Should a sweet shop give away sweets for free at Halloween?

[Balletcab]

I wanted to pose a question and see what your thoughts are on this.
If you were taking you child out trick or treating today, would you march into a small independent sweet/ice cream shop that you have never been into before and demand that the owner high fives your child and then gives your child free sweets? And then when the owner explains they are a small business and giving sweets away for free isn’t a very affordable thing for a small business to do, would you get angry and berate the owner for not giving sweets to your child for free?
I am the small business and margins are very tight. I can’t afford to give away sweets to every child who comes in dressed up at Halloween.
This happened today and the parent made me feel awful for not handing out free stuff. Would they approach Tesco and ask the same? Would they give away things from their work or business for free if I marched up to them dressed as a pumpkin?
What do you think?

Of course you are not being unreasonable. And who brings their kids trick or treating to shops for goodness sake.

My town does a business trick or treat the friday afternoon before Halloween (after school finishes). The kids all come out and businesses - shops/banks/dentist offices - even the school - set up a table outside and give out sweets (or free toothbrushes in the case of the dentist!). My kids used to love it and I still like seeing families heading off for it.

They were rude, but it's possible you missed a trick here.

Having a basket of stock available for trick or treaters (one free item each) might generate return paying customers.

Sweets (and toys) are all about good feelings. You're not selling upholstery fabric or spanners here.

Don’t be daft, why would she give away what she can’t afford.

What a chancer. And horrible to involve her child in it . Nasty person

I assume said child spends ALL of its pocket money in this small shop every week?
Thought not.

I'm the former owner of a small shop and peoples' audacity is unreal.

"Is it OK if we leave our Santa Sack in your back room as a collection point for the Christmas party"

Me - "Who are you? Never seen you in my shop before"

I was being unreasonable, apparently.

See this is what I'm envisaging.

We are usually away for Halloween and this is what the local town does. We don't partake but it's always been lovely and yes the local sweetshop has some festive Halloween wares to give away.

Even at home (in London) there is a published route of businesses who are happy to recieve trick or treaters.

I was picturing something like this.

Not suggesting the OP hand over a whole heap of sweets to the demanding parent.

Its a small sweet shop the Op has already said they cant afford it
Sometimes big supermarkets put on gimmicks but they can afford to take the hit

Well yeah.

Lots of things could happen.

OP has already said she runs a little indie shop with hardly any profit margin.

I doubt she has a 'marketing budget'.

What part of rhey can’t afford it are you struggling with please.

Dear lord OP that's awful! This is cheeky fuckery of the highest order. Some people know no shame 😱

Of course you don’t have to, but if you’re decorated for Halloween it is code for come trick or treating. Many local shops have big tubs of roses or Aldi own brand sweets here and there’s a poster you display to indicate you are taking part. Parents demanding sweets are rude but to be clear you aren’t having trick or treating in your shop I’d not display any Halloween related stuff in the window

I've just been fucking crucified for saying something similar 🙃

I know young kids go to bed early but I don’t think it’s usual for trick or treating to be done in daylight. I also wouldn’t expect any businesses to be taking part unless someone is clearly at the front door with a bowl of sweets. You should not feel bad at all - you are a sweet shop all year round and not obliged to give free gifts for any occasion

Surely this is the day of the year that sweet shops should be making a bit of money not giving out freebies. There are enough sweets going free thos evening, the parents just need to take the child to any house with a pumpkin! 🎃

I disagree.

I'm in the US, and (as Pallisers mentioned) local businesses run treat events the week before Hallowe'en. Even non-candy related businesses and organisations set out tables in municipal car parks or designated areas of local parks, and throngs of people dress up and go. It's an advertising opportunity for local private schools, service organisations looking for volunteers, businesses (they buy wholesale supplies of candy), and local fixtures like the library (you can sign up for a library card on the spot). Police and firefighters also hand out candy. The stalls give out leaflets, coupons, etc along with the candy.

One of the issues facing small businesses in the UK is lack of community loyalty/ spirit. Events like this can help in a small way to bring a community together.

I think they're a cheeky fucker.

Let me guess they were an 'influencer' who was offering to 'put you on the map'?

Or maybe they're just the sort of cf who believes the world owes them a favour.

Don't think you did anything wrong op.

What is wrong with parents these days.

Just read the thread about the mum wanting her daughter to ask for extra sweets cause the son is too poorly to go out but "booohoooohoooo I dont want my baby boy to miss out waaaahhh"

Now this parent marching into a sweet shop demanding free stock from the shelves.

What a mess. People have lost it over their precious babies getting their hearts' desires

I think you are mixing up somones own home and shops
Its halloween today of course some places are going to dress shops up
I went into Asda this morning they had all kinds of Halloween stuff on display but no one was giving sweets out to kids.

yup and they could have employed a flying elephant......

No way. If you'd given them free sweets today, they would have been back at Christmas, Easter and no doubt bloody Valentine's Day too!

It's a lost opportunity for businesses to present themselves as friendly to their core customers.

Halloween us much bigger in the USA
The Op has said she cant afford it.

No - this is the one holiday that centers around giving away free candy.

Yanbu but I do have experiences with a few deprived communities in the USA where they do exactly that. They have decided that trick or treating around certain neighbourhoods is dangerous. So local business owners get together and the do things like Boo at the Zoo or Halloween at the central shopping centre. They’ll coordinate so they are not all handing out the same thing.