Following last weekend’s celebrations, Partyworldwide.net caught up with some indie retailers, who reported that Halloween was a resounding success this year, with products selling out and stores busier than ever.
The party industry had high hopes for Halloween this year, after socially distanced celebrations last year, and with the occasion falling on a weekend in 2021. And it seems that UK consumers didn’t disappoint, as some retailers have reported their busiest ever Halloween.
Mike Blake, Trimbles Fancy Dress Costume Shop, said: “I can say that Halloween went really well this year and was one of our best ever and we have been in business for over 22 years. It was unfortunate that as the past years had been so bad we did not gamble as much as we might have done and consequently sold out of a number of items well before closing time on Saturday due to slightly more conservative ordering.
“I think it was noticeable that there were far more parties this year due to the fact that for over a year we had been in lockdown amongst the full range of age groups.”
Karen Entwistle, owner of Stafford Fancy Dress & Party, told partyworldwide.net: “Halloween was amazing this year for us. We had a fair bit of stock from the previous year and as we are closing down we had a pretty good sale on. I included all of our ex-hire costumes and even if we didn’t have the outfit people wanted, they were very accepting and were prepared to adapt.
“People were definitely up for celebrating this year, we were very busy from Monday to Saturday”
Jean at Wizard Fancy Dress said: “Halloween was spread over two weeks for us, our only problem was getting hold of new stock as most of our suppliers ran out very quickly. Halloween Saturday was our busiest and we had to restrict people coming into the shop but people were willing to queue outside.”
Many attributed the extra sales to stock selling out early in grocers and multiples, leaving the indies open to extra sales.
Sarah Hewlett, co-owner, Stratford Fancy Dress, Balloon and Party Shop, explained: “Halloween was great. I think the supermarkets underestimated because they sold out really quickly, and people couldn’t get their Amazon deliveries. We are always last minute, people always come to us after they’ve been to the supermarkets, so I think that’s why we had a good one. I think people were going for it this year, after being locked down last year, so there was more demand.”
Alisa Jones, Cwmbran Fancydress, agreed: “Halloween was very busy, busier than normal. I think the supermarkets didn’t have anything in. Obviously we were shut last year and people missed out. Halloween is usually busy for us anyway, but it was definitely more busy than usual, we had a real mixture of product being sold.”
Trends for 2021 were mixed, with some saying that customers were returning to classic costumes and themes, while others saw some key characters coming through. Karen continued: “Popular was police and angels themes. Harley Quinn again and the usual characters. Michael Myers was asked for many times, but unfortunately we were not able to get any in,”
Mike added: “The key trends were fairies and angels among the twenty something girls and if we had doubled the amount of wings that we had, we would still have sold out.”
Jean furthered: “The most popular requests were for angel wings and halos in black and white and police items as well as blood, make-up, masks and capes.”
Overall, the industry’s efforts paid off and were rewarded with a great celebration.
