i'm curious about this ... can you further explain how this works?
thx
amk
Gladly. Too many people wait to make their prop purchases after the holiday when prices are half off. Costumes and candy are all bought ahead of the holiday and at or near full price, which is why there have been tremendous investments and improvements made to costume designs and quality over the years. This is also the reason why Halloween stores are about 70-80% costumes and 20-25% props. In short, retailers make their money off costumes, not props, and the investments and improvements show they are willing to step up to meet consumer demand.
Props on the other hand seem to be more for drawing people into the stores so they can be sold a costume or make up or accessories than to sell the props themselves. Spend an hour in a Spirit store and you'll see dozens of costumes go out the door but no props. Why? Because most people who buy props only do so the day after Halloween. Yes, they'll buy a few things they gotta have to get through the holiday, but they won't make any major purchases until Nov. 1st. This means that retailers have to expect to sell any prop item they buy at 50% of it's list price, and pay for those items accordingly and this creates a chain effect.
Let's say there's a prop that lists for $300. The retailer has to expect that prop is going to end up selling for $150, which means they are only going to be willing to pay $75 or so from a manufacturer. This means a manufacturer has to figure out a way to build a prop, factoring in parts, labor, overhead, and shipping, for $30-$50 for it, and that money just doesn't buy a lot of prop.
Look at Christmas props. Most of these are bought before Christmas as impulse buys and at full price, which enables everyone in the production chain more money to work with and it shows. I know people with motorized Christmas decorations that they've had working problem-free for years. How many of us see a prop fail within days or weeks?
When it comes to props, you get what you pay for, and unfortunately most Halloween buyers don't want to pay much for what they get.
