Fintech Insider Podcast by 11:FS
00:44:34 · Kate Moody
Think there's probably a lot of a lot of people wanting there to be an issue there, so I guess it'd be interesting to see if the regulator finds finds something that needs more scrutiny. Okay. And finally, story. Halloween bigger than Christmas, say businesses. This one was taken from the beloved BBC. Halloween has become such a major commercial event in The UK that some businesses are now generating more revenue from the spooky season than Christmas. At Avon Valley Adventure Park near Bath, Halloween activities generate around a third of annual revenue, wow, with £2,000,000 in turnover from October events. A Bristol fancy dress shop says half its annual turnover comes in October, with a third generated during Halloween week alone. Customers spend an average of £40 on costumes and accessories. According to research by IGD, 36% of UK shoppers plan to celebrate Halloween this year, up from 27% in 2025. Pumpkin patches, haunted mazes, and immersive scare experiences have become big business, with some farms transforming Halloween into a major source of income. Matthew, Brad, I'm conscious given you've got two US people on the panel, this is probably like, I mean catch up guys, we've been here for ages. Mean, to us in The UK this feels like quite a big cultural change. Is is is... How does it how does it how does it work? What's going on?
00:45:47 · Matthew Goldman, Kate Moody, Brad Wiskirchen
[00:45:47] S3: I've been fascinated by the global expansion of Halloween. I really thought for a long time it was very American, but it is it is everywhere, and it continues to grow here. I think there is so much more intensity around it than there was when I was growing up certainly. So it's kind of wild to see, but I guess people love a good scare. [00:46:05] S0: I mean, far does it go? What... What's the end game here? Like, what should I be anticipating? I mean, we're at pumpkin patches at the moment. What what hap... What's the next step of Halloween mania? [00:46:15] S3: Do you have any haunted haunted hay rides? That's really good here. And all the amusement parks kind of transform themselves in The US, Disneyland. Knott's Berry Farm originated. This was... It's called Knott's Scary Farm for the month of October. And you go and they have people who creep up behind you and try to scare you and they redecorate. So there's there's quite a ways to go, Kate. Prepare yourself. [00:46:43] S4: Oh, yeah. There's there's old prisons that are converted, and they turn them over to people for haunted houses that you go through. And there's an old old hospital that I've been through that was the scariest thing ever where they've turned it into a haunted house, like people people taking over large buildings and with an eye just to scaring the living heck out of you. So
00:46:43 · Brad Wiskirchen, Kate Moody
[00:46:43] S4: Oh, yeah. There's there's old prisons that are converted, and they turn them over to people for haunted houses that you go through. And there's an old old hospital that I've been through that was the scariest thing ever where they've turned it into a haunted house, like people people taking over large buildings and with an eye just to scaring the living heck out of you. So [00:47:09] S0: I'm really I'm really confused, Brad, because across the rest of this recording, you've said many intelligent things. You've exuded a lot of just authority and gravitas. But like, so why did you choose to go to a hospital, a deserted hospital that was designed to scare the crap out of you? What what what's going on? Why is this a thing? [00:47:27] S4: I I was in college and it was the thought of going through with a date produced the highest likelihood of getting to hold hands and hug. So Okay. Was the logic behind it. [00:47:42] S0: Okay. It makes it makes more sense. I mean, so Dan, from a from a fellow Brit perspective, are you are you a hal... Have you got on board the Halloween train or where's yours, what's your stance?
00:47:42 · Kate Moody, Daniel Wills
[00:47:42] S0: Okay. It makes it makes more sense. I mean, so Dan, from a from a fellow Brit perspective, are you are you a hal... Have you got on board the Halloween train or where's yours, what's your stance? [00:47:51] S2: I think we're definitely, we're definitely not at haunted scare hospitals yet in The UK. But, I can see your strategy, Brad, there. Very clever. I think, well, with It works, by the way. I think having got young children, we're definitely a Halloween household. I've seen it come on over the last decade or so. Definitely, when I was young, perhaps similar age to Brad when he was in his haunted hospital, I just remember dressing up, relatively straightforward outfits, and now it seems the dog's got an outfit as well these days. So who knows, what's what's gonna come up next. But from my very sensible, boring financial planning perspective, I guess this this growth of the industry just puts, I guess, a little bit more pressure on on households generally to put a downer on things. So if people can concentrate over the course of the year to put a little bit away each month, then October, November, December is not gonna seem like such a stretch because it's such an expensive part of the year. So my little bit of advice there for people, I guess, is to is to put a little bit away every month to make these months a little bit easier. But but, yeah, perhaps that's my scare as as a as a financial planner.
00:49:12 · Kate Moody, Brad Wiskirchen, Matthew Goldman
[00:49:12] S0: Well, yeah, mean, I think we've... I'm being encouraged to try and find some sort of Fintech financial services angle to this. So I suppose, to close out, I mean, you've kind of given your financial angle. I mean, Brad, Matthew, what's if we're kind of going away from ghosts and zombies and sort of just scary things in Fintech and financial services, what's what's the thing that scares you most within Fintech and financial services, Brad? [00:49:35] S4: Oh, scariest thing in Fintech and financial services. I'm not big into scary costumes, so I'd probably just go as a dongle, a payments dongle, and it's stupid simple because it's square. So I can't think of anything scary that I'd go at. [00:49:53] S3: No. Matthew, you're was gonna go as an un indemnified dispute. [00:50:02] S4: Yeah. That is that is actually scary. Yeah. It goes a dispute that's not protected by Chargebacks911.
00:50:02 · Brad Wiskirchen, Matthew Goldman, Kate Moody
[00:50:02] S4: Yeah. That is that is actually scary. Yeah. It goes a dispute that's not protected by Chargebacks911. [00:50:09] S3: There you go. I I think, I don't I don't know how to make this into a costume, but definitely like a decline, like, a... An an outage. I mean, I think as somebody who helps people build card programs, if people cannot access their money when they need to, you have totally failed them. And that is terrifying. And it's, you know, behind that is disaster recovery plans and business continuity plans and data centers and clouds. But like that, that is terrible. And I've unfortunately worked at companies like that. And my my number two is a hack. I mean, I've also, unfortunately, you know, big account takeovers and things and like, that is that is terrifying. That'll keep you up at night for for weeks on end. [00:50:50] S0: Yeah. I think I think mine would have to be my my children getting hold of my contactless card and running running off of it and just just tap tap tapping away. That's I think that's that's the thing that terrifies us. At the moment at the moment, my daughter just runs around the house with it. She she every time she finds it, she just picks up and runs and sort of shoves it down the side of the sofa and things like that. [00:51:09] S4: I would just like to see how you two convert those concepts into a costume. But when you do, send me a picture.