The UK's biggest retailer annonunces that only Christmas and Easter were bigger events in terms of sales than Halloween.
Only a generation ago Hallowe'en, considered by many to be a vulgar American import, was celebrated by very few, with most choosing Guy Fawkes Night as their main celebration of the Autumn.
Nowadays the supermarkets have latched onto its popularity with children and devote increasing amounts of their shelves to Halloween toys, sweets, fancy dress outfits, room decorations and pumpkins.
Tesco expects to take £55 million in sales from its Halloween products. Mother's Day was responsible for £37 million, Valentine's Day took £28 million and Father's Day took £20 million.
Only Christmas, which is a huge £320 million event, and Easter, with all the chocolate egg sales, worth £110 million, beat the end of October festival.
It said it hoped to sell 1.4 million pumpkins, two million toffee apples, and 1.5 million fancy dress outfits.
Tesco's UK marketing director, Carolyn Bradley, said: 'As with Christmas and Easter, many customers are buying for Hallowe'en weeks ahead of the actual event. This year, with Hallowe'en falling on a Sunday, customers will be looking to celebrate at the weekend. Research from last year revealed that the size of Hallowe'en parties is growing for people in their late teens and twenties, with parties of 60 people now becoming the norm.'
Planet Retail, a research company claims that British consumers spent £12 million on Hallowe'en in 2001, but £235 million last year, assisted by the fact that it was on a Saturday. It is expected to be even bigger this year at around £280 million.
Bryan Roberts of Planet Retail said: "The finger of blame has to be pointed at Asda, which learnt a lot from its American parent company, Wal-Mart that you could create a real sense of excitement around Hallowe'en. All the other supermarkets followed suit."
Asda, this year, is even selling fancy dress outfits for dogs, with a Dracula dog costume on offer for £5. Fancy dress dog parades on Hallowe'en are a common sight in American towns.
Put in perspective this means that consumer spending for Hallowe'en, has increased more than twentyfold in under a decade.
In 2009 the Vatican condemned Hallowe'en as anti-Christian, saying it is based on a sinister and dangerous "undercurrent of occultism".
October 2010
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