Halloween Retail

Here's an assessment of local retail stores' Halloween displays:

Giant Eagle (grocery store)- This year's display is more sparse compared to last year. It's mainly a bunch of candy, a few decorations, and a few seasonal ales. Disappointing.

Meijer- A pretty good collection of costumes, candy, and decorations. Fun to peruse.

Home Goods- Very disappointing this year. Only a small collection of stuff and situated at the back of the store.

Michaels- Excellent collection this year. Lots of costumes, decorations, and crafts. My favorite holiday store.

Party City- A surprising amount of Halloween stuff out already, with more to come. Not my style, as much of it is gory and macabre, but a lot of Halloween to look at.

JoAnn's- A slightly below average showing, with much more generic Fall/Autumn & Thanksgiving stuff out this year.

Lowe's & Home Depot- Each year, these stores feature less and less Halloween. At Lowe's, there was already more Christmas stuff out compared to Halloween.

Tuesday Morning- Very disappointing. Hardly anything this year.

Final Tally:  6 Below Average showings, 3 Above Average Showings

Halloween is the second biggest retail holiday in America. And while the stock market is at a record high, I've read several articles lately pointing to the fact that while the top 1-5% of America is enjoying significant financial gains, the other 95-99% of America continues to reside in recession territory. Could this be why this year's Halloween showing is a bit weak?

3 Months Till Christmas

Baby Holidays and I stopped by the big Tuesday Morning store and took a few pics.

Surgical Strike

Mrs. Holidays, Baby Holidays, and I stopped in at Tuesday Morning, and while looking for something to help Mrs. Holidays out at school, we saw that the Halloween section had a 40% off sale. As a result, we grabbed the following things:

One wreath for Spirit Grove, one wreath for Grandmother Holidays, 2 more hanging ornaments for the Halloween trees, and a little Halloween blanket for Baby Holidays.  All for only $7. Can't say enough about this store.

Another Tuesday Morning & Home Goods

Baby Holidays and I drove over to a bigger Tuesday Morning across town. The Halloween section was disappointing, but the Christmas section was spectacular.  We'll come back again to take a bunch of pics before the '3 months till Christmas' post on September 25.  I will say that Baby Holidays lit up when he saw the Christmas goodies.  Looks like we may have a Christmas lover on our hands.

Afterward, we revisited our local Home Goods store and I was excited to see that they had put a few, new things out.  Here are some pics:

More Halloween Tree Ornaments

Went to Tuesday Morning and got 5 more ornaments for only $6. This brings the ornament total to 17 which should be enough. Next on the tree list will be garland.

Tuesday Morning

While Mother in Law Holidays graciously babysat Baby Holidays for 4 1/2 hours this afternoon, Mrs. Holidays and I got out and about. We happened to walk into a Tuesday Morning store, and much to our surprise, we left having purchased $5.90 of Halloween tree ornaments. What a bargain for all this cool stuff!

All but one of these ornaments will be hung from our two outdoor artificial trees. The black & white cat ornament will be an indoor decoration.