Halloween spending is expected to hit an all-time high. But here's the trick: treat yourself to a good deal when you find one.
Most of us are looking forward to celebrating Halloween this year, with nearly three-fourths (73%) of people expected to join in – the highest participation recorded in the National Retail Federation's annual survey. Halloween spending is expected to surpass $12 billion, according to the NFR survey, conducted Sept. 1-6 with 8,084 consumers about their shopping plans.
Even though inflation was expected to have a scary effect on the country's Halloween spending bill, this goes beyond an inflationary boost. “We’ve really seen an increase in the holiday’s popularity, and that is what’s driving spending this year,” Katherine Cullen, NRF's vice president of industry and consumer insights, said in a statement.
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Brands have boosted their social media activity ahead of Halloween "to promote a new or in-market product offering," Eileen Kwok, social marketing specialist for social media management company Hootsuite, shared.
And some of those involve deals, with one of the most successful – and, unfortunately, expired – promotions from Marvel and Party City giving kids 20% off superhero costumes, according to Hootsuite's analysis of social media data from X, formerly known as Twitter.
That deal ended Oct. 20, but some other deals are also scaring up engagement on social media, the company found. Burger King created a scary 60-second film called "The Call," to scare up excitement about the chain's Halloween-themed limited time items, the Ghost Pepper Whopper and Ghost Pepper Chicken Fries. As a result, the #GhostPepperWhopper hashtag became popular on TikTok for reviews of the sandwich, Kwok said.
Jack in the Box also posted a horror short called "Feeding Time," with an Easter egg that unlocks free Monster Tacos on the Jack app.
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The fast-food chain has launched a Trick or Heat game with its app giving you the chance to win a daily treat and members of the Royal Perks loyalty program can order special meals through Oct. 31:
Burger King is also offering limited edition "Trick or Heat" buckets for $1 at locations in four cities: Atlanta, Charlotte, N.C., Las Vegas, and Nashville, Tenn.
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It's easier than ever to take advantage of Chipotle's annual Halloween promotion because there's no costume required as in some past celebrations at the fast-casual chain.
Starting at 3 p.m. local time on Tuesday, Oct. 31, members of its Chipotle Rewards loyalty program can get $6 entrées – the burritos, tacos, bowls and salads typically cost about $10 to $12 – on the Chipotle app or Chipotle.com and use the promo code BOORITO (limit one per transaction). And closing time will be extended at some locations in 53 college towns, where Chipotle will stay open until midnight.
Through the rest of October, members of the Dunkin' Rewards loyalty program can get $1 off a half dozen classic donuts and $2 medium cold brew drinks (limit 1 per member). Limited-time menu items include the Spider Donut, Pumpkin Cake Donut and Pumpkin Muffin.
You can also get a free coffee on Monday, Oct. 30 (limit 1 per member per day).
Rewards members get triple points on purchases of hot or iced signature lattes.
Still available online is a six-foot-tall inflatable Spider Donut ($99.99 on the Dunkin website).
Wear your costume to Krispy Kreme on Halloween and get a free doughnut of your choice, no purchase necessary. That includes the all‑new Scooby-Doo Halloween Doughnuts the chain started serving earlier this month.
Wendy's has several Spooky Good Deals from Friday, Oct. 27 through Halloween in the Wendy's mobile app good at participating Wendy's for a limited time. Account registration is required and offers must be redeemed in the Wendy's App or on the Wendy's website. The offer is not valid for delivery orders placed outside of the Wendy's App or website.
From Sunday, Oct. 29 through Halloween, members of Smoothie King's Healthy Rewards loyalty program can get 15% off one app order daily including all smoothies and newest Smoothie Bowls including the Açai Cocoa Haze and Coco Pitaya-Yah.
Need a hand with your last-minute Halloween plans? DoorDash can deliver costumes, candy and more from Spirit Halloween, Party City/Halloween City, Aldi, CVS, Dollar General and DashMart, DoorDash's own convenience stores. Here are the deals:
You can get 60% off Halloween candy, decorations and costumes delivered by Uber Eats if you know your horror movies. At horrorcodes.com, each day there's a different horror film quote you can solve to get the discount code.
When you've solved it, open the Uber Eats app, go to your Account, then Promotions, then type in the quote as a promo code without spaces or punctuation. The discount will apply automatically across Uber Eats on candy, Halloween decor and costumes, and orders from Party City and Halloween City. (One redemption per customer, while supplies last. Terms apply. See horrorcodes.com for details. Codes vary between U.S. and Canada.)
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Red Lobster has a Crab Your Way deal on Tuesday, Oct. 31 – a pound of snow crab legs prepared your way over crispy potatoes, with a choice of one side for dine-in or to go (starts at $20, prices may be higher in some states and price excludes beverages, applicable taxes and gratuities, third-party delivery excluded).
The seafood chain also has family-sized meals such as the new Family Taco Meal Deal and the Ultimate Family Feast should you need dinner before or after trick-or-treating.
It's no trick. Kids eat for free at Denny's on Oct. 31 – for the record, they eat free every Tuesday at the restaurant chain. The deal is good from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. with an adult's order of an entrée of $6 or more. Children under the age of 10 can choose any entrée from the Denny’s Kids Menu including favorites such as Jr. Chocolate Chip Pancakes, Build Your Own Jr. Grand Slam, chicken tenders, and mac and cheese.
At Zaxby’s on Monday, Oct. 30 and Tuesday, Oct. 31, you can order in the Zaxby's app to get a special buy-one-get-one free offer for a Boneless Wings Meal with a choice of eight signature sauces, plus fries and Texas toast (starts at $7.99). In the app, you can join Zax Rewardz and earn points for purchases. Plus, when you join, you get a free 5-piece order of Chicken Fingerz.
You can add Auntie Anne's new Confetti Pretzel Nuggets to your Halloween gathering for 20% if you are a member of the pretzel chain's Auntie Anne’s Rewards program. Order within the app and you also get 20% off any drink (good through Nov. 13). Also, when you join the program, you get a free pretzel after your first order.
This Saturday through Halloween, Carvel is giving $5 off orders of $25 or more placed on delivery services Uber Eats, Grubhub and DoorDash. Newest treat option? The Cinnabon soft serve flavor.
Church's limited-time Texas-Sized Grande Meal ($30) comes with either 16-piece legs and thighs or 8-piece legs and thighs with eight tenders with Church’s Purple Pepper sauce, plus three large sides of mashed potatoes, coleslaw, mac and cheese, and six Honey-Butter Biscuits.
And while supplies last you can get a free Church's Trick-or-Treat bag with the purchase of any Church’s family meal.
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On Halloween, Jeremiah’s Italian Ice is offering a free small ice or gelati for anyone in costume from 5 p.m. until closing time. When you order treats, you can get Premium Layer-Ins and Flavorites for just $0.99.
There's also three new Halloween-themed Flavorites:
While you wait for Halloween arrival, you can go try the citrus-flavored Mountain Dew Pitch Black Slurpee, which is available for a limited time at 7-Eleven and Speedway stores. Members of the 7Rewards and Speedy Rewards loyalty programs can get small Slurpees for $1.
More 7-Eleven deals:
On Halloween at Baskin-Robbins, you can get 31% off scoops including Apple Cider Donut, made with pieces of apple cider donuts and cinnamon sugar. You can also get free delivery through DoorDash and Uber Eats until Nov. 8. Maybe treat yourself to the Zombie Unicorn Cake, made with a Oreo crumb-dipped cone and cake base, your favorite ice cream and cake flavors, with dark chocolate ears, green icing and red gel "blood."
On Tuesday, Oct. 31, get 50% off all traditional wings at participating Buffalo Wild Wings. Available for delivery, takeout or dine-in.
It's no trick. Sign up for Blaze Pizza's rewards loyalty program and all new app users will get a $5 off $15 reward within 5-10 minutes. Simply go to the ‘Rewards’ section of your account for use online or in-restaurant.
Also, you can win free pizza for a year as part of the #BlazeTrickorEatChallenge. Decorate yourself, your pizza, or a Blaze Pizza box for Halloween – your entry must feature one Blaze Pizza item, tag @BlazePizza and share it on Instagram with the hashtag #BlazeTrickorEatChallenge. For the official rules go to the Blaze Pizza web site. Don't delay, five finalists will be posted Oct. 30 and Instagram followers will get to vote.
Oh, there's also a special Halloween menu item: the Sausage Garlic pizza ($8.99) – Get it? Garlic. Vampires.
Scary videos have been big this Halloween with shorts released by Burger King and Jack in the Box. Four filmmakers have created short videos for Airheads candy's online A.I.Heads Scarefest and you can create your own, too, for a chance to win a year's supply of Airheads candy and a $2,000 cash prize. Submissions must be 1-to-3-minutes long and use artificial intelligence tools and the Airheads mascot (deadline is Nov. 6).
Schlotzsky's new 4-pack pizza bundle includes four 10-inch pizzas or flatbreads and one entrée veggie salad starting at just $34.99 – a starting discount of 27% – after 2 p.m. online, in-app or in-store. The offer is good through Jan. 1, 2024, excludes Kids Menu items and doesn't include taxes and fees or additional costs for premium toppings, add-ons or substitutions including gluten-free options.
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Buy an entrée at McAlister’s and get 50% off its Witch's Brew, a lemonade made with cane sugar, lemon juice, and caramel apple syrup. The offer is good for McAlister’s Loyalty Members from Saturday, Oct. 28, to Tuesday, Oct. 31 (for up to two drinks with entrée purchase).
Also available through Halloween: A limited-edition Halloween Cookie Tray with 52 assorted mini cookies, plus decorations and candies, starting at $24.99.
On Oct. 31, members of the Fridays Rewards loyalty program can get free chips & salsa or $3 off any appetizer. Ten of Fridays' lunches, including the Whiskey-Glazed Chicken Slammer Combo and Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo Pasta, are priced at $10, until 3 p.m. at participating locations. Also: during Happy Every Hour, which is daily and every hour the restaurant is open, there's $2 beers, $4 cocktails, and $5 wine.
Sonic is bringing back its Halloween special: 50-cent corn dogs. Also on Halloween night, you can get half-priced cheeseburgers after 5 p.m. in the Sonic app.
Sonic also is serving up an easy way to get favorite trick-or-treat candies in one stop: Sonic's Trick or Treat Blast has chunks of Heath bars, M&M’s Minis and Oreo cookie pieces, all mixed with soft serve. The treat ($4.59 for a medium) is available until Dec. 31, while supplies last. And a portion of the price supports the Sonic Foundation.
You may have to hurry to score this one, but if you wear a Kung Fu Tea costume from Spirit Halloween to your local Kung Fu Tea store on Halloween you get a free drink. Check out the five costumes on the Spirit Halloween online store. There's also a limited-edition Spirit Spooky Slush, made with matcha slush, a brand-new Taro Milk Cap and topped with Oreo cookie pieces.
On Halloween, Rubio’s Rewards members get any burrito on the menu for $8.99 including the Puerto Nuevo Burrito with Langostino Lobster and the Ancho Citrus Shrimp Burrito. Place your order online, in the app, or scan your in-app QR code at the register.
OK, this isn't officially a Halloween deal, but it's happening now and almost until Christmas – and is a play on the Girl Math meme on TikTok. You can get a free item from Pizza Hut's new $7 Deal Lover’s Menu, which includes 17 options. Among them: medium one-topping pizza, Meat Lover's Melt, 8-piece boneless wings, double order of breadsticks, Chicken Alfredo Pasta, a 4-pack of Pepsi, and three new menu items. Those menu items are: Roasted Garlic Cheese Sticks, Bacon Cheddar Cheese Sticks and Chocolate Donut Bites.
Here's the deal: go to https://www.hutmath.com and TikTok influencer Anna Sitar will fill you in, but you will eventually want to link to a TikTok post of yours or write out how your $7 Deal Lover’s purchase is “basically free”, and Pizza Hut will send you a $7 electronic gift card for your next Deal Lover’s Menu order while supplies last. If that day's codes are gone, come back the next day. Prices and participation may vary and there is a two-item minimum. Taxes and delivery fees are not included. This deal ends on Dec. 23.
You don't have to go trick or treating for this treat: Papa John's New Twix Papa Bites, made with bits of Twix Cookie Bars and served with caramel dipping sauce is here in time for Halloween night. These are available only for members of the Papa Rewards loyalty program ($4.99).
Also for the Halloween season: the Jack-o’-lantern pizza ($10.99) available through Oct. 31.
Ohio-based Marco's Pizza, now in 34 states, has created a new pizza monster: the Pizzoli. This mashup of pizza and stromboli has arrived just in time for Halloween, available for a limited-time introductory price of $5.99 at participating Marco's locations, flavors include: pepperoni, Buffalo chicken, pepperoni and sausage, and chicken bacon ranch.
Earlier this month, Marco's Pizza also unleashed the Hot Honey Magnifico Pizza, the chain's Pepperoni Magnifico pizza in collaboration with Mike's Hot Honey drizzled on top.
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Tombstone Pizza is giving all those named Jason – the baddy in the Friday the 13 horror films – a chance to win free pizza and a $5,000 prize (it's suggested the winner spend it for a weekend at a cabin on a lake or at a camp. Oh, you can also enter if your legal name is Crystal or Pamela (fans of the movies will get it). Just to to the Tombstone contest site to enter before midnight on Halloween.
From Halloween to Nov. 12, when you order a Chips and Dip Trio at Moe's, members of its Moe Rewards loyalty program will get 10 bonus points.
Follow Mike Snider on X and Threads: @mikesnider & mikegsnider.
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