Aaron Rickey says customers at his pumpkin patch have grown more cautious with their spending this season.
Rickey, who owns Rickey Ranch Pumpkin Patch in Granite Bay, said that pumpkins have become something of a luxury item for some households in 2024. “People are being a little tighter. This is more a luxury to get any pumpkins … It’s been a little bit less, but we’ve been hanging in there good,” he said.
The tightened budgets come as Californians face steep cost-of-living premiums compared to national averages. Grocery costs in the state run roughly 11% higher, gas prices about 40% higher, and utility bills approximately 61% higher than the U.S. Average, according to the coverage.
Chris Cummings, a resident of Antelope, has developed his own workaround for the squeeze. He spreads his family’s Halloween shopping across multiple retailers to keep the total bill manageable.
“Get some of it there, some of it on Amazon. Split it up however you can,” Cummings told the news outlet.
The National Retail Federation still projects Americans will spend $13.5 billion on Halloween this year, a figure that would set a national record. Yet that forecast masks the patchwork strategies California families are using to participate without breaking their budgets.
Connie Rodgers of Sacramento has found her own compromise at the pumpkin patch. She skips the largest pumpkins and opts for medium-sized ones instead, which she finds easier to carve and less wasteful.
She wants her children to enjoy Halloween, she said, but also wants them to understand what things cost. “When it comes to the kids, I don’t really care. We’re going to, within reason, and make them understand the value of the dollar, but we want to give them something fun,” Rodgers said.
The article also cited survey findings that 26% of shoppers plan to hunt for coupons or sales this season, while 31% say they will compare prices when an item costs more than they expected.
Rodgers’ approach of sizing down and Rickey’s observation of tighter wallets point to a broader pattern: California households are finding ways to keep Halloween traditions alive while adapting to persistent economic pressure. The strategies vary from household to household, but the underlying calculation is the same, making the holiday work within constraints that run deeper than a single season’s budget.