Idahoans Can’t Complain About Grocery Costs When They Spend Big on Halloween

I hear people constantly complain about the cost of living.  Usually with good reason.  Then I drive by a house that hasn’t seen a paintbrush in 35 years and see a garish Halloween display.

Recently, I popped into my neighborhood drug store to pick up a prescription, and noticed the Halloween candy and decorations.  When I was a boy in another century, the shops were filled with candy a few weeks before the holiday, and the extent of decorations involved a couple of carved pumpkins.

Americans Spend Big on a Passing Day

Even factoring for inflation, Americans (and many Idahoans) spend, on average, far more on Halloween than just 20 years ago.  You can see a chart by clicking here.  In some years, there are drops in overall expenditures (as seen last year), but these appear to be brief and typically related to a recession or pandemic.

We’ve gone from a holiday about candy for kids into something much larger culturally.  I’ve also observed that the event is far more macabre than when I was a child.  We dressed as tigers or clowns.  Today, lawns feature coffins and skeletons hanging from trees.  What are we trying to exorcize?

Some of Us Have Warped Priorities

If you’re upset with the price of beef, vegetables, and eggs (and all have had spikes in recent years), then why are you spending the rent money on decorations?

I had some good advice from my sister a couple of years ago.  She doesn’t buy the candy wrapped for Halloween.  She found that candy is much less costly in the regular candy aisle.  The ghouls coming to her door aren’t interested in packaging.  They throw that aside.  They want the sugar high!

I did some calculations, and the average Idaho family will spend almost 150 dollars on Halloween.