The Rise of Spirit Halloween
Why your favorite Halloween store continues to thrive
Halloween, like Christmas, is a holiday built on our childhood nostalgia. You look back on the days of trick-or-treating, pillowcases heavy with candy. Running around a few blocks covered in head-to-toe costumes didn’t seem like much of a challenge then, with the only light to guide you being the moonlight and the occasional headlights.
There’s an emotional pull to Halloween, just like any other holiday. Christmas focuses on the joy of giving. Valentine’s Day focuses on our love for each other. Independence Day, here in America, focuses on our pride of defeating the British and becoming our own country.
Halloween, on the other hand, is a mix bag. It focuses on fear, joy, fun… most importantly, it focuses on the nostalgia I just described.
A corporation that hasn’t taken that for granted is Spencer Gifts, with its Spirit Halloween pop-ups infesting abandoned stores nationwide (and in Canada) every year. Filled with animatronics, costumes, and decorations — Spirit Halloween has become the leading retailer for all things Halloween.
In recent years, its popularity has only grown, specifically with young adults. Memes about grabbing a coffee and hanging out at Spirit with your bestie have spawned into the internet’s sphere, with people raving about the store. If one would have to guess, it comes from the burning desire of wanting Halloween to feel “special” again.
Adults don’t get to trick-or-treat, at least not without having children of their own. Sure, you can go to haunted houses and get scared out of your mind, but it’s not the same as scoring pounds of free candy and seeing the awesome yards decked out in Halloween decorations.
Spirit Halloween gives you a little taste of that, even if you’re an adult. Not to mention, it’s filled with merchandise for iconic slasher films, fueling the nostalgia bait even more.
The Halloween retailer wasn’t always the billion dollar business it is now though, as it all started with humble beginnings.
Spirit’s History
In 1983, the first Spirit Halloween opened in Castro Valley, California. Joe Marver, the founder of our favorite Halloween giant, opened it as an experimental retail space. Halloween merch took place of his women’s apparel shop for that October, in which he made the highest profit ever for that month.
The next year, he set to open a more permanent location. According to Marver, the store wasn’t taken too seriously by his local mall, where the first real Spirit store found its home. “They laughed at me and put me in a corner hidden behind an old restaurant,” Marver told Times, “When I did $100,000 in 30 days, they were astounded.”
By 1999, the Spirit Halloween brand had over 60 seasonal locations, which caught the eye of Spencer Gifts. It was officially purchased by Spencer Gifts that same year, in which their headquarters and flagship store moved to Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey.
By now, the brand was already widely known in the United States. So much so that by 2005, they opened their e-commerce site, letting Halloween enthusiasts shop year-round. The following year they had grown to over 434 stores around the country, which pales in comparison to its recent numbers of over 1,500 stores.
Even more important, 2006 became the year that Spirit of Children begun. The Spirit of Children foundation aims to make “hospitals less scary” for children and families, with donations going toward both medical help and overall quality of life improvements. Along with resources, Spirit Halloween makes sure each partner hospital receives costumes and treats so patients can celebrate the holiday.
Now, in 2024, Spirit announced their newest expansion: Spirit Christmas. This is an experimental Christmas shop, “Spiriting” certain Spirit Halloween locations for the holiday season. We’ll see how this one plays out.
Spirit’s Heart
You may be thinking: this is cool and all, but what keeps Spirit Halloween alive? After all, it’s a physical retail space that’s taking over the corpses of other retail spaces from a bygone era. If the Sears that your local Spirit Halloween takes over every year couldn’t make it in this economy, why can the temporary holiday store?
Well… that’s the keyword here: temporary.
Spirit Halloween stores are only seasonal pop-ups, which helps reduce their costs in both labor and leases. Unlike your typical big box store, Spirit Halloween doesn’t have to worry about running an operation year-round.
Of course, operational costs are only half of the story. What about the e-commerce space? If Amazon could take out supergiants like JCPenney, what’s stopping it from ruining Spirit Halloween?
Here’s an answer you probably weren’t expecting: people are returning to the traditional brick-and-mortar experience. Even Gen Z, who is typically generalized as a group who prefers “tech,” enjoys shopping in-store. According to L.E.K. Consulting, 64% of Gen Z shoppers prefer shopping in-person rather than online.
A lot of this has to deal with the COVID-19 lockdowns making us crave the experience, but another theory suggests that Gen Z is looking for a substitute for third spaces. This can be seen with the growing revival of shopping malls, where many young adults flock to hang out due to the luxury of window shopping. Yeah, the “luxury” — most people feel they can’t afford to buy anything, but at least they can look.
“Almost two-thirds of Gen Z consumers also say they go to malls for the social aspect,” CNN reports, further hammering in the idea that malls (and retail spaces) are still relevant in our increasingly online world.
With this in mind, Spirit Halloween has become the perfect space for people to hang out. It’s a place that focuses on the “social” aspect of shopping. There’s giant displays for animatronics, funky Halloween tunes playing on the speakers, and plenty of merchandise to gush over. Not only this, but the pop-up nature of the business makes it a limited time experience every year, enticing people to visit their local location at least once.
Amazon may offer a variety of items and quick shipping, but it has nothing on Spirit Halloween’s experience. You go walk into a Spirit store and leave empty handed completely happy. It’s hard to say the same when you leave Amazon with an empty cart.
Amazon focuses on that adrenaline rush you get from clicking “buy now,” while Spirit Halloween focuses on the general appreciation of Halloween and Halloween enthusiasts.
You may think that relying on Halloween can’t possibly get you that much business. In America, it’s expected that over $11.6 billion will be spent on the holiday. I think it’s safe to say that the Halloween business is big business.
People love Halloween. More than a lot realize.
Spirit Halloween, however, is able to find an audience in multiple niches. While Halloween is certainly the biggest of those, other niches such as horror, decorating, and even cosplay come into play as well. The brand is able to bring in people all under the same umbrella, and that’s the true power of the store.
There really isn’t many other retail brands that can say the same.
Spirit Halloween is special.
Just last weekend I went to one of my local locations, and boy was it busy. The line to check out trailed all the way to the very back of the store, so people were going to be waiting for quite some time. I ended up leaving, considering I already checked out the store in the beginning of the month, but it was nice to see how much business it was getting.
Children were excited to be there, horror fans were happy to buy decor for their homes, and parents were busy checking out the neat trinkets they could buy for themselves. Everyone seemed happy… even if there was a huge line to wait in.
I want to apologize for missing last week. This month has been hectic! I’ve been busy with interviews and setting up a new Etsy shop, so I didn’t have much time for putting together my newsletter last week.
Very interesting stuff, always wondered how Spirit started.
I guess it doesn't make sense to have it open all year....but I'll have to pay attention next October to see if it sets up shop in some vacated retail area in my hometown....