Princess Continues Her Reign as Top Halloween Costume for Kids, According to NRF

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Princess Continues Her Reign as Top Halloween Costume for Kids, According to NRF
-Witch tops the list as most popular costume for adults -

Washington, DC, September 26, 2006 – From princesses to pirates, both the naughty and the nice will be invading the streets this October 31.  The National Retail Federation’s (NRF) 2006 Halloween Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, found that for the second consecutive year princess remains the most popular Halloween costume for kids, with 3.97 million children planning to dress up as such on October 31. Other popular costumes will include pirates (1.72 million children), witches (1.65 million) and Spiderman (1.51 million).

“When it comes to dressing for Halloween, traditional costumes never go out of style,” said Tracy Mullin, NRF President and CEO.  “In order to please consumers of all ages, retailers have begun stocking their shelves with a wide variety of costumes, from classic favorites to pop-culture icons.”

According to the survey, 59.9 percent of consumers plan to buy a Halloween costume this year, up from 53.3 percent in 2005, with the average person spending $21.57 on that purchase.  This year an estimated $4.96 billion will be spent on the holiday, making it the sixth largest spending holiday of the year.

Children won’t be the only ones hitting the streets dressed to impress.  According to the survey, 34.0 percent of adults will dress in costume on Halloween.  With the popularity of the holiday steadily increasing among young adults, close to two-thirds (62.8%) of consumers ages 18-24 will be dressing up.  Top Halloween costumes for adults include witches (6.15 million), pirates (1.31 million) and vampires (1.31 million).

“This year pirate costumes are popular among consumers of all ages, due largely to the widespread success of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise,” said Phil Rist, Vice President of Strategy for BIGresearch.  “Knowing the competitive spirit that exists among young adults when it comes to sporting the best Halloween costume, many retailers have altered their merchandise assortment to appeal to this enthusiastic consumer base.”

2006 Top Kids’ Costumes

       
2006 Top Adults’ Costumes

About the Survey
The NRF 2006 Halloween Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey was designed to gauge consumer behavior and shopping trends related to Halloween. The survey, which polled 8,001 consumers, was conducted for NRF by BIGresearch from September 6-13, 2006. The consumer poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.0 percent.

BIGresearch is a consumer market intelligence firm that provides unique consumer insights that are gathered online utilizing very large sample sizes. BIGresearch’s syndicated Consumer Intentions and Actions survey monitors the pulse of more than 7,000 consumers each month to empower its clients with unique insights for identifying opportunities in a fragmented and changing marketplace.

The National Retail Federation is the world's largest retail trade association, with membership that comprises all retail formats and channels of distribution including department, specialty, discount, catalog, Internet, independent stores, chain restaurants, drug stores and grocery stores as well as the industry's key trading partners of retail goods and services. NRF represents an industry with more than 1.4 million U.S. retail establishments, more than 23 million employees - about one in five American workers - and 2005 sales of $4.4 trillion. As the industry umbrella group, NRF also represents more than 100 state, national and international retail associations. www.nrf.com.

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