In the UK it used to be that Bonfire Night was a more prominent celebration than Halloween but this seems to be changing, perhaps influenced by social media. The tradition of dressing up and visiting door to door has long existed in the UK – it was traditionally called guising in Scotland and Ireland. Pumpkin carving in the US probably originated in these areas with turnip lantern carving when immigrants couldn’t find turnips and resorted to pumpkins instead.
Trick or treating it seems, prompts the purchase of confectionery, and this is reflected in a rise in the average basket spend for stores for Halloween week (£8.60 vs £8.08 the previous week) in 2020.
Halloween Average Basket Spend Per Store (all products)
Though the average spend increases, this isn’t necessarily all based on Halloween specific items. There were 54 ‘Halloween specific’ confectionery barcodes sold, but none featured in the top selling barcodes when looking at all confectionery barcodes.
We counted 563 ‘Halloween’ barcodes sold between the 19th Oct and 8th Nov 2020, including:
957 pumpkins
404 toffee apples
351 witches’ hats
258 Halloween make-up sets
And Halloween isn’t all about confectionery – Let’s not forget the spooktacular costumes and party decorations! A quarter of all sales from ‘Halloween specific’ barcodes were for non-food items such as costumes, decorations, make-up, toys and tableware.
Top 5 Halloween
barcodes
| Barcode | Product | Share of sales |
| 5027342001316 | Brothers toffee apple cider | 26% |
| 5000221604655 | Cadbury Mini Bonfire Logs | 8% |
| 5000221505228 | Kipling Toffee Terror Whirls | 7% |
| 5000221501053 | Mr Kipling Fiendish Fancies | 7% |
| 505552407727 | Scary Carving Pumpkin | 5% |
Top 10 Confectionary Barcodes 19th Oct - 8th Nov 2020
| Barcode | Product |
| 76222104497383 | Cadbury Dairy Milk 95g PMP 100 |
| 7613039869048 | Nestle Aero Peppermint block 90g |
| 5012035962401 | Haribo Tangfastics Bag 160g pmp100 |
| 5000159501745 | Galaxy milk chocolate block 110g pmp100 |
| 40099361 | WrigleysExtra Peppermint sugar free chewing gum 14g |
| 40084107 | Kinder Surprise Egg 20g |
| 7622210654175 | Maynards Bassetts Wine Gums 165g pmp100 |
| 5020379153959 | Happy Shopper Raisins Chocolate bitesize 100g pmp89 2 for £1.50 |
| 5010478468917 | Swizzles Drumstick Squashies Original Raspberry & milk gums 145g pmp100 |
| 5000159503631 | Maltesers Treat Bag Chocolate Bitesize 68g pmp100 |
