Barbie strutted down a Hopkins street Saturday, wagging her tail to hoots and hollers.
The canine's owner, Jessica Klugman, decked the 11-year-old chiweenie — a crossbreed of a chihuahua and a dachshund — in a blonde wig and pink glittery bodysuit for a dog costume contest as part of Saturday's Halloween in Hopkins. But Pearl's model performance did take some incentivizing.
"There were a lot of treats that were involved today," Klugman said.
A record 73% of consumers plan to celebrate Halloween this year, up from 69% last year, the National Retail Federation reported earlier this month. But that doesn't just mean buying candy or costumes for kids. Well, human kids, at least.
Americans spend $700 million annually on costumes for their pets, the Retail Federation said. The most popular pet costumes include a pumpkin, a hot dog, a bat, a bumblebee and a spider, though Pearl proved some of the trendiest costumes for people translate to the animal kingdom. Her $30 Barbie outfit from Amazon helped her become top dog and won her owner a $50 gift certificate to Bear Cave Brewing in Hopkins.

Jim Berg, owner of Twin Cities Magic & Costume in West St. Paul, has found more pet costumes available from his vendors in the past 10 years and said licensing deals helped increase the pop culture options for cats and dogs.
"If the rest of the family was dressed for Star Wars, the dog could be also be dressed up, so it integrated the family pet into Halloween," Berg said.
Retailers like Mankato-based Fun.com see revenue growth from pet costumes consistently climbing, growing 15% this year vs. 2022, a spokesperson said. Because of this trend, the company also increased the selection of pet costumes by more than 30% in the past two years.