Halloween Merchandise Now Available
By Jeff Moffitt
@moffittjc (120986)
Gainesville, Florida
August 17, 2024 9:13am CST
Several of you know that I work at Lowe's, a home improvement retailer. Well, yesterday, our reset team completed their weeklong project to set up all the Halloween displays and merchandise. Way too early if you ask me, but I guess the competition to be the first to market is pretty fierce, so retailers are always looking to be a step ahead of their competitors. Anyway, I can't believe we're already heading into the spooky season when summer is not even over yet! But since it's my favorite time of the year, I really have no complaints.
As has been the trend the past few years, the giant yard animatronic skeletons lead the way. Some of these have become so popular that people leave them up in their yards all year long and then just decorate their clothing/outerwear based on the season or holiday.
As much as I love the super scary stuff, my daughter and girlfriend don't, so we stick to the more family-friendly stuff. And, being a huge Disney fan, we typically will base our holiday decorations on Disney-themed merchandise. You can see from the photo that there is a nice size Halloween Mickey Mouse inflatable available that I will probably purchase and put in my yard this year.
Are you a fan of Halloween, and if so, do you like to decorate (either outside or inside)?
12 people like this
11 responses
@LindaOHio (171927)
• United States
18 Aug
We don't get any trick-or-treaters where we are; and we don't decorate for Halloween. Have a great day.
2 people like this
@moffittjc (120986)
• Gainesville, Florida
18 Aug
You know what's funny? I don't get any trick-or-treaters in my neighborhood either (it's a gated community of mostly older/established families), but I still decorate my yard to the max. When I first moved to this community, I was the only one who decorated. But with each passing year, I've noticed that other houses have started decorating too, and each year more and more join the fun.
2 people like this
@moffittjc (120986)
• Gainesville, Florida
20 Aug
@LindaOHio It is fun to see everyone getting into the spirit. The same thing is happening with Christmas too, where more and more houses are decorating with each passing year.
1 person likes this
@snowy22315 (177348)
• United States
17 Aug
It has been for awhile, and I saw a fall decoration with a turkey head in it. Gasp!
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (120986)
• Gainesville, Florida
17 Aug
Where did you see the fall decoration, at a store, or set up in somebody's yard?
1 person likes this
@snowy22315 (177348)
• United States
17 Aug
@moffittjc in a store. I love Halloween stuff too
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@moffittjc (120986)
• Gainesville, Florida
17 Aug
@snowy22315 I'm excited that the Halloween merchandise is out, but I will admit that it seems a little too early. But I don't care, I still love looking at it all.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (65837)
• United States
17 Aug
Wow, Halloween stuff? In August?? Why are they so late in putting it out?! They usually have Christmas stuff out by now! 
No kidding, my neighbor across the street already has a skeleton on her door.
No kidding, my neighbor across the street already has a skeleton on her door.1 person likes this
@FourWalls (65837)
• United States
17 Aug
@moffittjc — yeah, way too early to put it out in Florida…unless you want to decorate Georgia, that is. 
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (120986)
• Gainesville, Florida
17 Aug
@FourWalls I don't like Georgia, so I certainly don't want to decorate them for Halloween. Unless of course it is to put on a silly costume and make them look like fools! haha
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (120986)
• Gainesville, Florida
17 Aug
She's a little early in putting out that skeleton! My daughter was pushing me the other day to start pulling our Halloween decorations out and setting them up, but I reminded her that we are still in the midst of hurricane season, and approaching the peak of the season. I don't want to put all my decorations up only to take them all down if another hurricane comes through our area.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (120986)
• Gainesville, Florida
22 Aug
It is definitely my favorite holiday, mostly because it finally signals a change in weather. And when you’ve been suffering in our Florida heat and humidity for months on end, you just can’t wait for fall to arrive. And for us it usually arrives around Halloween.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (120986)
• Gainesville, Florida
28 Aug
@just4him Wow, that's pretty cool. I would love to see snow on Halloween. Or anytime, for that matter.
1 person likes this
@just4him (317036)
• Green Bay, Wisconsin
23 Aug
@moffittjc I sometimes see snow on Halloween. Not often, but enough to make me hopeful for a good winter.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (120986)
• Gainesville, Florida
17 Aug
With your profession as a teacher, I can understand that the fall season is probably not your favorite. But for us living down in the depths of hell--I mean Florida--we desperately look forward to fall because it means we survived two things: the oven we call weather that we've been baking in for months, and hurricanes. So I desperately look forward to fall and it excites me that the weather finally starts cooling down a little bit.
1 person likes this
@NJChicaa (118750)
• United States
17 Aug
@moffittjc I get it since the weather there sucks.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (120986)
• Gainesville, Florida
17 Aug
@NJChicaa It does suck, although this weekend is supposed to be very nice. When I walked out my front door yesterday morning to go to work, I didn't get hit by that wall of humidity and heat I'm so used to feeling. It was actually nice and cool outside. Apparently, our first cold front of the season came through. Our highs will still be in the 90s, but it will be low 90s instead of high 90s, and the humidity has dropped considerably. It won't last, but at least it will be a pleasant weekend.
Oh, and further responding to your comment above, you are not lying about the Christmas stuff being put out soon. We're already getting Christmas merchandise shipped into our store. It won't be long before we have that out.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (120986)
• Gainesville, Florida
22 Aug
The interest in decorating for Halloween has been growing steadily every year. It’s become a huge business for both Home Depot and Lowe’s, especially because people want those damn 12-ft skeletons to put in their yards.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (120986)
• Gainesville, Florida
27 Aug
@porwest It’s crazy how people try to out do each other in the size of their yard decorations and holiday setups.
1 person likes this
@porwest (85968)
• United States
22 Aug
@moffittjc I can't disagree with that. It's definitely become a "thing."
1 person likes this
@Juliaacv (50342)
• Canada
17 Aug
That is funny that you mention Halloween, this week one of the twins was babbling away to me.
She talks really fast, and sometimes it is difficult to decipher exactly what the message is, but I know that she was talking about dressing up for trick or treating. At their young age, the best part of Halloween is dressing up and ringing doorbells, treats are a given at that age, not sugary ones, but treat just the same.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (120986)
• Gainesville, Florida
22 Aug
I still vividly recall dressing up as a young child to go trick or treating. I’m pretty sure my earliest memory was when I was in kindergarten. I don’t remember anything about the candy, but I clearly remember going door to door in the neighborhood, as well as why costume I was wearing. It was a superhero costume.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (120986)
• Gainesville, Florida
22 Aug
Me too. I love the scary stuff, but no one else in my household does.
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@JESSY3236 (19641)
• United States
20 Aug
I used to dress up every Halloween. But I now just wear a Halloween shirt. I had to buy a new shirt last year. It's cute. It has cats dressed up in ghost costumes. I do put out a few decorations inside. I used to help my uncle with the trunk or treat at his church.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (120986)
• Gainesville, Florida
21 Aug
I used to dress up every Halloween as well, but it's been a few years since I've last donned a costume. I am going to dress up this year, because my daughter's 25th birthday falls right before Halloween, and she is having a big SpongeBob Squarepants themed birthday party, in which everyone has to dress up as a character from the cartoon.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (120986)
• Gainesville, Florida
18 Aug
Halloween is definitely getting bigger and bigger here as well. It used to be all about the trick-or-treating, but these days it doesn't seem as safe to let kids go door to door asking for candy, so I think people are now focusing less on that and more on the decorating aspects of the holiday.
1 person likes this
@moffittjc (120986)
• Gainesville, Florida
17 Aug
It sure is! But that's how our society has become, at least here in the US. It's all about making money, and the sooner retailers can get their holiday merchandise out on the shelves, the more money they can make from it.
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