Halloween shoppers are cutting back — and Spirit Halloween, the spooky season giant, is betting big on Christmas

• Halloween spending is forecast to drop by 5% this year, as inflation hits household spending.
• Spirit Halloween is expanding to Christmas with 10 new stores in the northeast.
• Winter holiday spending is projected to rise by 7%, per PwC.

Halloween shoppers are tightening their wallets this year, but the season’s biggest retailer is eyeing America’s next big holiday — Christmas.

As inflation squeezes budgets, spending for Halloween is expected to drop by 5%, to $11.6 billion, from 2023’s all-time high, per the National Retail Federation.

Despite the year-on-year dip this year, Halloween sales have skyrocketed over time, with total spending projected to rise 57% this year from a decade ago, per the NRF’s data.

As consumers are forecast to spend less on Halloween, spooky season retail giant Spirit Halloween is seeking to capture a slice of the much-larger Christmas market. Core retail sales in the US’s holiday period hit more than $960 billion last year, per Census Bureau data cited by the NRF.

Spirit Halloween CEO Steven Silverstein said on Wednesday that the company, which has over 1,500 Halloween locations, is opening “Spirit Christmas” stores. The company’s winter holiday extension will have 10 locations across the northeast.

“We’re going to bring to Christmas what we bring to Halloween,” Silverstein said on Cheddar.

The first store, slated to open on Friday, is near Atlantic City, and others will follow in cities like Albany and Poughkeepsie, New York, The New York Times reported Thursday.

The new stores will feature Santa photo opportunities and festive items for sale like gingerbread houses, wrapping paper, and ugly sweaters, Kym Sarkos, Spirit’s executive vice president, told The New York Times

Inflation pressures continue to linger over consumer sentiment and holiday spending this year.

The consumer price index rose 2.4% year-over-year in September — a higher-than-anticipated jump — with core inflation for essentials like food and energy climbing 3.3%, which could strain household budgets.

Erica Weisgerber, a partner at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, told Bloomberg on Sunday that 2024 has been “especially challenging for brick-and-mortar retailers.”

Some retailers have managed to carve out pockets of Halloween-catalyzed success. Home goods retailer At Home reported flat second-quarter net sales of $443 million but saw a strong early boost in Halloween spending, CFO Jerry Murray said on a September earnings call cited by Bloomberg.

While inflation looms over Americans’ Halloween budgets, winter holiday spending is expected to rise by 7% this year, per a PwC report. The company forecasts that Americans will spend, on average, $1,638 on gifts, travel, and entertainment.

Although the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index declined slightly for October, it is still about 8% higher than a year ago.

Spirit Halloween did not respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside business hours.