Answers

When should you buy a Halloween T-shirt?

Licensed seasonal apparel behaves differently from normal stock. A run is manufactured against a forecast months ahead, shipped once, and not repeated — so what sells out in October does not come back that year. The sizes that disappear first are the middle of the range, adult medium and large and youth medium, because that is where the demand concentrates. Very small and very large sizes tend to survive longest, which is why late shoppers often find only the extremes available.

Buying too early has a different problem: assortments are still arriving through August and September, and the design you eventually want may not be listed yet. The practical compromise is to look in the last week of September, when the range is close to complete and nothing significant has sold through.

If you are buying for a specific date, allow for delivery being slower than usual through October. Costume and seasonal categories generate a volume spike that affects dispatch even where stock is available, and a shirt that arrives on the first of November is worth nothing to you that year.