Halloween to be Moved to Saturday FOREVER?

Sure Halloween 2010 is making for a perfect-storm of Halloween fun by falling on a Sunday this year but what if EVERY year Halloween fell on SATURDAY?  Believe it or not, there is a push from Spirit Halloween's CEO Steven Silverstein to make it precisely that.  But what are the pros and cons to such a move?

First the backstory:  according to THIS article at the retail blog blog.nrf.com, Steve Silverstein (CEO of Spencer Gifts and Spirit Halloween) when asked about being an advocate of moving Halloween to the last Saturday of October and making it permanently "Halloweekend" said:

"Halloween gets lost when it falls during the week. Trick-or-treating in the dark, on a school night, has its problems for safety and homework."

That's a good point and something I hadn't thought of.  The act of having to get the kids out trick or treating on a school night presents parental logistical problems, not the least of which is a constant battle cry of "It's a SCHOOL night!"  Plus there's the extra traffic mid-week with people going grocery shopping, driving home from work, etc.

But, I know that the regular adult Halloween parties I attend are usually the Saturday before Halloween whether that be a week before or a day before.  I enjoy that as I can get my costume on and do the party thing, and yet still have Halloween to myself to do whatever I want on the 31st. 

Silverstein goes on to say...

"It’s also better for our industry and the economy to have Halloween on Saturday – revenues have ticked up by as much as 30% when the holiday falls on a weekend versus a weekday.

The retail stats about Halloween always seem to be slanted toward whatever point is trying to be made.  Sometimes I hear that Halloween sales are second only to Christmas, sometimes I read that that "fact" is a fallacy.  I think it depends on the economy.  If people are doing well, they'll spend well.  My point:  I don't think this holds much water.  
Back to Silverstein:

"And we’ve moved holidays before – I believe it was Franklin Delano Roosevelt who decided to make Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday of November, at the request of the retail industry. Even though the states rebelled at first, eventually the holiday was changed. Regarding “HalloWeekend,” obviously we’re having some fun here, but it does make sense from many perspectives."

I didn't know the Thanksgiving piece of trivia.  Interesting.  I DO know that the town of Oxford, MA in 2008 switched Halloween celebrations to November 1st and there was proverbial "public outcry" over it.  But that was one town changing it, not EVERYBODY changing it.
 
Let's look at the bigger picture: the Halloween holiday is married to its date:  October 31st.  People have websites dedicated to it... people have gotten married on it... Halloween IS the 31st-- the last day of October! 
I'm sure I'm being a bit of a traditionalist by bitching about that, but it DOES mean something to ME.

Now let's all calm down for a second as this whole push may have just been a Spirit Halloween publicity stunt last year.  Most of the write-ups occurred in October/November of 2009, the Facebook page hasn't been updated since last year, and even the website the articles plug that was supposed to be dedicated to the crusade (spirithalloweekend.com) now defaults to Spencer Gifts. 

What do you guys think? 
Would Halloween still be Halloween to you if it were on a date other than the 31st? 
Would you like a consistent Saturday Halloween so you can sleep in after a night of taking the kids trick or treating or partying with the other creatures of the night? 
Sound off in the comments below!