Every year when October rolls around, all minds drift to the thought of Halloween. Even in the month of September, and in some cases, August, stores already have a Halloween festive section filled with candy corn and pumpkins. Little kids are determined to have the best costumes and fill their bags to the brim with candy. However, especially for high school students, Halloween just isn’t the same as it used to be.
For older kids, Halloween is the prime time to play tricks on people by TP-ing someone’s house or scaring them with a creepy mask. It is much more common for this type of behavior to occur at this time. This could get these students in mass amounts of trouble if a funny prank were to get out of hand. Part of the reason that kids love to pull dangerous pranks is due to the movies that come out during this time like “The Purge” or “It” that give them ideas.
Halloween has also become quite commercialized. What was once a holiday where people dressed up to simply get candy has turned into a money hungry game. Companies must compete to make the best costumes that people will want, and of course, those costumes come at high prices. The amount of candy that is sold during the Halloween season also accumulates a very large profit, which only promotes more unneeded sugar.
Companies and brands that produce decorations as well as costumes and candy take advantage of the time and cash in on sales. A study done by the National Retail Federation predicted Halloween spending to reach an estimate of $6.9 billion. Along with the basic Halloween items people are buying, there are also many pumpkin or autumn-themed treats and accessories that people love.
Obviously, because Halloween has become such a big holiday that is celebrated all over the United States, it is a smart and strategical move for companies to take advantage and gain a profit. Because Americans are seeing Halloween in a commercialized way, it lends a favor to these companies since people go and buy loads of decorations and buckets of candy.