Consumer reports say Halloween 2008 spending will be a blow-out

WASHINGTON Information released from BIGresearch’s National Retail Federation consumer actions for Halloween survey showed that more shoppers plan to celebrate the holiday this year—about a 6 percent rise in survey participants than last year.

The survey reported that the average Halloween shopper plans to spend $66.54 preparing for the holiday. That figure is up from $64.82 in 2007. Furthermore, celebrants plan to spend about $24.17 per participant on costumes, $20.39 each for candy, $18.25 on average for decorations and around $3.73 each on greeting cards. The survey also found that young adults ages 18 to 24 years-old said that will spend about $86.59 on Halloween—more than any other age group.

The National Retail Federation’s Halloween Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey estimated the total to be spent on the holiday in 2008 at $5.77 billion.