Consumer study: Are parents participating in Halloween again?

While the pandemic still continues, holidays like Halloween are also happening. But are things returning to normal? Are kids in costumes going door to door again this year? We wanted to find out what the plans are for Halloween and asked 100 parents in the United States in our latest consumer study.

“I plan to give out candy, especially since we have not given out candy since 2019,” said Bertha, 48, of El-Paso. “I plan to spoil these kids because in my area, we have lots of kids. ”

Maybe things are returning back to normal? The New York Times is currently reporting that COVID cases are indeed going down. Let’s look deeper into what consumers told us.

The methodology

The entire study was conducted through Voxpopme’s Influence platform of on-demand consumers.

We combined quantitative and qualitative questions in the study and the results were neatly packaged for me in one dashboard.

We started with a screener and asked about parenthood as we wanted to talk to parents for this study.

Then on the quantitative side, we asked:

• How many kids do you have?
• Are you planning to celebrate Halloween with your kids this year?

On the qualitative side, we asked:

• What role will candy play in your Halloween celebrations this year?
• How will you get your candy this year?

Read next: Not sure what to ask? Check out Voxpopme’s tried and tested open-ended questions for video research.

The results

Here’s a quick highlight reel of responses, which we created directly in the platform:

The quant results

All parents in our survey answered that they will participate in Halloween festivities this year.

The majority of respondents have one or two children.

The qual results

For the qual questions, respondents recorded a quick video message – selfie style, directly from their phones.

In all, the automatic sentiment analysis showed that 52 percent of all statements were on the positive side, with 21 percent being negative and 27 percent were neutral.

This sentiment analysis is pulled from what respondents actually said in their video responses.

The automatic theme explorer and Word Cloud gave me an idea what some of the most mentioned topics were.

The analysis

I like to review the theme explorer first to get an idea what trends I’m seeing. The Word Cloud is my next step. Then I like to skim through the automatic transcripts and each response.

Let’s dive some more into the themes and answers the study gathered.

Going all in

“Candy will play the role of making my son extremely happy when he gets to go and knock on people’s doors and say trick or treat and ask for candy,” said Marissa, 26, of Florence. “We will be handing out candy to children for a few hours before we go trick or treating with our son. And we will be having a Halloween party afterwards.”

Where do people buy Halloween candy?

Not surprisingly grocery stores made the list. Consumers in the study mentioned:

• Aldi – “Their candy prices are fantastic,” said Matt, 30, of Perkasie.
• Costco
• Dollar Tree
• Kroger
• Meijer
• Sam’s Club
• Target
• Walmart

“There’s no online ordering for us,” said Deanna, 42, of Elk City. “We will actually go physically into the store, pick out the candy we want, put it in the basket, go to the cashier pay and then leave.”

Other consumers did mention, however, that they order their candy off Amazon.

“Why? I just love Amazon?” said Donte, 31, of New York. “I think it might be a little safer than to get it into the store right now. It’s social distancing.”

Different ways to celebrate

Handing out candy to trick or treaters isn’t the only way to participate. It all depends on the neighborhood and the community.

“Candy will not play as big of a role as it used to,” said Shelley, 37, of Morrice. “I used to live in a subdivision that had lots and lots and lots of trick or treaters. So I would buy like ten to 20 big bags of candy, but now I have moved to a more rural subdivision and we don’t really get trick or treaters. I’m just going to do that and have my kids go to our old subdivision where there are lots of houses to trick or treat. And if there’s some classroom celebrations, I’ll maybe make some trick or treat bags for my kids classes.”

Christopher, 39, of Raleigh, said his son will participate in a trunk-or-treat. Basically, people park their cars in a parking lot and hand out candy from their trunks.

“It’s a drive-through one – especially during COVID, they’re trying to be safer,” he said.

But not everyone is participating

“Honestly, I’m not even feeling Halloween this year,” said Laurie, 61, of Crete. “I don’t think we’re going to get any candy. I don’t even think we are going to be here. And if we are here, I’ll probably be hiding out in the basement, watching some movies and have all my lights off.”

And even though some people try to get back to normal, there’s still a concern about COVID.

“I just I can’t see myself doing the regular routine because COVID is out there,” said Rachel, 39, of Port Richie, saying it doesn’t sound too appealing to touch other people’s hands while trick or treating.

Read next: How you can use video surveys for your next project!