DATE: Friday, October 31, 1997              TAG: 9710310670

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: STAFF & WIRE REPORT 

                                            LENGTH:   49 lines

RETAIL RUSH WHILE MANY IDENTIFY ALL HALLOWS' EVE WITH THE COLORS BLACK AND ORANGE, SHOP OWNERS SEE GREEN.

While many Americans identify Halloween with the colors black and orange, retailers are seeing green. A brew of marketing and cultural changes has made the season the second-largest in holiday-related sales, trailing only Christmas.

The only fear for some Hampton Roads specialty stores is that the holiday must end.

Dee Nachnani, owner of Harry Gold's Halloween House in Pembroke Mall, said sales this year are about 15 percent higher than last year.

Movies are prime movers of costumes, Nachnani said. ``The mask from the movie `Scream' is big,'' he said. The store has also done well with the black fisherman's slicker, hat and hook from ``I Know What You Did Last Summer.''

Open only during the months of September and October, the store is also selling a lot of M&M candy costumes, Nachnani said.

``Anything you can go out and have a good time and feel comfortable in will do well,'' he said.

``This year is holding its own and it's increased some,'' Jennifer Gary, manager of Party City in Virginia Beach, said of the store's sales results.

Darth Vader of ``Star Wars'' fame and Meg, from the Disney movie ``Hercules,'' are popular, she said.

The National Retail Association said consumers will spend more than $2.5 billion this year on Halloween-themed products - everything from traditional candy and costumes to beer parties and Count Chocula cereal.

Candy companies always treated the two-months leading up to Oct. 31 as their busiest sales period. Chocolate candy miniatures sales rise 200 percent in the period.

Retailers and food companies now pitch Halloween as more of a month-long party period for adults. It's clearly working: Halloween is second only to New Year's Eve in the number of parties thrown, industry experts say.

Tombstone Pizza, a division of Kraft Foods, has even capitalized on its scary-sounding name to boost sales during the season. Last year, the company saw its sales spike 32 percent in the last week of October, according to research company A.C. Nielsen. ILLUSTRATION: D. KEVIN ELLIOTT color photos/The Virginian-Pilot

The National Retail Association said consumers will spend...

Dee Nachnani, left, helps Lola Loeser...

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