Ghastly spectacle unfolding
By EILEEN SMITH
Courier-Post Staff
CHERRY HILL
More than a month before the holiday, business is booming at Halloween Express, where would-be pirates and werewolves are suiting up.
"The grownups are as excited as the little kids," said Carol Kennelly, the store manager. "They are going all-out decorating the house."
That should elicit shrieks of delight from retailers. Consumers are expected to scare up an estimated $4.96 billion on holiday purchases, according to the National Retail Federation, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group. That's a monstrous 50.8 percent increase over the $3.29 billion rung up in 2005.
Halloween is the second-biggest decorating holiday after Christmas, the NRF said, with 67 percent of consumers saying they will add to their collection of grisly props.
At Halloween Express, the eyes of a life-size Dr. Shivers lit up as he displayed his latest experiment. The price tag: $199.99. Cannibal "brains," priced at $9.99, are packaged in the meat market beside severed limbs.
"Put batteries in and they jiggle," Kennelly said. "Totally disgusting."
Another seller is a $199.99 hanging skeleton with glowing eyes, said Philip Guida, the store owner.
"It collapses into a 2-foot box, great for storage," he said.
Kmart is selling 8-foot inflatable globes, complete with the Grim Reaper and whirling ghosts. Costco is focusing on candy and children's costumes, the company said.
The NRF said princess costumes are most popular with the wee ones, followed by pirates and witches.
But adult regalia claims a significant part of the market, with 34 percent of grownups donning costumes. In the 18-24 age group, 63 percent said they will dress up.
Overall, the NRF projects sales of 6.1 million adult witch costumes and 1.3 million pirate outfits, inspired by the hit Pirates of the Caribbean; an estimated 290,126 shoppers will buy French maid's uniforms.
Marisa Torres of Camden and Lisa DeFord of Mount Ephraim shopped for costumes last week that they will wear to their jobs at the Department of Motor Vehicles in Mount Ephraim.
"I'm leaning toward Cleopatra," DeFord said. "I like the girlie costumes better than the gory ones."
Torres said she briefly considered making a costume but decided to buy.
"It all comes down to time," she said.
Among her options is an $89.99 pirate wench ensemble with a lacy top and striped kerchief. A cutlass is an additional $4.99.
Trick or treaters can choose a $350 werewolf costume, with fanged head and furry, clawed hands and feet.
"It's an easy sell to die-hard Halloweeners," Guida said. "It makes a 6-foot man look 8 feet tall, the guy who's sure to win the costume contest."
At Halloween Adventure in Cherry Hill, $19.99 lab coats are neatly labeled "psycho ward" and "proctologist." A packet of five latex bullet wounds costs $8.99.
"Just like the ones they use in Hollywood," said manager Josh Gross.
There are $49.99 flapper dresses for gangsters' molls and $11.99 bars of steel that can be bent by a pint-size Superman. A pirate hat with dreadlocks attached sells for $14.99.
Gross said his personal favorite is a parrot with a perch that clamps on a pirate's shoulder.
"We had one guy who bought a complete pirate outfit, except the bird," he said. "He has a real parrot at home."
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