The light on the skeleton he had just bought along with other Halloween decorations didn't work, but that was fine with Jesse Bland.
He and his daughter, Bethany, paid just $3 for it at Party City at Thruway shopping center. The decoration had originally sold for $29.99.
"All we want to do is hang it up," Bland said, yesterday, as he walked out of the store with his daughter and her son William, 5.
Like a lot of folks, the Bland family waited until the last minute to finish their Halloween shopping, slamming local retailers on the day of the celebration.
"We're looking for stuff on sale," Bethany Bland said.
She said she was buying more Halloween items this year because it's her son's favorite celebration.
Yesterday's rush marked the end of a good season for stores selling Halloween goods, several retailers said.
Mark McKelvy, Party City's general manager, said he was pleased with his store's overall Halloween business and believes that customer traffic was better than it was last year.
Halloween's falling on a Saturday this year was a big boost for retailers who have operated in a tough environment all year because of the state of the economy, several store operators said.
"A lot of people have parties on Friday and Saturday," McKelvy said. "So with it falling on Saturday, I think that just lets a lot of people participate who maybe otherwise wouldn't be able to participate if it fell on a weekday."
Randy Durso agreed. He owns Spirit Halloween stores at Hanes Point shopping center on Hanes Mall Boulevard and Oak Summit Place shopping center on Hanes Mill Road.
He said that because most people don't work on Saturday, they have all day to get ready for Halloween.
"People like to party on the day of the holiday," Durso said.
Durso said that his store on Hanes Mall Boulevard started out doing better business than the one on Hanes Mill Road, but sales picked up last weekend, and people have packed into both stores since then.
Several retailers said they expect their 2008 Halloween sales to be about the same as last year.
Big sellers this year include costumes featuring characters from such movies as Transformers, Halloween and Twilight; risqué costumes for teen-age girls and women, and house decorations featuring baby zombies.
The appeal of Michael Jackson costumes and accessories was mixed, store operators said. Many retailers had expected the costumes to do well in combination with the release of This is it, a movie featuring rehearsals of Jackson's planned comeback tour, before he died in June.
Durso said that people asked for Michael Jackson costume kits in September but had no interest in them in October. Now, such items as gloves, Thriller jackets, hair and glasses have been flying off his shelves.
According to a study by the National Retail Federation, consumers were expected to spend an average of $56.31 on Halloween this year, down from $66.54 last year. Total spending on Halloween was expected to reach $4.75 billion. About 30 percent of people said that the state of the economy would affect their Halloween spending plans.
However, Durso and other retailers said that the interest in Halloween items hasn't waned. "I think they're spending a little less per person, but they're still doing it," Durso said.
fdaniel@wsjournal.com
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