It’s early July, and I am working at my summer job. Near the end of my shift, I get a notification talking about Summerween. Now, Summerween isn’t a new concept to me because I love Gravity Falls and immediately knew what it meant. Oh, how wrong I was.
I clicked the notification, and to my dismay, I saw that Summerween boiled down to releasing the Halloween collection in the summer. But it didn’t stop there: store after store starting releasing their Halloween decorations early under the disguise of ‘Summerween,’ when in reality, they were trying to sell you either new cheaply-made decorations or just releasing the Halloween merchandise early. It isn’t new for retail stores to maximize their profits by releasing seasonal decor about three months early, but at some point, this needs to stop.
Halloween is one of those weird day-long holidays that blend in with seasonal decorations. Unlike Christmas, when Halloween is over, it’s basically time to see an inflatable Santa on every balcony or front yard in my neighborhood. Halloween is just a subset of fall decor. Even in the springtime, it’s difficult to find spring decorations that aren’t Easter themed. Halloween is not the only decoration for the fall season, and while we might see someone have a 70 foot skeleton all year around, people usually decorate for the seasons.
If retail stores want to maximize their profits, then why is Halloween becoming like other corporate holidays? I see Halloween Advent calendars now, which you think would be worth your money because instead of a Christmas advent calendar where you only get 24 days of goodies, you now get 31. Of course, it’s still at the same level of quality: cheap.
Another issue is the ‘boo basket’. Halloween isn’t the only holiday with its own “basket” now, but what screams overconsumption and corporate holiday more than a basket of overpriced, mediocre Halloween themed items? And the big point is to spend money to make it aesthetically pleasing and to give someone seasonal Halloween items. Sure, it might seem nice to give someone a surprise basket for the Halloween season, but…. why? What is the point? I love Halloween seasonal items as much as anyone. I have a ghost waffle maker, but I do not need to have a basket for makeup, a water bottle or a blanket when I already have perfectly good items.
Now, not all boo baskets are created equal. It’s nice to receive a small basket made with thought and care, like a care package, but nobody needs these overzealous baskets of stuff that will end up in a landfill because of their poor quality.
Because Halloween is so beloved — you get free candy or treats and you can dress up without judgement — it's perfect to be ruined by corporations. The amount of pictures I’ve seen of someone who got a costume of a character only for the wig to be the wrong color and the clothes to look tacky is astounding.
Now, there are obviously some good places to get costumes but the quality of any items, not just costumes, has gone down. The reason why Target has items for $5 or less is because they’re so low quality that they will be lucky to last more than one Halloween. The same goes for Michael’s: they have a $50 painted ghost art piece, which one Instagram user replicated for half the price. We are being used and tricked for our money by companies, and it’s sad to see a fun spooky holiday get ruined by corporations. On the bright side, at least everything is on sale the day after Halloween so that they can push it all out for the next corporate holiday.