With just a few weeks until Halloween, shoppers across the country are encountering bare store shelves and 'sold out' signs online as they hunt for decorations and costumes.
Roxanne Shakeri went to at least four different stores in the Los Angeles area last month in search of Halloween decorations.
Historically at this point in the year, Spirit Halloween would have delivered some 90-plus percent of merchandise to its stores, the seasonal retailer's CEO, Steven Silverstein, told NBC News. But as of Tuesday, the company had only sent out around 80 percent, he said. The rest should be delivered by the third week in October — about a week before Halloween.Silverstein said the impact of the shipping delay has been building since spring.
This year, the company also has had issues getting large props and some common things, such as the mask from the “Scream” slasher movies.“We have customers asking for them every day, and we just got those in today. Normally we would have those in the middle of September,” she said Tuesday. “We've just been keeping our fingers crossed and trying to stay on top of everything else, so that when the product does come in, we can quickly turn it around and get it out on the shelf,” she said.
“It's just a very high number,” he said. “It's across the board. It's not one company; it's all manufacturers. And it's not one kind of product; it's all the different things that we sell. It's all the costumes, the wigs and masks and makeup. They all have different issues when it comes to getting in.”
While supply has been unquestionably lower this year, Silverstein said he believes demand also has been higher, stemming in part from “pent-up demand from last year,” when Halloween was effectively canceled.
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