Key Takeaways
- Kelly Schultz, an ancient seller by profession, operates The Great Pumpkin Farm for concerning seven weeks a year.
- Schultz had no agriculture cognition whenever he bought the 85-acre asset for concerning $650,000 in 1993.
- Today, the ranch draws additional than 100,000 visitors all autumn alongside pumpkins, hayrides, live amusement and another attractions.
About 33 years ago, Kelly Schultz told his allies and family that he was going to open a pumpkin farm.
“Everybody laughed at me,” he stated in a new interview alongside CNBC Make It.
The endeavor was exterior Schultz’s area of expertise. He was a second-generation antiques seller and didn’t cognize item concerning farming. He bought the small ranch in Clarence, New York, anyway.
No one’s laughing at him now.
Schultz, 74, now runs The Great Pumpkin Farm, located concerning 15 miles northeast of Buffalo. More than 100,000 group sojourn the seasonal attention all fall.
The ranch generated $2 myriad in income in 2025, according to financial documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. It operates for fair seven weeks a year.
This year’s period runs from September 19 through October 31. Pumpkins are lone part of the draw. Visitors can journey a pumpkin-themed train, act pie-eating contests or examine a five-acre corn maze. Weekend admission is $20, although several activities, including the corn maze, disbursal extra.
How he got started
Schultz had the idea to open a ranch of his own following visiting a crowded pumpkin place in upstate New York in the first 1990s. He observed a uncomplicated procedure alongside “muddy parking lots” and “not a entire lot of restrooms,” but there were motionless “a zillion people” browsing and purchasing pumpkins anyway.
“I looked around, and I said, ‘I could do this, improved than this,’” Schultz said.
When the erstwhile livestock ranch next to his ancient shop hit the market in 1993, Schultz bought the 85-acre asset for concerning $650,000, intent on transforming it into a pumpkin farm.
Schultz noted that more group sojourn the farm all year.
“There are group that arrive current nearly all weekend,” he said. “They affection it so much, they fair keep coming back.”
Americans are spending additional on Halloween than always before
For Schultz and another seasonal entrepreneurs, Halloween brings a abbreviated but lucrative opening of opportunity.
According to the National Retail Federation’s annual Halloween survey, released on September 22, Americans volition expend concerning $13.5 milliard celebrating the holiday in 2026, up from $13.1 milliard final year. The study asked 7,889 consumers concerning their Halloween plans.
Consumers anticipate to expend an average of $115.14 per person, alongside purchases ranging from costumes to decorations.
Halloween has rotate into an crucial holiday for additional people. Nearly three-quarters of consumers surveyed, or 74%, scheme to commemorate this year, compared alongside 68% in 2019.
Among those celebrating, 42% scheme to carve pumpkins, and an identical percent scheme to decorate their homes and yards. Handing out candy remains the most famous tradition, at 61%, followed by dressing in costume, at 50%.
The revenue chance additionally starts fine before October 31. Nearly fractional of Halloween shoppers, 49%, stated they planned to commencement purchasing in September or earlier, compared alongside 34% a decade ago. Businesses have additional of a chance to market seasonal Halloween products weeks before the holiday itself.
