Forget Summer, Halloween Season Is Now Officially Underway

Retailers aren’t waiting until October — or September, or even late August — to cash in on America’s favorite spooky holiday

If you walked into a Michaels, Home Depot or Costco recently and did a double-take because you could’ve sworn you just saw a 6-foot animatronic skeleton staring back at you from the seasonal aisle — you weren’t imagining things. Halloween season has, for all practical retail purposes, begun. August 1st has quietly become the unofficial starting gun for what the industry now treats as a full-blown shopping season, not just a single holiday.

Welcome to Halloween Creep. It’s real, it’s getting worse (or better, depending on your enthusiasm level), and retailers are absolutely leaning into it.

Who Already Has the Stuff Out

Let’s run through the usual suspects, because several of them didn’t even wait for August to roll around.

Michaels has been the longtime pioneer of the early Halloween push, and this year is no different. The craft chain typically starts stocking Halloween décor in mid-July, and locations across the country have already been spotted with full seasonal sections up and running — complete with faux cobwebs, decorative pumpkins and enough skull-themed candle holders to fill a haunted mansion.

Home Depot continues its tradition of going absolutely unhinged with outdoor Halloween decorations earlier than any reasonable person would expect. The retailer — famous for its giant 12-foot “Skelly” skeleton that became a cultural phenomenon a few years back — has been rolling out its animatronic and large-format outdoor décor displays in stores throughout July. If you live in the Denver metro area, odds are good your local Home Depot already looks like something out of a Tim Burton film near the garden center entrance.

Costco, because Costco answers to no one and no calendar, reportedly had Halloween candy and some seasonal items hitting warehouse floors in late July. This is on brand. Costco once had Christmas décor out before Halloween was even over, so frankly, August 1st for Halloween is almost restrained by their standards.

Target typically launches its “Hyde & EEK! Boutique” Halloween collection in late July or early August, and this year follows that same playbook. Expect the bullseye-branded Halloween section to be in full swing right now, with everything from affordable costumes to the kind of chic seasonal décor that ends up all over social media within 48 hours of hitting shelves.

Walmart and Amazon have both been running Halloween category pages and early-season promotions for weeks, because of course they have.

The Numbers Make It Make Sense

Here’s why every retailer from your local craft store to the big-box giants is treating August 1st like a starting pistol: Halloween spending in the United States has become enormous.

The National Retail Federation has tracked Halloween consumer spending climbing steadily over the past decade, with recent years seeing Americans drop somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 to $12 billion on the holiday annually. That covers costumes, decorations, candy and party supplies — and a meaningful chunk of that spending happens well before October arrives.

Retailers figured out a while ago that consumers who plan ahead — and plenty of them do — want to buy early. Décor items in particular tend to sell out on popular designs. Nobody wants to be the person who missed out on the sold-out animatronic raven because they waited until October 15th.

Spirit Halloween Is Coming, Too

No Halloween shopping article is complete without a mention of the pop-up empire that is Spirit Halloween, which operates roughly 1,500 temporary locations across North America each year, taking over vacant retail spaces with almost comedic efficiency. Spirit typically starts opening locations in late August, meaning their scouting and leasing operation is already well underway behind the scenes. Keep an eye on whatever empty storefront is sitting near you — there’s a decent chance it’s about to become a Halloween megastore within the next few weeks.

Is This Too Early? Sure. Does It Matter?

Look, if you’re the type of person who thinks Halloween decorations shouldn’t go up until October 1st at the absolute earliest, that’s a totally valid stance. You’re also going to find that the retail world has fully moved on without you.

The “Halloween Creep” phenomenon — the annual drift of the holiday’s commercial season earlier and earlier on the calendar — has been documented and complained about for years now. And yet, every year, sales numbers suggest that enough people are shopping early to justify the timeline.

The reality is that Halloween has evolved from a one-night event with a week of buildup into a full season, not entirely unlike Christmas. There’s an entire community of people who identify as “Halloween enthusiasts” year-round, and for mainstream consumers, having two or three months to collect decorations and plan costumes doesn’t feel excessive anymore.

So whether you’re thrilled about it or mildly annoyed every time you see fake cobwebs next to back-to-school supplies — the season is here. Grab your 12-foot skeleton while you can.