Steve Riley plans to give trick-or-treaters a good fright with an animatronic character he bought from the Spirit Halloween store at Oviedo Mall this week.
The decoration, called Dagger Mike, is a clown that leaps up while holding two fake daggers. Riley said it cost him about $140 with discounts and it is going by his front door at his home in Oviedo.
Riley, 67, said he has been to Spirit Halloween five or six times already this year as he prepares for his favorite holiday. He has three grandsons in the area, ages 4 through 7, who also enjoy it.
“It’s probably the funnest holiday. It’s the one that has the least baggage associated with it,” Riley said. “Every year, I usually like to add a little bit to my collection.”
Spooky shoppers across the country are spending big this year, benefiting retail centers such as Oviedo Mall where Spirit Halloween has brought back from the dead a part of the vacant Sears store.
The holiday’s spending is slated to reach a record $12.2 billion this year, according to the National Retail Federation’s annual survey conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics.
That figure has been on the rise since dipping to $8 billion in 2020 amid the height of the coronavirus pandemic. It reached $10.1 billion in 2021 and $10.6 billion last year, according to the NRF. It was $8.8 billion in 2019.
The National Retail Federation says more people are celebrating and getting back to pre-pandemic fun, with a record 73% of people expected to participate in Halloween activities this year. That’s up from 69% last year and the pandemic low of 58% in 2020.
Josh Gunderson is seeing the boost in business firsthand in his role as director of marketing and specialty leasing at Oviedo Mall. He said the Spirit Halloween opened in August there.
“From the day that they opened, I can’t walk through the mall without seeing someone with a Spirit Halloween bag,” Gunderson said.
Gunderson said people are motivated to do things they might have missed out on the last few years.
“Horror, in general, sees an uptick in times of turmoil,” Gunderson said, so people look for fun escapes.
Spirit Halloween opens up seasonally across Central Florida, often in vacant big box stores. This year at Oviedo Mall the chain has moved into bigger digs after being in the former Chamberlin’s natural foods store last year, Gunderson said.
“It’s definitely the largest Spirit Halloween in my time here,” Gunderson said.
The mall and its shops are capitalizing on the business.
Wine and painting boutique Calliope Street has Halloween themes for customers to paint, Gunderson said.
In addition to trick or treating for kids on Oct. 31, the mall on Oct. 27 will host trick or treating with beer and wine samples for those older than 21. There’s also a Monster Dash 5K race on Oct. 29.
The added foot traffic is helpful for the mall at a slower time of year when kids have returned to school and before the holiday shopping season, Gunderson said. The mall has been filling in storefronts in recent years with tenants that wouldn’t have typically been found there in the past, such as Orlando Orthopaedic Center.
“It’s a way to capture an audience that might not always come to the mall,” Gunderson said of the Halloween business.
As far as what costumes people might be wearing this Halloween, the blockbuster “Barbie” movie appears to be inspiring at least some people, especially adults.
Spiderman is the top costume for children, with about 2.6 million kids expected to dress up as the hero, and witch costumes are No. 1 for adults, according to the National Retail Federation. Barbie is now the No. 7 costume for kids and No. 3 for adults.
As for what adults will be wearing, more than 5.8 million are set to put on witch costumes, nearly 2.4 million will go out as vampires, 1.8 million as Barbie, more than 1.4 million as Batman and 1.3 million as a cat, the survey revealed.
Online searches are the top source of inspiration, 37% said, while retail or costume shops account for 28% and friends and family 20%, according to the survey.
“Social media continues to grow as a source of costume inspiration for younger consumers, as more people under 25 are turning to TikTok, Pinterest and Instagram for ideas,” Phil Rist, Prosper Insights & Analytics executive vice president of strategy, said in a news release.
afuller@orlandosentinel.com
