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Papa Murphy's Take 'N' Bake Pizza's signature Halloween pizza.Global stocks markets are plummeting, house prices are slumping and jobless figures are rising but Americans are not about to let a financial crisis dent their Halloween fun.
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Global stocks markets are plummeting, house prices are slumping and jobless figures are rising but Americans are not about to let a financial crisis dent their Halloween fun.
About three quarters of Americans plan to celebrate the ghost and goblins holiday, and despite the credit crunch most are going to delve deeper into their pockets this year to buy candies, costumes and decorations.
The average American will spend $47 on Halloween, 18 percent more than last year, credit card company Visa Inc said, based on the findings of its polls of American consumers.
Although the surveys were done in late summer, October's financial meltdown is unlikely to curb Halloween spending.
"I think people are still going to be spending on Halloween," said Jason Alderman, director of financial education at Visa Inc.
"It is one of those holidays that people derive a lot of pleasure for a relatively little amount of money. In these challenging times when a lot of people are worried and a pall is cast over a lot of families. This is a relatively inexpensive way to try to forget those troubles," he added.
The National Retail Federation (NRF) puts the figure even higher at $66.54. It predicts total spending for the holiday will be about $5.7 billion, based on its September poll by BIG research of 8,167 consumers.
"The bottom line when it comes to Halloween, in general, it is a relatively cheap and inexpensive holiday and consumers are ready to focus on fun and forget about what is going on," Kathy Grannis, a spokesperson for the NRF, explained.
Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin is expected to be a top choice for Halloween. She topped the list of most searched political masks on Yahoo, followed by presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and John McCain.
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(Agencies)
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眼下全球股市暴跌、房價下滑，失業率不斷上升，但金融危機并沒有影響到美國民眾過萬圣節的好心情。
調查顯示，今年約有四分之三的美國民眾打算慶祝萬圣節；盡管面臨信貸緊縮，但多數人表示今年萬圣節他們還是會購買糖果、節日服裝和裝飾品。
該項由Visa信用卡公司在美國消費者中開展的調查顯示，今年萬圣節的人均消費預計為47美元，比去年增長18%。
盡管該調查是在今年夏末進行的，但10月份的金融危機應該不會影響到萬圣節的節日消費。
Visa公司金融教育主管杰森?阿德爾曼說：“我認為萬圣節還是會掀起一陣消費熱。”
他說：“萬圣節可以讓人們得到很多樂趣，花錢又不多。在這種人人擔憂、家家煩惱的非常時期，歡度萬圣節是一個既經濟實惠又能忘記煩惱的好機會。”
據全美零售業協會（NRF）估算，今年萬圣節的人均消費甚至會更高，預計將達66.54美元。該機構根據BIG公司今年9月對8167名消費者開展的一項調查作出預測，今年萬圣節的總消費額將達約57億美元。
NRF發言人凱西?格蘭尼斯解釋說：“這主要是因為過萬圣節的花費相對較少，人們打算趁機狂歡一把，忘記眼下發生的一切。”
共和黨副總統候選人莎拉?佩林有望成為萬圣節的最熱門人物。日前，她成為雅虎網“大選熱門人物面具”搜索榜冠軍，超過了兩位總統候選人巴拉克?奧巴馬和約翰?麥凱恩。
（實習生瞿漫 英語點津姍姍編輯）
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