SASKATOON – People in Saskatchewan and Manitoba love Halloween. According to Retailmenot.ca, consumers in the two provinces spend an average of $169.70 on the occasion. That includes an average of $52.83 on costumes, $81.45 on decorations, and $39.50 on candy.
Dawn Raisce, the owner/operator of Halloween Alley in Saskatoon, says she’s seen an increase in the past five years on the amount people are willing to spend on Halloween.
“We’ve had props and decor in here that are well over a thousand dollars,” Raisce said. She adds that items including costumes can go for a little as a few dollars, and that it’s possible to do Halloween on the cheap. Still, there are items that push the envelope of Halloween spending.
“The most expensive thing? We’ve had some custom made props that retailed close to the $4000 mark,” Raisce said. They were witches – very expensive witches.
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Across Canada, people spent as much as $1 billion on Halloween in 2014, according to the Retail Council of Canada. That’s second only to Christmas spending, and it’s more than what Americans spend on Halloween on a per capita basis.
Marketing professor David Williams says the holiday has turned into a consumerist paradise.
So why are we willing to spend so much on something that’s supposed to scare us? The answer may lie in something much deeper than simple consumer behaviour.
History professor Frank Klaassen has been studying the occult for years. He says our desire to take part in Halloween, even at a cost, could be a symptom of human nature.
“People like to be scared, in safe ways, but they also like to scare people,” Klaassen said. “My guess is that one of these days, we’re going to see a study from some scientist saying this is just part of healthy brain chemistry, for at least some portion of the population, they need to be scared.”
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