The trend: Walmart has begun rolling out “Summer Frights” Halloween displays in about 1,000 stores across the US, featuring quirky early-season items like watermelon jack-o’-lanterns and ghost plushies in Hawaiian shirts.
- The retailer will also debut a DIY pumpkin head figure during its upcoming July Deals event, running July 8–13, per Axios.
- Most items are priced between $1 and $10.
Zooming out: Walmart’s Summer Frights rollout follows Michaels’ Summerween launch, which dropped even before the summer solstice.
- Both retailers are tapping into consumers’ growing appetite for playful, off-season Halloween décor, which has been gaining traction on TikTok and Instagram.
- Unexpectedly early drops drive shoppers to share their finds on social, turning seasonal products into viral moments. Walmart’s Summerween Velvet Plush Throw, for instance, has already sold out in some designs, signaling strong early demand.
- While Michaels was first to market with Halloween merchandise this year, Walmart’s scale and savvy timing could help push the early-Halloween craze into the mainstream.
Our take: Walmart is smart to embrace offbeat retail moments like Summerween.
- While consumers are cutting back on discretionary spending, they continue to splurge on seasonal celebrations like Halloween and the holidays.
- Halloween alone has become a major retail event, with spending hitting $11.6 billion last year—a 31.8% increase from pre-pandemic 2019.
- Summerween pulls some of that spending forward and gives budget-conscious shoppers a playful reason to open their wallets—even if they’re feeling spooked by the economy.
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