A full third of goods sold in the U.S. are impacted by weather, according to a report from the Weather Channel. That’s
good news for some retailers such as grocery stores and home
improvement centers, who can profit by making sure their shelves stay
stocked with essentials like milk, bread, flashlights and duct tape. But
what about costumes and candy?
The conditions are ripe for the making of a Halloween nightmare for
retailers who rely on seasonal sales of everything from fake blood to
fun size candy bars as weather forecasters are calling for an epic
“Frankenstorm” to pound the East Coast into next week. Meteorologists
are predicting a 90% chance that Hurricane Sandy (currently Category 1) –which has already claimed 29 lives in the Caribbean– will collide with a winter storm and last through Wednesday of next week.
Jim Cisco, a forecaster at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) who coined the term Frankenstorm, told CBS
News, “We don’t have many modern precedents for what the models are
suggesting.” Now estimated to to cause $1 billion in damage this has
even bigger potential to disrupt retail than last year’s freak Halloween
snowstorm or the soaking that Hurricane Irene dumped on back-to-school
sales in late August 2011.
This comes on the heels of an upbeat prediction by the National Retail Federation (NRF) which found that seven in 10 Americans will be celebrating Halloween,
the most in NRF’s 10-year survey history. Their findings indicate that
consumers are expected to spend almost $80 on decorations, costumes and
candy, and total spending on the holiday is expected to reach $8
billion.
NRF’s senior director of Media Relations Kathy Grannis tells me, “The
biggest impact will be regional, but the chances of this storm hitting
any company’s bottom line are slim. People have been shopping for
Halloween items for a full month by now and there’s more than likely not
a lot of inventory that is left by now. Local companies may see less
foot traffic but overall the impact will remain where the heart of the
storm hits.”
Image via The Weather Channel
www.forbes.com
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