Thread: This years selection is Horrible!

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Well went on a tour yesterday of Party City, Spirits, Garden Ridge and even Walmart. WOW, I cant believe how little inventory/variety they all had. I was shocked. I think due to the economy these places must have really pulled back on their orders. (Dallas/Fort Worth) Everything was SOOO expensive too! I bought a couple extra large tombstones at Walmart (LED light up) for $15 each.
I will go visit Halloween USA this week and see what they have going. Last year they were in a vacant Petsmart. This year they are in a vacant "Old Navy" so Im not expecting much!

Yep, it's pretty bad all over this year. But one good thing that comes out of it is we are forced to be more creative with what we already have and what we can create. Gotta find that silver lining!

They jack up prices, less people buy...

That just means that I can buy more after Halloween at clearance prices

It's pretty bad here too. I wanted headstones and Target head some for $10 but, most were $20. Then when I went by Lowe's they had their stuff down to an endcap and it was all crap. I told the lady, "well, I guess everything will be 50% off next week". If I wanted xmas stuff though they have about 4 aisles!

And, let's not forget - the selection for the average customer is kickin', and we are not the average customer by a long shot.

Halloween when I was a kid was half an aisle in the grocery store, filled with bags of mini-candies and cartoon character outfits (usually a plastic shell mask and a plastic smock with the character actually displayed in full on the chest - more of a walking advertizement of the character than a costume.)

Now, you walk into a shop dedicated to the holiday and see miles of costumes and props (vinyl fake football helmets from the 30's? Hard plastic fantasy swords and battle axes? Tons of shoes and boots? Multiple albums of music and sound effects, foggers and motion-triggered props, latex prosthetics, foam tombstones, cardboard fascades, webshooters... where was this stuff when I was a kid?) and most of it is very cool to the average shopper.

I have little use for most of the stuff now. I don't care for much of what I see at Spirit, Halloween superstore and the seasonal sections of popular stores, but if I wasn't the type to make my own stuff, these places would be the bees knees to me, and trust me, kids love these places.

I have bought stuff at Spirit this year. theother stores mentioned had the same crap as evyone else. Only Spirit had original ideas.