Halloween is fast approaching and that means spooky decorations popping up all over the place and candy bowls filling in anticipation of trick-or-treaters.
If the amount of money being spent on the holiday is any indication, B.C. should have a noticeably spookier this Oct. 31 than the past two years, according financial product comparison website Hello Safe which released a study showing B.C. residents could spend some $224 million on Halloween this year.
Across the country, that figure grows to a terrifying $1.64 billion, and is a 28.4 per cent increase from 2021 spending, according to Hello Safe’s data sourced from Statistics Canada, the Retail Council of Canada, the West Foundation, and the company’s own analysis.
The average Canadian participating in Halloween is expected to budget $87.60 for Halloween this year, up from $68.20 in 2021 and $50.10 in 2020. This year’s spending still has not quite reached pre-pandemic levels however, as the average budget was $97 in 2019 and $90.10 in 2018, which Hello Safe said likely indicates the effects of the pandemic are not fully in the past.
Costumes, candy, and pumpkins are the major budget items, collectively representing 84 per cent of Canadians’ budgets for Halloween. Costumes alone account for nearly half of the annual budget, while candy represents around a quarter, and pumpkins and other decorations take up around 12 per cent.
Candy companies should be happy this year, as Hello Safe says some $486 million worth of candy is expected to be sold in this month alone, which is $101 million more than October 2021, but still $74 million less than October 2019.
For more details on Hello Safe’s Halloween budget analysis, visit hellosafe.ca/en/blog/halloween-budget-2022.
READ MORE: ‘Huge demand’: Supply issues could haunt Halloween amid trick-or-treating rebound
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