Meet Skelly. Home Depot’s Halloween phenomenon – a 12-foot lawn skeleton that helped lift consumer ... [+] isolation from the grave during the pandemic – continues to sell out.

Who knows what lurks in the bones of retail consumers? Skelly knows.

The 12-foot, $299 skeleton, introduced by Home Depot in 2020, has evolved from a novelty yard ornament to a mascot for (we’re assuming) tens of thousands of U.S. households. On July 15, two years after “Skelly’s” introduction, Home Depot once more sold out of the item in its annual “Halloween in July” promotion, USAToday reported.

Now entering its third Halloween, the decoration nicknamed Skelly is revealing what it takes for a once-risky product to persevere, and loom even larger. Home Depot has been adding giant spin-off goods – a towering “Inferno Pumpkin” skeleton for $379, a “Hovering Witch” (a best seller at $299) and, introduced this year, a $399 “Immortal Werewolf,” more than 9 feet tall.

What lurks in the bones of Skelly’s buyers? In an earnings conference call in August, transcribed by Motley Fool, Home Depot Chief Financial Officer Ted Decker attributed the brisk July sales to its customers’ resilience: “…we sold out in – I don't even know if it was hours, how quickly, (but) people are spending $300 for a clearly discretionary item.”

As of Oct. 12, Skelly remained sold out on Home Depot’s website.

What’s instructional about Skelly’s success is that since gracing the lawns of homes in 2020, he (let’s just call it a he) has endured despite the troubled economy. Consider: In 2020, Home Depot reported its most successful Halloween to date. The prospect of beating that record appears solid, despite record inflation, assuming Home Depot can meet demand.

Skelly’s brisk sales in July contributed to the highest quarterly revenue in Home Depot’s history – $43.8 billion. Due to Skelly sell-outs, there now exists a 12-foot skeleton black market, including knock-offs on Amazon AMZN offered for north of $500. Further, Lowe’s and Costco have introduced their own higher-priced skeleton alternatives – an animatronic mummy at Lowe’s ($348) and a 10-foot animated reaper at Costco ($320).

What is in those polyethylene bones that gives Skelly such strength? Perhaps it’s that he defies what fate throws our way. His 60-pound frame has embodied both fear and joy throughout a period when the former is in rich supply and the latter in much demand. Many who erect Skelly are giving a grinning middle-fingerbone to the challenges of the times.

As sociologist Jenni Tabler, interviewed by CNN, put it in a recent tweet, Skelly is “Home Depot’s singular positive mark on American society.”

People walk past a display of Halloween items for sale at a home improvement retailer store in ... [+] Alhambra, California (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)

Indeed, Skelly’s steady march onto American properties speaks volumes not only about consumer impulse, but also of the savviness among the merchandising experts at Home Depot.

If Skelly could speak, this may be what he would tell retailers and brands:

That Skelly clings to the imaginations of consumers communicates an enduring urge for control in an environment of heightened unpredictability. It proves not only how sturdy the bones of good product planning can be, but also the calcification of the consumer’s will to rise above challenge.

Skelly reveals, ultimately, what lurks in the hearts of consumers.