WVU expert explains why Halloween candy, costumes hit shelves so early

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WBOY) — As Halloween products like décor, costumes and candy begin appearing in major retail stores, you might have thought to yourself, “isn’t it a little early?”

John Saldanha, Sears Chair in Global Supply Chain Management and director of the Wehrle Global Supply Chain Lab at the WVU John Chambers College of Business and Economics, talked to WVU Today about factors such as strategies and predictions these national stores follow and make.

“Retailers start ordering holiday items in November or even October of the previous year. They start shipping those items January through March, and they start getting them June through August,” Saldanha explained. “Those items traditionally would have sat in warehouses, but by moving them onto shelves much sooner than they used to, retailers are transferring their inventory-carrying costs to the consumer.

“For example, when I see a 12-foot skeleton at Home Depot, I want it. I’m not sure whether it may be sold out by the time Halloween comes around, so I buy it now and store it in my basement or storage unit…A thousand 12-foot skeletons might cost a retailer $20,000 to warehouse for another three months, so if they take a portion of that margin and give it to the consumer, they still come out ahead.”

Saldanha also touched on the popular trend of ‘Summerween’ which simply means combining Halloween and summer activities.

“The new holiday of ‘Summerween’ is another mechanism for selling holiday merchandise rather than warehousing it,” Saldanha said.

“July and August are traditionally a lull for retail, so company marketing and logistics teams see an opportunity to stretch out the holiday shopping season. They’re looking at the inventories they have on their books, saying, ‘Hey, we can jump on this Summerween trend and put out the Halloween stuff we have sitting in our warehouse. Maybe we can take a chance and throw a couple of reindeer and Santa Clauses out there as well.’”

The COVID-19 pandemic may have also played a role in Halloween products going out early.

“The most recent extension of the holiday retail calendar has its roots in the COVID-19 pandemic, when consumer spending driven by stimulus checks drove a surge in exports from Southeast Asia, flooding ports from 2022 into 2023 and driving unprecedented shipping delays,” Saldanha explained.

“When ports cleared the logjam, retailers received a huge backlog of product and, nervous about tepid consumer spending, started promoting Christmas sales early in October. Well, 2023 turned out to be a stellar year for holiday retail. In 2024, we had the threat of a port strike, so once again retailers ordered stuff early. Now they knew how to manage that, and they were able to juggle back-to-school and Halloween and the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons and emerge relatively unscathed.”

This year’s Halloween holiday will fall on Friday, Oct. 31.