strategist round table
By Jen Trolio, Ambar Pardilla, and Ashley Wolfgang
Photo-Illustration: The Strategist; Photos: Retailers
Real Halloween Heads know that shopping begins promptly in July when Home Depot restocks its giant 12-foot-tall skeleton and the spooky edition of Anthropologie’s Mystic glasses become available for pre-order. Turns out, the Strategist has several of its very own spooky-season ambassadors: senior editor Jen Trolio, who called her local Costco multiple times to get her hands on 2024’s hottest skelly;writer Ambar Pardilla, who monitors Halloween-themed Reddit threads year-round to keep up with the latest décor drops; and newsletter editor Ashley Wolfgang, who follows spooky influencers and goes all out with decorations. We brought them together to discuss what they are currently excited about.
Explain the halloween retailscape to me.
Jen Trolio: In the past few years, it’s been established among the real Halloween Heads that once July 5 hits, it is the start of spooky season. So decorations start showing up in July.
Ambar Pardilla: Everything is released online as soon as possible, then it kind of goes into stores slowly from now into August and September, and they refresh things and bring newthings out so there is still interest throughout the season.
J.T.: I cannot deny being very giddy about the cool stuff, but I only shop for it in July out of necessity in order to get things I want before they sell out. I won’t actually decorate before September 1. The first place to start looking are the arts-and-crafts supplies storeslike Joann Fabrics and Michaels. I would say that they are the very first stores to release Halloween stuff in July. Then it’s the TJ Maxxes, Marshalls, and HomeGoods. You’ll also start to see people share stuff online with the hashtag “Code Orange,” which means it’s here. Target dropped stuff online last week and it sold out right away. Home Depot just had a big drop. I watched its press preview last week. It’s celebrating five years of the 12-foot skeleton this year, which definitely changed the game.
A.P.:There are even a bunch of Facebook groups just on the skeleton. I’m not in any, but I will sometimes lurk on the main 12-Foot Skeleton Owners Group and live vicariously through them. People will post things like “if you want the 12-foot skeleton, it is at this Home Depot and there’s five of them left.” People will look in stores rather than online because things just sell out so quickly online.
J.T.:There’s also a cohort of skeleton owners who leave their 12-foot skeletons up year-round and dress them up for changing seasons.
A.P.: It’s $400. You want to get the most out of it.
J.T.: It’s $299 this year! They’re really pushing affordability.
Is anything else new this year?
A.P.:I think Home Depothas realized how popular it is so now it releases different versions of the skeleton each year. This year Home Depot hasa version that’s made out of wood, the 12.5 ft. Giant-Sized Inferno Deadwood Skeleton, that has a very creepy smile.
J.T.: It’s added more large things, too, like the Skelly’s Dog. I know some people who got up at 5 a.m. to order it and the giant skelly during the Home Depot drop. It also upgraded the original skeleton, which is kind of a big deal.It gave the moving, light-up eyes eight settings this year so now you can have hearts in the eyes or fireworks in the eyes or flames in the eyes or just the traditional, regular eyes for people who keep it up year-round.And Lowe’s is doing big stuff; it has a Kraken that’s been difficult to get.I mean, lots of places are jumping on the giant décor thing. This time last year, Party City had just tried to get its foot in the door with Rattles, the giant groundbreaker skeleton.
A.P.: They all have names. It’s funny.
J.T.:This year, the hot one to get, which was delivered to my house yesterday, is the Costco Giant Ground Breaking Skeleton. There is a significant difference in price if you buy it in the warehouse for $250 or online for $330. I had planned to go get it in the warehouse until I realized what a frenzy there was.It started to go viral the weekend before July 4 when people started seeing it in warehouses and sharing it online. I called a couple times to check on a restock and once, when I asked if they could check an item for me, right away, the person on the phone said: “Are you calling about the skeleton? You must be the three-millionth person today.” This was before it opened, at 10 a.m., and she said the phone had been ringing since she got in at 7:30. It was overwhelming and inconvenient so I threw some money at the (very first-world) “problem” and ordered it online when it came back in stock on July 5. Other retailers are selling versions as well, though.At Home is selling a giant groundbreaker. Party City is still selling the giant groundbreaker. Joann launched one. Tractor Supply Company launched one, and they’re all a little different. But that’s a new thing this year — multiple, giant groundbreakers.
How are you keeping track of all of these drops?
A.P.: I feel like Facebook groups are definitely a way, but people are pretty good on Reddit.
J.T.: What is your go-to sub on Reddit for this?
A.P.: There is a big Halloween one, which is alittle bit chaotic but I do like it. People are very opinionated. If someone likessomething almost everyone likes it, and if people hate something everyone hates it. I also follow one called Halloween Decorations.
J.T.: I just kind of bop around and lurk to see what people are excited about, but I do like the 12 Foot Skeleton Owners Group on Facebook. There are 273.7 thousand members.There was a lot of chatter with the Home Depot launch about whether people are going for the original skeleton or the new Skelly’s Dog this year. I’ve also seen a group called Let’s Go Halloween Shopping where people just kind of show off what they’re seeingand finding in stores, and it’s really interesting.
Ashley Wolfgang: I follow this influencer Safiya Nygaard, who I think used to work at BuzzFeed, and now she’s become a full-on spooky influencer. She’s always posting super-spooky stuff.
What other launches are people excited about?
A.P.:Jen and I messagedeach other the other day about West Elm’s collection this year. I feel like a lot of the focus is obviouslyon, like, Home Depot,Target, but stores like West Elm, Pottery Barn, Anthropologie,they release smaller collections that are cute and fun. One of the things that we saw from West Elm that we both loved were these very realistic eye boxes that kind of are John Derian–esque.
J.T.: It’s like a Lover’s eye on a trinket box.
A.P.: Very Victorian.
J.T.: I’m annoyed at the shipping price, but I think I might need to buy it before we post this story because I do really want it.
A.P.: It also has a trinket tray and a taper candleholder that are very creepy and cool, and it feels like something that would have been in the Targetx John Derian collab a couple years ago, which was also very big.
J.T.: Many retailers now lean into the fact that there’s a Halloween aesthetic for everyone. So you can be traditional and you can have skeletons and ghouls and goblins and pumpkins and witches, or you can be more kind of adjacently spooky and that’s where West Elm a lot of times will do stuff with snakes or black flowers. There’s a lot of Halloween stuff that now just fits your regular home décor, like this Woven Skull from Grandin Road.
A.W.: Ikea also has some cute stuff. It has cute little throw pillows and tea-light holders.
A.P.:I feel like pillows are a big thing in the Halloween world.Pottery Barn has this ghost pillow — it’s very cute — and every year it comes out with a new one. This year there is one with a bat for a bow. Having spooky glassware is big too. Anthropologiehas this glass cupthat gets a new motif for every holiday. Last year for Halloween it did it in pumpkinand ghost form and people went wild for that one.
J.T.: There was an evil eye earlier this summer and now it has the Halloween collection again this year. Pottery Barn has a selection of a very similar glass this year, too.
Has anyone done any in-person shopping yet?
J.T.: I have taken a spin through my local Marshalls to kind of see if there’s anything out, and there hasn’t been much in my particular location. But seeing some of the photos that the diehards are posting on Facebook, there are definitely stores that have aisles’ worth of stuff. Marshalls has an $80 sculpture of a ghost walking a dog, and you will see people posting the same photo over and over and over again and saying “not my photo, but this is my desperately in search of I will pay a finder’s fee” or“if you see this, can you buy it and ship it to me?”I love to observe, but I am not participating in that.
A.P.:Me either, but I know of people who have bought the John Derian Target pillow secondhand or things like that that are limited edition. I would not pay double what it cost, but do you, I guess.
J.T.: Yeah, I can’t bring myself to get so sucked up in it that I’m like, I’ll pay over retail to someone on Facebook in Nevada who found this thing, but I can see how people get sucked in. It’s just fun. Like the John Derian skeleton pillow Ambar mentioned, which we both have, I think was $60 retail but people have paid $400 or more for it on eBay. I have not felt the need to cash in yet. There’s actually a pretty good dupe for it at Joann’s.
$48
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