It wasn’t all that long ago that towering Halloween skeletons weren’t really a thing.
That all changed seemingly overnight in 2020, when Home Depot introduced its wildly popular 12-foot Skelly decoration, driving record Halloween sales for the home improvement chain that year.
The trend is still going strong, with more than a dozen online communities devoted to supersized skeletons, including a Facebook group with nearly 300,000 members.
Walmart-owned warehouse chain Sam’s Club told Business Insider that sales of their version, an 11-foot Reaper, have been running ahead of expectations since it was launched back in June. The Reaper quickly rose to become one of the chain’s top ten selling Halloween items, and was sold out at some warehouse locations, as of Friday.
“Halloween is now a season, just like Christmas,” said Kara Deleon, Senior Director of Seasonal Merchandising at Sam’s Club. “It is truly taking on a much bigger persona than it’s ever had in the past.”
Americans appear to have embraced the Summerween creep, with online visits to Sam’s Club’s Halloween decor product listings up 67% in July compared to the year before, the company said.
But few things embody that bigger persona than the jumbo skeletons (and their friends) that have been popping up in yards across the US. Some setups last for just a few weeks, while others stay up year-round — to the consternation of some homeowners’ associations.
Phil Michalski, an instructional assistant who lives near Philadelphia, told Business Insider he owns both the Home Depot Skelly and Sam’s Club Reaper, plus a few others.
“The majority are set up all year round, but the weather this year has beaten them down,” he said. “My other skeletons will be up until the new year as I put Santa suits on some and a Ebenezer Scrooge hat on another.”
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“I have the Deadwood up by my front door, and that’s a local landmark,” he said, referring to another 12-foot Halloween offering from Home Depot that looks like a menacing Groot from Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy series.
Nelson Bairos, an engineer who lives near Boston, told Business Insider he started a side hustle of 3D printing repair parts for the original Home Depot Skelly to help the decorations endure through years of heavy use.
“When there’s a storm somewhere in the US, I can pretty much guarantee that’s where I’m getting orders from. It’s a pretty easy correlation,” he said.
While Sam’s Club and others — including rival home improvement chain Lowe’s — have offered numerous variations on the jumbo spooky theme, Bairos said none have had quite the staying power of the original Skelly. He bases this observation on the volume of repair requests he receives, which would require him to purchase a specific model to design parts for.
“I have two Skellies. One is complete,” Bairos said. “The other one’s sort of for parts — a little beat up.”
Deleon’s colleague Bobbi Austin, a merchant for seasonal goods, said Sam’s Club is trying to accomplish several things with this year’s Reaper, which features a silver and black color scheme, as well as a sickle, robe, and spooky animatronics.
Exclusivity is key, but durability is also a factor, she said, as each new jumbo decor design is only sold in clubs for one season, and club members can build up a collection over time.
“They knew they were coming in for bread, but they didn’t know they were going to walk out with an 11-foot reaper,” Deleon said.
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