Here’s when New Jersey does their Halloween shopping

Once the weather starts getting cooler and the calendar flips over to October, people start thinking about Halloween. But, it turns out that some people start thinking about it much earlier than that.

A site called Upgraded Points combed through data to determine which states start their Halloween shopping the earliest.

According to the National Retail Federation, a whopping 73% of Americans will participate in Halloween-related activities, up from 69% last year. Halloween is a big deal, with $12 billion projected to be spent on the holiday; everything from costumes to candy to decorations.

The largest spending categories for Halloween festivities are costumes, decorations, candy, and greeting cards. In 2023, the NRF projects Americans will spend a total of $4.1 billion (34% of total) on costumes, $3.9 billion (32% of total) on decorations, $3.6 billion (30% of total) on candy, and approximately $500 million (4% of total) on greeting cards.

Interestingly, within the costume category, Americans typically spend more on costumes for adults than on costumes for kids. Adult costumes account for nearly half of costume spending, while costumes for children and pets represent just 34% and 17%, respectively.

While most online shopping for Halloween happens in October, nearly 30% occurs in the preceding 3 months (July to September), although this percentage can vary by location.

The analysis found that 30.9% of Halloween online shopping in New Jersey takes place between July and September, while 60.3% occurs in October.

Here is a summary of the data for New Jersey:

🎃 Share of Halloween online shopping done July–September: 30.9%
🎃 Share of Halloween online shopping done in October: 60.3%
🎃 Share of Halloween online shopping done the rest of the year: 8.7%

For reference, here are the statistics for the entire United States:

👻 Share of Halloween online shopping done July–September: 29.8%
👻 Share of Halloween online shopping done in October: 60.9%
👻 Share of Halloween online shopping done the rest of the year: 9.3%
👻 Location with the most interest in Halloween: Charleston, WV

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Doyle only.

You can now listen to Deminski & Doyle — On Demand! Hear New Jersey’s favorite afternoon radio show any day of the week. Download the Deminski & Doyle show wherever you get podcasts, on our free app, or listen right now.

Click here to contact an editor about feedback or a correction for this story.