Halloween is anything but frightful to chain drug stores

Drug Store News, Nov 17, 1997

NEW YORK -- Trick or treat! While blood-drenched monsters and screaming goblins may scare the tykes, these unsightly creatures are welcome sights to chain drug stores. Indeed, Halloween has become a major retail event, rivaling Mother's Day and Easter, many chain drug executives reported.

"Halloween is a season that is continually getting better and getting a lot more notice," said Gordon O'Reilly, vice president and merchandise manager for Bartell Drug Co. "It's a pretty viable holiday and is up there with Easter as the second best holiday after Christmas."

With mild weather, and Halloween falling on a Friday, retailers were even more pleased than usual with sales of Halloween merchandise.

Candy certainly drove the business, but chain drug retailers who stocked innovative decorations, electronic gadgets and other holiday novelties were also quite satisfied with results. Arbor Drugs had a "very strong" Halloween sales season, aided by repeat candy sales and a major center-aisle presentation containing 150 non-candy SKUs, according to chain spokesman Fred Marx. "The stores had a major presence in the category," Marx said. "They go after it with the same intensity now as they do Mother's Day or Easter."

Arbor's Halloween sales were strong across all categories, "but candy continues to set the pace," Marx said. "What really thrust ahead were the big jumbo packs of candy." Also helping power candy sales were repeat purchases, he conjectured.

Candy sales were particularly strong at Walgreen Co. "Our emphasis was on name-brand chocolates from companies such as Hershey, Nestle and Mars," said a spokeswoman for Walgreen. "Peanut butter Kisses were really big items and candy-corn-type products were a big hit."

May's had a 90 percent sell-through on candy," said Gregg Heller, a buyer for the chain. "I go out with pretty high prices in the M&M and Hershey products. Because of our warehouse, we don't have cold storage. That gets the chocolate into the stores pretty late. That's actually good for us because it creates very high traffic later on. We're one of the few stores that have a good assortment late in the season."

Remember who the buyer is

Candy product selection is getting trickier, according to a buyer from a Northeast chain. "One thing that concerned us, was the move to more [major] branded candy. The question is: Who buys candy? The answer is: Parents. And, they tend to buy the candy that they know and recognize, such as Hershey's Kisses and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. But kids--they know Nerds and Mike & Ike's. But, unfortunately, they're not the ones buying the candy, because there are much higher margins to be made on these more minor brands."

While candy drove Halloween sales, retailers were excited about niche non-consumables items. At Medic, sales of sundry items, such as masks and costumes were strong, Lipsyc said, following a decision this year to import more of those products.

"Considering the [specialized] Halloween-only stores appearing all over the place, we felt pretty good that we held consistent with our normal share," said Dan Wilson, senior vice president of marketing for Longs Drug Stores.

Bartell added to its selection of Halloween novelties with electric and voice-chip items. In voice chips, a talking door mat was one of the items that kicked off talking Halloween novelties and it grew from there, according to O'Reilly.

"We did really well with motion-activated scary things that make noises," said Jerry Houghton, merchandise manager of Kinney Drug. "We tried to have anything that was motion-activated display set up and on, so when people walked by they went off, and that brought attention to the items."

Drive through a suburban neighborhood in October and you're likely to see scores of front doors and lawns decorated with Halloween characters and symbols. And, this has been a boon for retailers stocking this merchandise. Indeed, fall wreaths, fall harvest items, lights and Halloween wreaths were all strong at Eckerd this year, according to Kurt Bruder, a category manager.

At Arbor, outdoor decorations of ghosts, goblins and lights were strong sellers, according to Marx. "It's like a brushfire effect: one house will do it, then everybody in the neighborhood picks it up and does it too."