Eeek! Only one product is safe as consumers slash their budgets for Halloween

from the Chicago Tribune:



Halloween spending down for the first time since 2003
Eeek! Only one product is safe as consumers slash their budgets for Halloween

By Julie Wernau
Tribune reporter

October 24, 2009


Katie's friend writhes on the ground and yells, "Don't go up there! You'll die!" Then 12-year-old Katie Teston ghoulishly beckons the trick-or-treaters closer while Katie's mother points a skeletal hand at her creepy-masked husband and his bowl of candy.

"Then one of us gives a code word when trick-or-treaters come by, and they (neighborhood kids) pop out of the graves and scare them," says Kathy Eddy, Katie's mom.

The North Side family is rehearsing their thrift-driven Halloween. The "graves" are piles of leaves that the kids hide under; the fake tombstones were free from Craigslist. Other ornaments include a strand of orange and black lights (a quarter at a yard sale) and an old Barbie styling head (free from a neighbor) turned into a "ghoulish thing coming out of the ground," says Eddy.

The family's approach to Halloween turned inexpensively creative when John Eddy, his handyman business already struggling because of the economy, suffered a heart attack, and Kathy's sales commissions began to dip.

For the first time since surveying began in 2003, people say they will spend less money on Halloween than the year before. In fact, haunters haven't planned to spend this little since 2005, according to the National Retail Federation. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-sat-cheap-halloween-oct24,0,7633545.story