The end of October is the favorite time of year for many families who take part in seasonal festivities, but for some, the scariest thing about Halloween this year, is the cost. “Love Halloween. It’s like our favorite time of year. We start decorating in September usually,” said Sarah Torraville, who has a family of six. “Too much. I have four daughters, and the budget is like $300 to $400 for costumes, which is pretty hard.” The Torraville family aren’t the only ones cutting back. “Usually certain neighborhoods you go through, they have so many different decorations all over the place, and they go all out. This year, I’ve noticed not as many people have been decorating, and I think a lot of that factor has to do with prices,” said Tyler Torraville. At costume store Spirit Halloween, staff say they’ve had to make changes too amid rising costs of living. “Unfortunately, the coupons have really minimized this year. They used to do, like, a month to two months of coupons, and this year it’s really only three to four days at a time. So that’s really the way I think they save to keep prices down at Spirit Halloween,” said store manager Joelle Desjardins. Regardless of the cost, Desjardins says demand is still strong, especially with Halloween falling on a Friday. “It’s insane. Insane, insane. I mean, Halloween’s on a Friday this year, so there’s a bunch of parties. I’m noticing that families are buying different costumes, two at a time, different kinds, because they have a party on Friday and Saturday,” she said. Some shoppers, like the Lafortunes, have a long-standing tradition of going to the same Halloween party every year. “The person who hosts this party goes to a lot of effort. He sends out an invitation that looks like a professional video production. And so we like that group of friends and it’s fun,” said Jennifer Lafortune. But even these longtime Halloween fans say they’re feeling the difference in cost. “It’s gone up a little bit. Yeah. We used to make our costumes you know, try and pick a thing and you’d end up making your costumes. This year we’re getting lazy, and we decided to come see what we could do. Getting older, lazier,” said Rob Lafortune. For the kids, the fun is still front and centre, no matter the cost. “I thought of a killer clown and, yeah, I want to do a killer clown,” said daughter Melodie Torraville.
