‘They use Amazon like a costume rental service’: Shoppers are increasingly wearing and returning their Halloween goods

The viral post, which has amassed more than 17 million views on X as of Nov. 5, highlights how inflation-weary consumers are increasingly gaming retailers’ return policies to save money. As e-commerce sales rise, customers return more items. As such, return fraud has become more common, with 57% of shoppers admitting to engaging in fraudulent returns at least once, according to a report published in August by Narvar, a logistics software firm. This year, return fraud incidents rose 16 percentage points to 52%, the same report found.

Industry experts, including seller agencies and returns abuse experts, told Modern Retail that this type of dishonest consumer behavior happens across retailers and marketplaces, but the practice is especially common on Amazon because of not only its size and scope but also its free, easy returns policy. Lewis’ experience highlights how dishonest returns can come at a steep cost to independent merchants.

“As a consultant, I actually advise sellers to avoid reselling or selling seasonal products like the plague,” said Jon Elder, CEO and founder at Black Label Advisor, which manages hundreds of brands. “This is one of the reasons.”

In an emailed statement to Modern Retail, company spokesperson Maria Boschetti said Amazon values its selling partners and works hard to grow their businesses by protecting them from fraud and abuse.

“We have robust grading processes for all items returned to Amazon, and we invest in significant resources and specialized teams to proactively detect, investigate and prevent fraud,” Boschetti said. “If we have missed something and a seller believes a customer return is not in compliance with Amazon’s return or refund policy, we provide sellers with the ability to report the abuse to us so we can investigate and take appropriate action.”

‘Too risky’

Selling seasonal products like Halloween costumes comes with inherent risks. 

“Retailers have sales periods that peak ahead of holidays,” according to J. Bennett, chief customer officer at Signifyd, a fraud-prevention software startup. “Seasonally, we see 10% to 15% more returns in this period, and probably 20% to 25% more abuse than in non-seasonal periods.” 

Specialty retailers like Spirit Halloween have tried to stamp out the problem by cutting off returns by a certain date. This year, Spirit stopped accepting returns on Oct. 24.

“This year is worse because prices are up, and families are looking for ways to cut costs,” Elder said. “They buy a costume, use it for one night and then return it the next day.”

The National Retail Federation forecasted Halloween spending in the U.S. to fall by 5% to $11.6 billion this year, with costumes expected to see the greatest decline as consumers pull back on discretionary splurges. Indeed, retailer Michaels previously told Modern Retail that it was boosting its seasonal assortment to appeal to “do-it-yourself” Halloween costume makers trying to save money. 

“Overall, third-party brand owners and sellers are focusing on evergreen products in 2025 and beyond,” said Elder. “Seasonal products are just too risky now.” He added that the rise of ultra-cheap platforms like Temu, which also sells seasonal goods, will likely exacerbate this problem in the future. 

The flood of Halloween returns is a variation of a practice called “bracketing” or “wardrobing.” 

“It’s very common, one of the six most common types of return abuse,” according to Bennett. The practice “basically forces a business model like Rent the Runway onto a traditional retailer.”

Bracketing is nothing new, but it skyrocketed during the pandemic when consumers stuck at home started to shop online and order items in multiple sizes or colors with the intent of returning those that didn’t work out for them. 

On Amazon, savvy shoppers have learned to leverage the company’s liberal returns policy, which generally gives customers 30 days to return an item.

“When a customer initiates a return, they can pick from a wide variety of return options like ‘product is defective’ or ‘arrived too late.’” Elder said. “Many customers lie to get this free return label and a full refund.”

Liz LaVallee, vice president of Amazon marketplace growth at Avenue7Media, a consulting business for sellers, agreed. “The Amazon return rate is usually higher for the brand on Amazon than the return rate on their own DTC website because Amazon makes them really easy to execute,” she said.

Retailers walk a tightrope when it comes to returns abuse.

Often, it’s in their best interest to maintain consumer-friendly returns policies such as Amazon’s. Crackdowns that are too severe can deter honest shoppers, Bennett said. That said, Amazon has been known to ban customers who return too many items. And retailers that experience disproportionately high returns, like fast-fashion brands, have started to charge customers for sending back unwanted goods.

‘The nature of the job’

Retail employees who work at Amazon drop-off points — such as Staples, Whole Foods and the UPS store — witness the deluge of used Halloween costumes firsthand. As one employee at a UPS store in New York City put it, “They use Amazon like a costume rental service.” (The employee requested anonymity in order to protect their job.)

In the lead-up to Halloween this year, the same employee said they observed a drop-off in the number of customers making returns. 

“I noticed there were less people coming in before Halloween, and it hit me that it was because they were waiting for Halloween to return all this,” the employee said, gesturing at a sea of plastic packages and cardboard boxes that had piled up in the mere 15 minutes this reporter had been in the store. 

Once the Saturday of Oct. 26 rolled around, the store was “swamped with returns” for the next two weekends, the employee said. On average, the store receives around 500 returns a day. With the influx of Halloween-related returns, they said they received an additional 100 to 150 returns a day. Oftentimes, customers don’t need to package their item in a shipping box to return to Amazon, giving retail workers at drop-off locations full visibility into shoppers’ unwanted goods.

“Some of the costumes have perfume on them, like you can tell they’ve been worn, like you can smell it, and it’s like, okay, you wore this last night,” according to another employee at the same store, who also requested anonymity.

The employee also said they bought two Halloween costumes on Amazon this year and returned both of them. Put together, the costumes — a cop and the artificially intelligent doll from the horror movie “M3gan” — cost around $75. The employee returned the costumes on Friday, just two days after they received them. By Saturday, the refund had hit their bank account, they said. 

Social media plays a crucial role in accelerating the practice, especially if a post goes viral. TikTok is littered with examples from users who post videos of themselves packaging up their Halloween costumes to return. In one video posted a week ago by a user named sweetestsami, the user wrote, “Me going to return my Halloween costumes from Amazon the day after.” Many users in the comments section admitted to doing the same. One wrote, “Just got my $100 refund.” Another said, “This is literally why I stopped buying at Spirit Halloween and only Amazon now, so I could do returns on these expensive costumes.”

The practice isn’t limited to Amazon. A Spirit Halloween employee, who requested anonymity to protect their job, said consumers regularly try to return used or worn Halloween costumes after the return window closes.

“Most of the time when we tell customers that the return or exchange window has closed, they go, ‘Oh really? Wow, that sucks. Okay,’ and leave,” the employee said. “But of course, we get customers who try to put up a fight. I’ve been called terrible things by irate customers for upholding our return and exchange policies. Unfortunately, it’s just the nature of the job.”