Happy Halloween Pop-up stores doing big last-minute business

Seems as though last-minute costume shoppers have flooded Halloween pop-up stores Friday, as attempts by NJBIZ to contact numerous shops were met with busy signals and full voicemails.But since over a month ago, Spencer’s — based in Little Egg Harbor Township — has had more than 40 Spirit Halloween stores open in New Jersey, with more than 1,000 open nationwide.

The company had good reason to start early: While the company doesn’t reveal how significant a stake the pop-up stores have in its estimated $250 million annual revenue, Forbes.com recently estimated the take to be nearly half.

In fact, according to the National Retail Federation, overall Halloween spending has increased by more than $1 billion each year nationwide since 2009.

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But for the first time in five years, Halloween spending fell by $1 billion last year — a trend that the NRF expects to reverse this Halloween by $400 million with the holiday landing on a Friday. 

The NRF Halloween Consumer Spending Survey also found that more than 67 percent of celebrants will buy Halloween costumes for this year’s holiday, the most in the survey’s 11-year history — and that each average consumer will spend more than $77 on costumes, pets, candy, decorations, pumpkins and greeting cards.

Social media has also heavily influenced consumers’ choices in costumes — more than 11 percent of Americans will turn to Pinterest this year for costume ideas, up more than 9 percent from last year.