October is a frighteningly good month for Denver's longtime costume seller The Wizard's Chest.
It's the busiest month of the year for the store on South Broadway and brings in about a quarter of the year's sales, co-owner Kevin Pohle said Friday.
Halloween brings in big business nationwide. This year, holiday sales are expected to reach an all-time high at $8.4 billion, according to the National Retail Federation.
The global retail trade association anticipates $3.1 billion will be spent on costumes alone. That estimate includes all the people who will be dressing their dogs and cats as pumpkins, hot dogs and bumble bees.
Pohle said there isn't really a huge movie that's driving costumes sales this year, so customers are sticking with the basics.
"The most popular costumes for adults so far this year have been animal costumes and steampunk costumes," Pohle said. "The most popular costumes for children so far have been Star Wars costumes."
At the national level, a princess costume is the second most popular outfit for kids. After an 11-year reign at the top, crowns have been replaced with capes and other superhero and action costumes, according to the NRF.
The federation says millennials are going as Batman characters, witches and animals this year. The 35 and older crowd is a little more sophisticated, going with witch, pirate and political costumes.
Trump and Clinton masks are also on the top 10 costumes list for Spirit Halloween along with anti-heroes and Pokémon costumes.
Spirit Halloween is one of the largest costume retailers in the country with more than 1,200 locations across North America including 25 in Colorado.
The stores are only open 6-8 weeks out of the year, spokeswoman Trisha Lombardo said. She declined to provide sales figures on how much the stores bring in.
According to NRF Halloween Spending Survey, consumers plan to spend $3.1 billion on costumes (purchased by 67 percent of Halloween shoppers), $2.5 billion on candy (94.3 percent), $2.4 billion on decorations (70 percent) and $390 million on greeting cards (35.4 percent).
Business & data reporter Adrian D. Garcia can be reached via email at [email protected] or twitter.com/adriandgarcia.
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