More people are celebrating, and splurging on Halloween this year than ever before according to the National Retails Federation - estimating Americans will spend $9.1 billion dollars on costumes, candy and Pumpkins this year.
Demmi Schwarzkopf is sorting through costumes at Goodwill for a pirate outfit. Her parents are doing the same thing on a budget.
"To be spending over to $300 for Halloween just doesn’t make sense to me," said Tiffini Schwarzkopf, who brought her two kids and husband to "Planet Halloween", a section devoted to cheap costumes, accessories, and Halloween decorations in Goodwill.
"Everybody is on a budget nowadays and nobody wants to spend a lot of money on a costume that’s probably going to get worn once," said Jennifer Fleming, Goodwill Media relations spokeswoman.
She says Halloween brings in more money than any other time of the year at Goodwill. It’s the reason the company focuses on what folks are already searching for. She says Goodwill buyers search all year for the costumes so by the time Halloween rolls around they are able to offer costumes with all the accessories for cheap. We found one for $14.99, marked originally for $30.00.
"My children don’t have the capacity to understand how much this is going to cost once you have everything," said Schwarzkopf, pointing out accessories at other stores may cost even more on top of the price for the outfit. MOST of the accessories at Goodwill are a few dollars.
Employees are also setting aside odd looking clothes that may lend themselves to Halloween costumes. Schwarzkopf found a used pirate dress for $10. Her son got away with a pirate hat, outfit and sword for less than $15. For a family of four - Schwarzkopf spent $82 and change.
All that's left is working on that pirate lingo - Demmi promises to practice until it's perfect.
All Suncoast Goodwill stores have Planet Halloween sections, except for the three outlet stores.
The top three Halloween costumes for kids, according to NRF: Superhero’s, princess, or animals.
