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Halloween sales have bounced back after last year's sniper-induced slump. Date published: 10/25/2003 By CATHY JETT Shoppers spooked by the snipers last October are toning down the scare factor this Halloween, area retailers say. They're snapping up kinder, gentler decorations and costumes, such as the Incredible Hulk and huge, inflatable pumpkins. "In the last couple of years, there's been so much going on," said Bonnie Seay, manager of Fantasy, a Falmouth costume shop. "First there was 9/11, then you had the snipers and then the hurricane. People are tired of bad things; they're looking for things that are uplifting and cutesy." Customers at her store are looking for everything from cartoon characters to period clothing to the traditional black-hatted Halloween witch outfit, she said. "One youngster wanted to be Santa Claus," Seay said. "We even had a costume that fit." Halloween almost didn't happen in this area last year after snipers went on a shooting spree that included the Oct. 4 wounding of a woman outside a Michaels Arts and Crafts store near Spotsylvania Mall and the Oct. 11 killing of a Philadelphia man at the Four-Mile Fork Exxon. Suspects John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo were arrested eight days before the holiday, and Muhammad is now on trial in Virginia Beach. Kim Rose, Michaels' manager, remembers sales ground to a halt the day of the shooting there, but snapped back after the arrests. "We had our customers, but they were more careful about shopping. They were zigzagging across the parking lot [to reduce the chance of getting shot] to get inside," she said. Sales are stronger this year, Rose said, although she did not have any figures earlier this week. Shoppers at her store are buying pumpkins, scarecrows and spider webs to decorate their front lawns, and strands of pumpkin lights to string along window frames, she said. "Anything that's got a light in it seems to be real popular this year," Rose said. "Everybody seems to be lighting up the world." Nationwide, Halloween sales are expected to be about the same as last year, said Ellen Tolley of the National Retail Federation. The Washington-based organization's 2003 Halloween Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey found that 55.8 percent of consumers plan to celebrate the holiday and will spend an average of $41.77. Last year they spent about $44.20.
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