The Halloween Creep: What Early Fall Traffic Tells Us About Neighborhood Retail

October 1, 2026

Halloween may fall on October 31, but for retailers, spooky season is arriving earlier than ever.

Pumpkins are appearing on shelves while temperatures are still climbing, seasonal collections are dropping before students head back to school and consumers are increasingly treating Halloween less like a single-day celebration and more like the beginning of the fall shopping season.

The numbers support the shift. Nearly half of Halloween shoppers now begin purchasing in September or earlier, according to the National Retail Federation. At Michaels, that early enthusiasm has been particularly visible: searches for “Summerween” surged 530% year over year, while the retailer reports that 70% of its customers plan to DIY at least some of their Halloween décor.

And this year, DIY appears to be having a moment.

But what happens when that behavior moves beyond the individual retailer and into the shopping center?

At Westwood Financial, early foot-traffic data from two Dallas-area neighborhood centers provides an interesting glimpse into how tenant mix may influence the beginning of the fall shopping season.

Something Is Brewing at Old Town

At Old Town Shopping Center in Dallas, August visits increased 11.35% year over year, according to Advan Research.

The center’s Michaels location saw visits increase 2.17% year over year during the same month, while Tom Thumb—the property’s grocery anchor—recorded a 4.31% increase.

Compare that with Legacy Ranch, a grocery-anchored neighborhood center farther north in the Dallas market. Anchored by Kroger and featuring a more traditional necessity-based tenant mix, overall August traffic remained relatively flat year over year.

It is too early to attribute Old Town’s growth to any single tenant or consumer trend. But the divergence raises an interesting question:

As Halloween moves earlier on the retail calendar, could a broader tenant mix give neighborhood centers more ways to capture the fall consumer?

“Consumer behavior is constantly evolving, and today we are seeing trends take hold faster than ever,” said Lauren Ball, Chief Operating Officer at Westwood Financial. “Social media has accelerated the way consumers discover, participate in and move on trends. That makes a diverse tenant mix increasingly important. When a center can bring together everyday needs like grocery with categories such as arts and crafts, dining and services, it creates more opportunities to meet consumers where their interests are at any given moment.”

Halloween Isn’t Just Candy Anymore

Today’s Halloween consumer is shopping for considerably more than a bag of candy on October 31.

Décor, crafts, costumes, entertaining and experiences have expanded the holiday’s retail footprint, and DIY is becoming an increasingly important part of it. Michaels reported a 290% increase in searches for Halloween fabric and a 128% increase in searches for DIY Halloween, while searches for Halloween crochet kits climbed 583%.

That changes when Halloween traffic can begin.

A grocery store naturally captures candy, food and entertaining purchases as October 31 approaches. A craft or specialty retailer can give consumers a reason to start visiting weeks—or even months—earlier.

At a neighborhood center like Old Town, those uses exist alongside one another.

The result is a property positioned to participate in multiple parts of the same consumer occasion: the shopper looking for supplies to make a costume, the household decorating its front porch, the parent navigating back-to-school season and the customer making their regular grocery run.

And while DIY may be particularly relevant this Halloween, the underlying consumer trend is broader. What captures attention one season may look completely different the next.

The Trick May Be in the Mix

Grocery remains the foundation of necessity-based neighborhood retail. Its recurring traffic and connection to consumers’ everyday routines are precisely what make grocery-anchored centers resilient.

But the early fall numbers at Old Town offer a reminder that the stores surrounding the grocery anchor matter, too.

The right merchandising mix can create additional reasons to visit a property beyond the weekly grocery trip. Seasonal and specialty retailers can tap into cultural moments earlier, while grocery and service-oriented tenants continue serving everyday needs.

“We aren’t trying to predict the next trend; we’re focused on creating centers that can participate in them,” Ball said. “DIY is resonating with consumers right now, and having an arts and crafts retailer alongside a strong grocery anchor gives a center multiple ways to capture that activity. In the right market, that kind of complementary mix is very attractive to us because it can evolve alongside the consumer while grocery continues to provide the everyday foundation.”

In an environment where consumers are stretching holidays into seasons and trends can move from a social feed to a shopping list seemingly overnight, that flexibility matters.

August is still early. September and October traffic will tell us considerably more about whether the pattern continues as Halloween approaches.

But perhaps the biggest takeaway so far is fitting for the season:

Halloween traffic may be creeping up when we least expect it.