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Catching the spirit of Halloween sales: new stores pop up to cash in on a spooky holiday that now rivals New Year's Eve - Retail

Each Oct. 31, Halloween comes in a thundering hailstorm of candy, parties, pumpkins and costumes.

While Halloween has meant treats to children and tricks to uncooperative adults for years, Halloween means much more to retailers. The spooky holiday has gained prominence as one of the three top party days in the country, trailing only New Year's Eve and Super Bowl Sunday.

"Halloween accounts for 20 percent of our entire annual revenue," said Sal Perisano, CEO of iParty, a multi-channel party retailer with 35 stores and the Web site iparty.com.

The holiday accounts for $6 billion in sales nationwide.

Johnny Lavalais, assistant manager at the Siegen Lane Wal-Mart agrees, saying Halloween yields excellent local results as well.

"Halloween is definitely one of the biggest single-day holidays we have here. 'The merchandise we move is very profitable for the company."

The retail industry has responded to increasing interest in Halloween with more merchandise.

In Baton Rouge, Spirit Halloween Superstore is open on Perkins Road next to Juban's Restaurant. The temporary store has a vast array of costumes, makeup, masks and. decorations, all meant for the hard-core Halloween fanatic.

"I can't see that we are competitive to anybody else, because I can't see that anybody else has anything like this," said John Marver, the franchise owner of Halloween Superstores in Slidell, Baton Rouge and Scott/Lafayette.

All of his stores are open for two months and retail strictly Halloween merchandise. Although the industry is often unpredictable, the holiday means big bucks to Marver's temporary business.

"I expect the Baton Rouge store to do about $200,000. Slidell should do about $300,000, and the Lafayette store hopefully will do $125,000. Last year after Sept. 11, Americans did not seem real festive. I think the festive atmosphere by and large is back this year."

Angela Mitchell; the seasonal merchandise coordinator at Wal-Mart, agrees.

"Last year, we did not move any merchandise. This year we are moving a lot more, because people seem to be much more interested in the season."

Lavalais said Halloween merchandise sold so poorly last year, there has been no target figure for how much merchandise the store-expects to move this month.

"We cannot give a price or a figure this year. We are just hoping to do better than we did last year. Right now we seem to be selling OK."

Marver said Spirit Halloween does business with homeowners, campgrounds, cocktail lounges and restaurants, in addition to the general public. He expects costumes to be the big sellers, followed by masks and theatrical makeup.

The success of his store in Slidell, which started its annual rite of fall Halloween sales five years ago, prompted Marver to open additional stores in Baton Rouge and Lafayette. He hopes to add a second Baton Rouge store next year.

"There has been a lot of growth in our company, which is a division of Spencer Gifts and is owned by Seagrams. Four years ago when Seagrams bought us, there were 75 company stores and 25 franchises like this one. In four years, they have doubled Spirit Halloween to about 150 company stores and 50 franchises."

Wal-Mart's rows of Halloween merchandise are more general and focus more on children. Mitchell expects certain children's items to be the big sellers.

"Spider Man, Scooby Doo and Sponge Bob costumes are our big sellers this year, and Hershey Kisses and Miniatures look like they are going to be the big candies."

Popular decorations this year are a close tie between Airblown Inflatables, which are large inflatable monsters, and foggers, which look like pumpkins and skeletons Wal-Mart is also carrying a line of items for child electric torches and glow-in-the-dark necklaces.