Monday's Monstrous Merchandise

 So I had been planning the first road trip of the season looking for Halloween goodies for over a week, I had a map planned out of all the stores we were going to and all the items I was looking for in particular. I even had a wallet full of coupons for each stop.
 It was an absolutely beautiful day. More reminiscent of Autumn than Summer. I took with me the creepiest people in my life (M and my wicKED mother) and we headed out! Overall the trip was a TON of fun but it was a bit disappointing. I am not sure if it is just in my area of the world, or if it is a horrible condition faced by many, but glitter was EVERYWHERE! Few and far between was the Halloween item that did not at least have an outline of the foul glimmering Twilight slime on it. And those items that did not come with glitter were still covered with the crap due to proximity of the items near them that did! I was trying to carefully document all the items for sale at first, but soon just gave up due to the Glitteropalypse that had befallen my beloved holiday. Let's not lament...but continue with the journey as it took place!

THE JOURNEY!

MICHAEL'S

Our first stop was Michael's. I always liked Michael's for Halloween. They have crazy sales, even crazier coupons, and to top it all off, they give teachers an additional 15% off the entire purchase! Thanks M for all those hard years of study so I can get discounts at Halloween! They had some great items, both for crafting and completed, but they had jumped on the glitter bandwagon. Here are some of the shots of one of my favorite stores offering:

Large white Forever Pumpkins. 40% off with an addition 40% off coupon...PLUS M's 15% discount!

M found a nice big old Forever Pumpkin but it was too expensive for us even with all the discounts.

The glitter started at the front of the store and never stopped.The spiderweb candle holder is cool though.

More Glitter!

Halloween trees and decorations...with more glitter!

Yep! Glitter!

OH NO! Smiley scare crows!

Finally a few items that did not come with glitter. You can't see it but the ghosts were covered in a light dusting of purple glitter...must have been packed up with the other glitter heavy junk!

Some other haunted fare!

The "Keep Calm and Scare On" sign was almost purchased by me.. till I saw the outline border was made entirely of glitter.

Sorry for the blur...your not missing much.. mostly glitter.

Some of these items were nice but a bit on the gothic blingy side for my taste. The boxes were neat and the bottles but those are things we can make ourselves.

 

This candle holder was pretty cool too..just not for that price.

HEY! I mean HAY!

We did buy the most from Micheal's and at a CONSIDERABLE discount to boot! 

TARGET

Target is quickly becoming a sore spot for me. They did not have a single Halloween item out (except greeting cards and that is 3rd party vendor controlled). They were still desperately trying to push out their "Back to School" items all at full price a full month after the schools are back in session! I did see a lovely array of Christmas decorations and lighting out... but no Halloween. To heck with you TARGET!

K MART

They had 1 isle out... you could tell it was haphazardly placed.  They had 3 isles of candy though. The only thing that caught my eye was a dismal posable skeleton... shorter and more comical than the Wallgreens skeles. They wanted 59 bucks for them... No thanks!

HOBBY LOBBY

They had more Fall than Halloween. Almost 2 isles of it. They had 3 end caps with various ceramic and glitter encrusted Halloween ware.....nothing to write home about or even snap a pick of. They did have over 8 isles of Christmas out though...

Mom did manage to find a giant flower she took a liking to there.

PIER 1

25.99 for a 2.5 foot glitter encrusted skeleton. Nuff said! They were having a summer clearance sale. 50% off... that means it is only 4 times overpriced!

ROSS

Only had 2 small isles of Halloween with gaping spaces on the racks. Not sure if they were getting more in, had sold out, or that was it! Glitter was the main theme for Halloween there.

TJ MAX

I was hoping for more from this store. They are affiliated with Home Goods and as such I was expecting a few cool items to be here that I had seen posted a hundred times (such as the headless horseman snow globe). Alas, it was nothing like it at all. Half an isle of fall/Halloween and the majority of that was glitter encrusted.

BIG LOTS

I usually have pretty good luck with Big Lots. They recently went under a HUGE renovation...and it seems their prices did too! Way over priced mediocre items....and of course... GLITTER!

The glitter curse hit Big Lots HARD!

M found a cool Plague Doctor mask she liked but at 25 bucks... she passed. 

The coolest thing Big Lots offered was the motorized crawling hand. Just turn it on and watch it skitter around on the floor... at 29 bucks.. I will just watch re runs of the Adam's Family.

KIRKLANDS

We hit the mall next to stop in for a specific item I have had my eye on ever since I got a email from Kirkland's back in August about their 2013 Halloween line up. I called them on Friday to see if they had the item in question. I was told yes they got 50 in but had sold almost 40 of them. I figured there would be no way they would be sold out by the time I got there on Saturday....Well, they weren't but they were down to their last one! It had a little smudge of missing paint at the bottom. M talked them into taking 10% off.. coupled with another inline printable coupon.. this item was a great deal plus some free stuff to boot! What was it? Continue reading to find out! They had one small little section of Halloween...95% of it was glitter encrusted. 

WALGREENS

I dropped by the local Walgreens looking for the 33 dollar skeles... to my horror, I discovered they were not carrying them anymore. They had replaced them with a posable version that looked very cartoon like ..much like the ones at K Mart. They also raised the price on them to $50. Very disappointed at this as I had hoped to buy 3 or 4 skeles a year till I had an undead army!

 

Blah!

PARTY CITY

They had a big chain across the back half of the store where Halloween usually goes. They had about 65% of it out. I asked the woman at the counter if we could look at it but she told us no, we would have to come back Monday or Tuesday as it was not in their systems yet.... BAHUMBUG!!! Oh well, from the looks of it, we did not miss much.

I figured that we had spent enough time fooling with these lower end Halloween Merchandisers.. not onto the Halloween only stores! 

SPIRIT HALLOWEEN

I was shocked and a little saddened to learn that the two local Spirit stores (within driving distance) was not opening this year. They are no longer associated with PARTY CITY and as such had no lease agreements. After seeing some of the items being posted on the net about what they offer this year... I feel like I am not out too much...except the experience. I had a wallet full of 20% off coupons too! Oh well!

HALLOWEEN EXPRESS

Seeing how they are the only Halloween only related store withing 50 miles, this will be the place to go for most Halloween needs. A big bonus to this place is that it is located on:

Overall it was a pretty cool store...I did not see any glitter at all...but I did see a few inflatables :( I guess you can't win them all. Mom and M had some fun with their photo op display.

Kinda wish the big old inflatable tree was not there.

Something kept bugging my mom about the store.

Very creepy Hospital scene complete with legless zombies on walkers. I guess you could call them "The WALKERS Dead".

Pretty cool animated Grim Reaper. Notice the jumping zombie prop at the bottom. I got one last year for 5 dollars less than this years asking price.

Rocking zombies complete with jumping werewolf. 

We had a lot of fun just strolling around the store looking at the Halloween goodies. M found some costumes for this years Halloween party, but she wanted to wait and see if she could find a better deal online (gotta love a frugal Halloween Head!). Mom found a costume she wanted to wear this year....I had to stop her... Look closely at the picture....notice anything odd? Like an extra bone?

She was dead serious about getting it....I think my mom is losing it in her golden years...

THE LOOT!

The whole purpose of the trip was to get some Halloween STUFF! Here is a list of what we brought home!

One of the main items I went in search of. This will go great with my Kirkland LED painting from last year! They only had 1 left of the initial 50 and it was every so slightly damaged. M got us 10% off plus with a coupon we got an absolutely GREAT DEAL! after 3 or 4 quick brush strokes of orange paint... you can never tell it was damaged at all.

Here is it with the lights on! Just love it!

With out Kirkland's Coupons, we got these little signs for free (yes I know there is some glitter...but glitter is acceptable at parties...SOMETIMES!) 

WALGREENS let me down with the skeles, but they did have these great poly stone tombstones for a fraction of what Target usually asks. I had to get this one because of the engraving. This will most likely be a focal point for the inside this year. This sucker is HEAVY! Great find!

M picked out our Forever Pumpkins for this year at Michael's. 40% off, plus a coupon, plus her Teachers Discount... they were a STEAL!

Grabbed these at Michael's too! Heavy foam but life sized with a hook to hand them.After all our discounts they were just a little over a dollar each.

This great book/box was on clearance for 60%...plus discounts! 

Grabbed this great LED lantern at Michael's too!

Super cheap with discounts!

Picked this up and TJ MAX

Found this HUGE skull at ROSS, It came in Jet black and stark white. M wanted to go with the black. Since it is 3 times larger than a real skull...I figure she has a plan for it in the house decor. 

Last, but not least, a phone cover for my cell. What better way to protect a Haunters Phone than with a genuine Skull Cap phone case! 

Well, my weekend was an adventure to say the least. I am sure we will hit the road again in October in search of elusive Halloween deals.

Hope your weeKEnD was wicKED!