Retailers are fighting tooth and nail over share of Halloween sales. According to Kantar, they netted an extra £90.5m in sales of chocolate, sweets, baked goods and pumpkins alone last season. Half of that came from chocolate. 

Round pound retailers and bargain stores such as B&M also cashed in with a greater overtrade index than any other operator. 

However, it’s not all about the bargains. The Co-op and M&S also overtrade at this time of year. M&S did particularly well in bakery, while the Co-op excelled in sales of chocolate and sugar confectionery.

Lidl doesn’t overtrade as much as the above examples, but it was the winner in terms of growth. Pumpkin sales shot up 264%, with sweets up 26.4%, chocolate up 27.7% and bakery up 12.9%. 

Among the big four, the field was more evenly split. Asda cashed in on demand for pumpkins by dedicating extra space at the front of stores, yielding a 111% spike in pumpkin sales. 

Sainsbury’s outgrew its big four rivals in confectionery with an 11% uplift, while Morrisons and Asda prevailed in chocolate and bakery with respective gains of 26.9% and 2.2%.