Survey Finds Rising Costs Affecting Halloween Buying Decisions

ACROSS NEW HAMPSHIRE – An recent survey commissioned by Goodwill Northern New England
suggests the rising costs caused by inflation have affected people's Halloween preparations this year, especially when it comes to the choice of making versus buying a costume.

The annual survey found that 62 percent of respondents — all of whom were adults — said
that due to higher prices, they were more likely to create a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Halloween costume than purchase a new costume from the store this year.

Among adults who choose DIY costumes, 56 percent said they would search for costume materials at thrift stores. Perhaps not surprisingly in a survey commissioned by Goodwill, the most popular thrift store for DIY costume shopping was: Goodwill, which received 89 percent of the vote.

Other popular non-thrift-store shopping destinations for DIYers — who had the option to choose multiple stores — were: dollar stores (47%), arts and crafts supply stores (45%), Halloween/party specialty stores (41%), and big box retailers (39%).

Though rising costs might be changing the way people obtain their costumes, inflation is not preventing people from dressing up. Quite the contrary. According to the survey, 10
percent more people will dress up this year than in 2021.

In the survey, nearly two in five adults (38%) said they planned to wear a costume themselves, while 29 percent said they have at least one child who will dress up for Halloween this year.

What will be the most popular costumes among both DIYers and costume-purchasing
adults?

According to the survey, 29 percent of those wearing costumes said they will wear an "iconic"
costume, like a witch, ghost, zombie or werewolf.

Twenty-seven percent of people said they were planning to wear a costume based on a pop culture trend, like a character from a movie, TV show, video game or book.

Where will the adult costume DIYers go for ideas for their costumes?

Sixty-six percent said they would turn to social media or websites for ideas, with YouTube
(28%), Pinterest (26%), Facebook (23%), TikTok (20%) and Instagram (19%) topping the list of
of popular online destinations.

Meanwhile, 45 percent of those surveyed said they planned to coordinate their costume with
someone else, while 11 percent said they planned to put their pet in a costume.

The survey was conducted in mid-September by the independent research organization Big
Village. The online poll included a sample size of 1,008 adults.