Henry McKean reports: Are we spending less this Halloween?

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

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Tricotree.

SPEAKER_3 (0:48)

Children just expect to get a load of junk when they get to the door. You just have to have the big basket of stuff. Half the stuff is just pure sugar that they're eating. My mum used to ask people to do a little song or a dance or something when they came to our door. She made buns and little treats like that, and then they'd come. They'd do a little song, and then she'd give them the cake.

Henry McKean (1:07)

So they would have to trickle-treat. They would have to help the Halloween party.

SPEAKER_3 (1:10)

Exactly. That was, yeah. But now it's just, they just expect to get a whole load of junk. They hold the bag out, and you just fill it up, and that's it.

Henry McKean (1:17)

How much do you spend on the bucket of sweets for them?

SPEAKER_3 (1:20)

Oh, I suppose about 20 euro, maybe.

Henry McKean (1:23)

And when it runs out, it runs out?

SPEAKER_3 (1:24)

It runs out. That's it, yeah.

Henry McKean (1:26)

And then do you switch off all the lights and hide?

SPEAKER_3 (1:27)

Well, no, actually, they end pretty quickly. You know, we usually run 7 o'clock or so, they're all gone.

Henry McKean (1:33)

Sweets this Halloween are up more than 7% because of two wars, inflation, cocoa and sugar production down because of extreme weather conditions, pushing up prices.

So how can we make Halloween more eco-friendly and give away less sweets on the door during trick-or-treating? I'm here with Oisin Byrne from iReach. You've done research around spending at Halloween. What's changed in recent years?

Oisin Byrne (2:00)

The last couple of years, we've seen a reduction in household spend, particularly on sweets, decorations. And I think it's really an indication that households are under pressure through cost of living, energy costs and so on. So there's lots of pressure that's coming through in terms of Halloween spend and decorations and so on.

Henry McKean (2:19)

I was chatting to a lady, she said she's spending 20 euro on sweets for the kids. She is getting a lot less sweets this year compared to last year or the year before. And there's a number of reasons for that. There's the Ukraine War, there's the war in Iran, there's global warming, there's droughts, cocoa's gone up, sugar's gone up.

People also are feeling the pinch. Perhaps some families don't have a disposable income to spend 40 or 60 euro on a bucket of sweets for the neighbor's kids.

Oisin Byrne (2:45)

Yeah, we've seen households spend shrink. So last year we saw the average spend on sweets and decorations, a little over 54 euro's. That's fallen to 46 euro's. We also see a matching trend where 6% less families are actually spending on Halloween celebrations. So we're seeing less people spend and people spending less.

SPEAKER_2 (3:06)

In our day, it was help the Halloween party and it was apples and nuts is all you got.

Henry McKean (3:12)

Apples and nuts?

SPEAKER_2 (3:13)

That's all you got. Because this is apple season. And you were delighted with what you got.

Now it's just junk. And they ring the doorbell, we go out, they open the bag, we put it in and then bye bye.

Henry McKean (3:26)

When I was young, you could get a Mars bar for about 25p, 30p, equivalent to about maybe 35 cents. Now you're looking at?

SPEAKER_6 (3:34)

Couple of euro's now, yeah.

Henry McKean (3:35)

Nearly a couple of euro's.

SPEAKER_7 (3:36)

Yeah.

Henry McKean (3:37)

Depending on where you get it.

SPEAKER_7 (3:38)

Yeah.

SPEAKER_6 (3:39)

Less people will start giving out sweets.

SPEAKER_7 (3:42)

Probably will be less sweets because obviously the price has gone up since other wars and inflation.

SPEAKER_6 (3:47)

I think more parents will just not let their kids trick or treat because of the state of the world now as well.

Henry McKean (3:51)

And the world is a state, isn't it?