Halloween Section

Going Big (From page 107)

At the 2,500-square-foot store, customers still came in for colored and blinking lights, as well as LED lights to illuminate private parties. And while Roberts, like most hardware stores, doesn’t sell pre-made costumes, creative types buy materials to craft their own get ups.

Spray paint, funnels, tubing, and paintable Tyvek jumpsuits are all top sellers around Halloween, Smith said.

The same is true at Zegeer Hardware in Charleston, W.V. “People won’t always necessarily tell me they’re buying stuff to make decorations, but I can tell,” said Owner Richard Zegeer . “We sell a lot of spray paints around Halloween.”

Zegeer’s family started the store with Christmas toys in 1948, but holiday merchandise has been phased out over the past decade, leaving mostly the raw materials DIYers use. “We’re a full service store where people come in and ask questions, like ‘How do I apply 100 pieces of reflectors to my costume?’ Or if they can’t find a certain string or wire, they’ll come here,” Zegeer explained. The store stocks holiday light sets year-round; they’re popular for weddings as well as Halloween and the winter holidays.

Also in Charleston, Bill Pile , owner of F.M. Pile Hardware, embraces the philosophy that you either do the holidays big or not at all. “If you want to buy a light set, you don’t want to see just one light set. A store needs to carry 20 or so, or else you wouldn’t come back,” explained Pile, whose grandfather started the business 90 years ago.

Over the years, Pile noticed his customers bought fewer and fewer holiday decorations at his hardware store. “You’ve got two months to sell them and if you don’t, you’ve got to eat them or put them in storage the rest of the year,” he reflected. “Also, you can have the hottest thing this year, and next year you can’t give it away.”

Pile now leaves Halloween and Christmas merchandise to big box retailers, focusing on lawn and garden equipment and personalized service. “You could order so much, your store will look like a Walmart,” he said. “But it’s much easier to sell things you like. That’s my advice.”

Smaller hardware stores have space for only the bestselling holiday merchandise. At the 3,000-square-foot Schuele Ace Hardware in Buffalo, that means orange and purple string lights and animated inflatable décor for the lawn. “Blow up ghosts and the like, those sold out really fast,” said Manager Zach Huber . Pumpkin themed decor “did really well for us, as well as those stencil carving kits for pumpkins, and all kinds of Halloween lights.”

Huber has noticed local big box retailers featuring bigger Halloween sections every year. It’s a trend he expects to grow at retailers large and small. But unlike Christmas, Huber has observed that Halloween lighting tends to be more of an indoor affair; exterior décor is more along the lines of cobwebs, spooky figurines and lawn displays.

That said, if the last few years have taught us anything, it’s that predicting the future is a tricky business. “Who knows? I thought this would be over in a month,” recalled Smith of the spring 2020 pandemic lockdown. “Obviously I was wrong! But people are really wanting to get out and do something big once this is over.” ❖