New displays make Halloween sales a scream - Halloween sales promotion

Discount Store News, April 6, 1992 by Laura Liebeck

NEW YORK - Helping retailers scare up extra sales this Halloween will be more elaborate theme displays and holiday merchandise that goes beyond the normal fare of black cats, witches and skeletons.

Halloween has become a prime party holiday for both children and adults in recent years, and with the holiday falling on Saturday this fall, the potential for a blockbuster sales year seems real.

In fact, the discount industry's three major greeting card companies - American Greetings, Ambassador and Sangamon - are already preparing new and innovative displays for Holloween 1992.

While Halloween card sales have been growing for the Big 3 vendors and retailers, the biggest increase has been in home decoration and party supplies - lawn signs, stickers, buttons and party favors.

The reason for the growth is twofold, the vendors said:

* More adult parties due to increased home entertainment;

* Increased parental concern about door-to-door trick or treating by young children.

As a result, Halloween is now the second largest party night of the year after New Year's, according to Sangamon, and adult parties have grown by 25% in the last three years.

Vendors and retailers now work together to create elaborate in-store seasonal programs and product assortments to fill customer needs. Many retailers are even acting as trailblazers for in-store decoration for the holiday.

Last Halloween, PayLess Drug Stores, a Kmart division, dressed up its seasonal area like a haunted castle in an effort to make the area a destination spot.

Created by its greeting card supplier, American Greetings, PayLess unveiled "Spooky House," a large cardboard display complete with sound and wind effects - screams, moans, eerie music - at the chain's Wilsonville, Ore., store. While the program was exclusive to PayLess, AG's 7-month-old Retail Services Department is working on customized point-of-sale programs for the other retailers, said Don Marshall, director of the department. While he declined to identify the retailers, he did say they include mass merchandisers.

At PayLess, Spooky House was centrally located and towered above the store's gondolas. The 1,200-sq.-ft. display incorporated breadth of Halloween products not limited to AG products, including candy and costumes and excluding greeting cards, which were located across the aisle. The sell-thru, said Karen Sheridan, director of corporate communications for Payless, was "fantastic."

In addition to Spooky House, PayLess is working on other exclusive holiday "sets," including one for Easter at the Wilsonville store. This display features a 12-foot high egg-shaped hot air balloon. Inside the balloon's basket is Bloomer Bunny, an AG character. Overhead, moving clouds, rainbows and kites that stretch the display 20 feet down the aisle, incorporating a wealth of product. As with the Spooky House, children can go inside the set to have their photograph taken and instore promotions are built around the display.

Other retailers are also testing an Easter set, Marshall said, noting that this fall AG's prototyped will be ready for rollout.

"Our whole approach to the new venture [retailer creative services] is to create a seasonal event, something that is like a piece of retail sculpture, to attract people from all over the store to the promotional area, entertain them for a while and help them browse throughout the department," he said, adding that the department can develop exclusive programs for any department in the store. Tie-ins with greeting cards are also available.

While most retailers are not yet dedicating as much space and drama to Halloween as PayLess, endcap programs are on the increase to help retailers create new and add-on sales across several categories.

Programs like Spooky House help retailers position themselves better as a destination store against the strength of Hallmark, the nation's leading cards/party goods retailer.

Hallmark, for example, sets a 28-foot "Boo Bazaar" display for Halloween in their card and gift stores as well as their drug outlets, according to Mike Fraser, sales vice president of national accounts at Ambassador, Hallmark's mass market card division. This display does not associate itself with greeting cards, but does include adult-oriented decoratives and party products.

At the discount level, Fraser said he doesn't expect to see an Ambassador version of Boo Bazaar, but he does see more of his customers allocating extra space to Halloween, particularly in the non-greeting card areas, to meet the expanding adult party/home decorating market.

For example, in 1991, Kmart doubled the space it gave to Halloween cards and stationery products via an endcap display created exclusively for the chain by Sangamon.

This year, the product assortment on the two endcaps will be enhanced with such new items as novelty cards that include a button, paint pallet or page of stickers with an activity sheet, plus a larger assortment of "treat sacks" for candy, gift bags and yard signs, said Tom Tisdale, vice president of marketing and sales at Sangamon.