Every fall it seems like all anyone can ever talk about is “Oh I can’t believe someone is selling pumpkin spice potato chips” or “Really, do we need pumpkin spice shoelaces?” So it may be refreshing to know that when it comes to pumpkins, we’re spending more money to carve them up than we are on buying into the latest pumpkin-flavored craze.
First of all, let’s just note that “pumpkin spice” products don’t necessarily contain pumpkin flavors: instead, they’re often redolent of spices simply associated with the gourd, like cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves, and nutmeg.
That being said, Americans will spend about $650 million this year on pumpkins that they’re not planning on eating, MarketWatch reports, citing a prediction from personal finance site finder.com.
The site arrived at that number by multiplying the average price of a pumpkin in September 2016 ($4.35) by the percentage of people who said they’ll carve a jack-o-lantern this year (46% of Americans), according to the National Retail Federation.
In comparison, pumpkin-flavored product sales — anything from pie filling to dog food — are expected to reach $424.5 million this year.
All told, Halloween will be more expensive for shoppers this year in general: we’re predicted to spend $8.4 billion on the holiday (not including pumpkin spice products), a sharp uptick from the $6.9 billion we shelled out on candy, costumes, decorations, greeting cards, and yes, actual pumpkins last year.
If you thought the pumpkin spice craze was a bit much, look at this number [MarketWatch]
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist
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