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America, We've Spent $490 Million On Pet Costumes This Year
By
Jen Chung
Published Oct 29, 2019
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Jen Chung / Gothamist
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By
Jen Chung
Published Oct 29, 2019
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It's Halloween, the holiday where humans dress up in spooky and imaginative garb and demand candy from strangers. But let's face it, many of us are just here to see dogs dressed up as things, like a bacon-egg-and-cheese on an everything beagle.
Or, if you're me, you spend collective hours contemplating whether your cats will submit to wearing a taco costume.
The National Retail Federation, an industry trade group says that the pet costume business is booming. "When we first asked the question in 2010, 12 percent planned to dress up their pets; today, it’s nearly 17 percent. Likewise, spending on pet costumes continues to increase: This year total planned spending for pet costumes comes in at $490 million, more than double what we saw in 2010," the NRF explained.
Petco even rolls out its Halloween costumes in August with fanfare, or at least a slideshow on People and a punny name ("bootique").
The other thing pushing Halloween capitalism? You guessed it: Social media. There are 4.8 million #halloweencostume posts on Instagram (and plenty feature animals), and as CompareCards chief industry analyst Matt Schulz said, "It’s not even necessarily about having a great time; it’s about looking like you are having a great time."
Exactly: Just because my cat may not necessarily love wearing a costume for three minutes, it's all about looking like she's having a great time for the 'gram.
Tagged
halloween
costumes
cat
pet
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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