With the unemployment rate of 7.3%, many Americans are planning not to celebrate Halloween at all this year. As the temperature drops, the sale of Halloween items drops down also. Anna Harris of St. Paul, Minnesota, is among the many Americans that are cutting back on Halloween this year, simply because she has less money.

For retail stores, Halloween is a key revenue bridge between the “back-to-school” and “Christmas” shopping seasons. Also, despite the early indications of shopper gloominess, 158-million consumers plan to celebrate Halloween in some way this year. The most popular way is handing out candy to the trick-or-treaters.

Despite of all the predictions of Halloween not being celebrated by most Americans this year, Kathy Grannis, a spokeswoman for the National Retail Federation, said “Halloween is one of the most popular holidays of the year, and while we are expecting people to cut back on their spending this Halloween, there’s no sense that it will be a bust.”

A survey distributed by the National Retail Federation indicates that nearly nine out of ten people plan to spend less on candy, costumes, and decorations this Halloween season compared with last year. Also, nearly seven billion dollars would be spent this year on costumes, candy, and decorations, that’s about one billion less than last year.

People are still buying,” she noted, “kids are kids, and they celebrate Halloween. No matter what goes on in the world, people will spend on their kids.”