Halloween Scares Off Chain Store Shoppers

A research report suggests that the growing popularity of Halloween as a shopping holiday cut into chain store sales the last week of October, resulting in a sales dip of 0.6 percent from a year ago.

“The month began with strength, as shoppers hastened to catch up with fall shopping,” said Instinet Research, “but momentum waned following Columbus Day holiday sales.

“The final week also was affected by Halloween,” the report continued, “which boosted volume at those stores that cater to it, but kept shoppers away from other stores.”

Instinet Research is a division of Instinet, a Reuters-owned electronic brokerage.