a possible trend in early sales. "We haven't heard of any retailers" putting out Halloween supplies yet, she added.
Grannis pointed to the economy as a possible reason.
"When retailers started planning for back-to-school and back-to-college, they were more than likely conservative in their inventory levels," she said. "If those things sold out -- you can't have empty shelves staying there."
Since Halloween is the next big event in the retailers' calendar, it just makes sense that store managers would start filling empty shelves with trick-or-treating must-haves, she said.
"The seasons really share the same section of the store," Grannis said. When one season sells out, it's time to stock up on the next one.
That's true for Kankakee's Walgreens, said store manager Jeff Thompson. Locally, back-to-school sales peak by the first bell of the new academic year, he said. By that time, not only have parents purchased what their kids need, distributors are beginning to fill up the back room with shipments of candy, costumes, cornucopias and Christmas tree ornaments.
"In order for distributors to get into stores they have to start shipping it earlier," he said. "If you could just see my back room," he said.
At Kmart, shoppers can find purple, pink or orange pumpkin buckets and costumes to fulfill any kid's fantasy -- just around the corner from the lunch boxes and across the aisle from the backpacks. And in the corner of the store where just a few days ago wading pools, birdbaths and patio furniture were displayed now hang glittering garland, wreaths and Christmas tree skirts.
Yuletide wasn't on display at Farm and Fleet but Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations were plentiful on Monday.
Does all this early marketing worry the owners of two shops specializing in high-end Halloween garb? Hardly.
Vana LaCoste, owner of Vana's on Illinois Route 17; and Perry Mason, owner of Mason's Novelties on Schuyler Avenue in Kankakee, both say they have nothing to fear -- although LaCoste does worry about parents who buy little Johnnie's costume in August. With 60 days to go before Fright Night, there's ample time for a major mind change, she said.
"One day they want to be one thing, and another day they want to be something else," said LaCoste, who describes her business as a "sewing and costume" store. LaCoste takes orders throughout the year, sewing custom costumes and other attire. Vana's is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week during October.
She's not daunted by the recession, either.
"Tradition is tradition," she said. "They're not going to cross Christmas off the calendar because the economy changed and they're not going to cross off Halloween either."
Mason also caters to a specialty clientele that includes theater people, he said. He sells costumes as well as theatrical makeup, props, gags and jokes all year round.
Like Vana's, he doesn't sell the mass produced Tinkerbell or Spiderman outfits found at department stores. "I stay away from that stuff," he said, preferring instead anything that depicts blood, guts and gore with prices ranging from $50 to several hundred dollars.
"I have gruesome stuff ... torsos, bloody stuff," he said. He also sells colored contacts, horrific masks and "scary puppets."
"A lot of my customers have been ordering already," he added.
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