“On Halloween we got less than 25% of the historical number of children at our door Trick or Treating.”

vreaa was not the only one to notice the dearth of trick-or-treaters this year. This from TheOrra at thetyee.ca, commenting on an article on reduced projections regarding the economic benefits of the 2010 Olympic Games, by Andrew MacLeod, 3 Nov 2009 -

“On Halloween we got less than 25% of the historical number of children at our door Trick or Treating. Was it H1N1, the economy, or just a change in attitude towards candy, who knows? But the Olympics (as a symbolic Halloween) are likely to experience the same low numbers for the same reasons: fear of the pandemic, not enough money to pay for the trip, or just a pervasive rancor over the spending on junk, rather than on economic meat and potatoes.”