Frightfully profitable

If you think the parking lot at NorthTown Mall is jammed the week before Christmas, try finding a space at Value Village three days before Halloween.

On Saturday, the Spokane thrift shop was jammed as generations of trick-or-treaters and partiers combed through rubber masks and blue leisure suits.

The Halloween season is so big for Savers/Value Village Thrift Stores, a 200-store North American chain, that each location has costume coordinators who create displays and direct shoppers to the hottest new looks.

“The nice thing is even if we run out of the standard on-the-shelf costumes, you still have tons of alternative utilizations of all the other merchandise,” said Chris Rasmussen, manager of the Value Village on Boone Avenue.

Halloween is the store’s biggest retail season. Sales of new costumes and goods are expected to reach $90,000, Rasmussen said, adding, “We’re about 80 percent there.”

Sales averaged about $3,000 an hour on Friday afternoon, he said, requiring six to seven checkstands to be open at all times.

Halloween has turned into ghostly good money for retailers selling themed-costumes, candy, party goods and decorations.

A National Retail Federation survey recently conducted by BIGresearch estimated that consumers will spend $4.96 billion on Halloween goods this year, up from $3.29 billion in 2005.

BIGresearch surveyed 8,001 consumers about their anticipated Halloween spending and found that 63 percent planned to celebrate Halloween this year, as compared with 52.5 percent last year.

Pat Klug, manager of the 50% Off Card Shop in Coeur d’Alene, agrees that Halloween is becoming a big retail holiday.

“Halloween has grown so much that I’m surprised,” she said, adding that the biggest growth has come from the sales of costumes for adults.

“A lot of the grim reapers are selling and a lot of the eerie-looking stuff,” Klug said.

When it comes to spending, BIGresearch said average customers planned to fork out $59.06 on Halloween, including $21.57 to dress the part.

At Value Village, 23-year-old Hillary Lee, of south Spokane, snatched up a pirate eye-patch while her friend Josh Waadevig, 23, looked for something to round out his redneck look.

Lee figured she’d spend about $15 total, including a hook hand from Wal-Mart. “Usually we go to the bar, but this year we’re going to a party,” Lee said.

A few miles away at Goodwill Industries on Third Avenue, Breanna Summers, 20, found a wraparound skirt for $2.99. She planned to cut a scarf from the fabric to pair with things she already had to complete a ‘60s look.

Her mom, Meri Hawley, 47, picked up the tab for her daughter, who’s on a budget while she works part time at Spokane Youth Sports Association’s bingo hall and attends Apollo College.

Cheryl Rhodes, assistant manager at Goodwill Industries, said the Halloween decorations went in a day and costumes were running low.

“We’re getting a lot of the college kids coming in and making outfits out of different kinds of stuff,” Rhodes said.

“I think most people are going with ghoulish things like Frankenstein and Frankenstein’s wife.”

At Phony Express Telegrams & Costumes in Post Falls, customers rented less traditional costumes, such as Renaissance-themed dress, Southern belles, flappers and gangsters, store owner Robin Clarke said on Friday.

The North Idaho business, which also sells telegrams, generates 70 percent of its income this season, Clarke said. Business is done by appointment most of the year, but the store is open daily during the month of October.

In Spokane, the family-owned Party Palace was jammed as people purchased everything from Viking helmets to punch bowls with glass skeletal arms as ladles.

Michelle Duncan, an owner, said this is the store’s biggest time for decoration sales. Sexy costumes, licensed by Playboy, were a hit – particularly a Hugh Hefner smoking jacket, she said, adding, “Sex sells, I guess.”

As an independent retailer, Duncan said the store offers a wide variety of products, including party ware, decorations and costumes to compete with seasonal Halloween stores that come in for a month or two and then close.

Starting Wednesday, the store will embark on another retail season, Duncan said.

“Our goal is to have Christmas, Thanksgiving and New Year’s up by the fourth of November.”