SANTA MONICA, Calif., Oct. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Halloween brings out ghouls, goblins and lots of shoppers. In analyzing 1997-98 October sales results, Macerich Company (NYSE: MAC) identified Halloween as a key merchandising period. A national survey conducted by the Santa Monica, CA-based company validates the projection: 86 percent of those surveyed will actually celebrate Halloween this year and 93 percent of those will shop for Halloween products.
Macerich's latest seasonal shopping survey, "Boo-ology: A Ghoulish Study on the Tricks and Treats of the American Halloween Shopper," looked at trends in Halloween shopping and traditions. Of the over 4,000 shoppers surveyed, 85 percent plan on trick-or-treating this year and 47 percent believe you are never too old to join in on the Halloween tradition. Eight-six percent of Halloween participants will either carve or decorate a pumpkin this year.
"When we started conducting shopping surveys in our malls for the 1998 holiday season, we wanted to position ourselves as the 'shopping authority' in reference to what people are looking for and care about in retail," said Susan Valentine, senior vice president and director of marketing for the Macerich Company. "Halloween has become more than just a children's tradition. It is a serious shopping time of year."
While Halloween is not an official national holiday in America, it has become a strong tradition that significantly impacts the retail industry. Shoppers will do the bulk of their Halloween shopping in early to mid October (51%) and 46 percent will do their shopping at the mall. Americans will be shopping for costumes, candy, decorations, entertainment and greeting cards, and 86 percent surveyed will decorate their house in either Halloween or fall decor.
Dressing up continues to be popular for children of all ages. Sixty-four percent of those surveyed will buy a Halloween costume this year, and almost half (44.3%) will be buying a pre-packaged costume. Kids are still crazy for Pokemon with 46.1% electing to put on Pokemon. Adults would rather be a groovy British spy than Bill Clinton, with 37.8% preferring the Austin Powers costume over political figures (8.8%).
While donning new identities, most trick-or-treaters will stay in their own neighborhoods (38.4%) and will hope for candy bars (54.7%), by far the favorite trick-or-treat candy. Only 7.5 percent will wish for the traditional candy corn as a treat. Hard candy (9.4%), gummies (9%) and bubble gum (7.3%) are also popular with trick-or-treaters.
Seventy-eight percent of adults and 66 percent of children pay attention to safety. While safety is a factor when trick-or-treating, the "scare" factor is ultimately important to shoppers when watching movies. The Blair Witch Project may have scored high at the box office as the "scariest movie ever," but shoppers prefer Scream (18%) and The Exorcist (16.7%) as their favorite Halloween movies.
Adults over 25 preferred classic horror movies such as Hitchcock classics (24.4%) to new horror flicks. Meanwhile, kids prefer cartoons, with Nightmare Before Christmas (35.5%), It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (24.4%) and Winnie the Pooh Halloween Specials (23.8%) leading the list of favorites.
Random samples of shoppers completed the Boo-ology survey in mid-September by answering questions on the Max Trak system of hand held units, an electronic data gathering and analysis tool developed by Atlanta-based Morris & Fellows.
The Macerich Company, which owns over 50 malls across the continental United States, is one of the nation's largest owner/operators of regional malls. Founded in 1965, Macerich is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "MAC". For more information on Macerich, visit the Macerich web site at www.macerich.com.
SOURCE Macerich Company