Spirit Halloween Superstores, LLC is an American seasonal retailer that supplies

Halloween Halloween, or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve), is a celebration geography of Halloween, observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christianity, Western Christian f ...

decorations, costumes, props and accessories. It is the United States' largest Halloween retailer. It is currently owned by Spencer Gifts. It was founded in 1983 and began in the

Castro Valley Castro Valley is a census-designated place (CDP) in Alameda County, California, United States. At the 2020 census, it was the fourth most populous unincorporated area in California. The population was 66,441 at the 2020 census. Castro Valley is ...

"Village Shopping Center" in the San Francisco East Bay Area, California, and has headquarters in

Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey Egg Harbor Township is a township in Atlantic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 47,842, its highest decennial count ever and an increase of 4,519 (+10.4%) from the 201 ...

. In 1999, the store had 60 seasonal locations.

Business operations

During the Halloween season, Spirit operates over 1,400 store locations in North America. The Spirit Halloween website is open year-round, offering its in-store products online. The store carries decor manufactured by Gemmy, Tekky Design, Yu Jun, Seasonal Visions International, Crazy Create, NewRaySun, PartyTime Costume, Seasons USA, Pan Asian Creations and more. Many decorations are exclusive to Spirit. In early summer Spirit Halloween typically puts out teaser videos on social media and

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

to create excitement for new items. A few days later the videos are followed by another one officially revealing and announcing the item. The retailer makes use of vacant

retail space Retail is the sale of goods and Service (economics), services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is the sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturing, manufacturers ...

. The stores typically operate for 60 to 90 days, opening sometime in early to mid-August and usually closing two or three days after Halloween.

History

Joe Marver created the Spirit Halloween business model, a pop-up store catering to Halloween revelers. A dress retailer, he replaced his store's usual merchandise with Halloween items in 1983 and named the store after his Spirit Women's Discount Apparel business. The following year, he opened the first year round location in the Castro Valley Village Shopping Center in 1984. He grew Spirit Halloween to 60 seasonal stores nationwide before it was acquired by Spencer Gifts in 1999. His approach to short-term leases, locations, and the stocking of widely varied merchandise was novel in the Halloween retail sector. Spirit Halloween began selling items on its website in 2005. By 2006, it operated 434 temporary stores in 46 states. In October 2016, a store in Nebraska removed Native American costumes after the state's Indigenous community said they were irreverent to their culture. However, the corporate office ordered the costumes put back on the shelves, prompting a wider debate on

cultural appropriation Cultural appropriation is the adoption of an element or elements of one culture or cultural identity, identity by members of another culture or identity in a manner perceived as inappropriate or unacknowledged. Such a controversy typically ari ...

. On October 21, 2016,

Health Canada Health Canada (HC; )Health Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of Health (). is the Structure of the Canadian federal government#Departments, with subsidiary units, department of the Gove ...

recalled eight products from Spirit Halloween, for fire hazards and choking hazards. Despite promising to cease sales, 23 of its stores continued to sell products that had been recalled when Health Canada visited 45 stores across Canada. In 2020, amidst the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, the company opened 1,400 stores. Spirit Halloween serves a Halloween consumer market estimated at $8.4 billion yearly, according to the

National Retail Federation The National Retail Federation (NRF) is the world's largest retail trade association. Its members include department stores, catalog, Internet, and independent retailers, restaurants, grocery stores, multi-level marketing companies and vendors. ...

In October 2024, Spirit Halloween announced that it would pilot Christmas stores known as Spirit Christmas over the 2024 holiday season. It operated 8 stores in the United States, one opening mid-October and the rest in November. Some of the stores will be converted from Spirit Halloween locations.

Spirit of Children

In 2006, Spirit launched a program called Spirit of Children to raise money in-store for children's hospitals. The program annually celebrates Halloween at hospital locations, supplying costumes and decorations for the events. Since 2007, Spirit of Children has raised over $29 million in donations.

Film

On April 11, 2022, it was announced that a film adaptation starring

Christopher Lloyd Christopher Allen Lloyd (born October 22, 1938) is an American actor. He has appeared in many theater productions, films, and television shows since the 1960s. He is known for portraying Emmett Brown in the Back to the Future (franchise), ''B ...

and

Rachael Leigh Cook Rachael Leigh Cook (born October 4, 1979) is an American actress and model. She has starred in the films ''The Baby-Sitters Club (film), The Baby-Sitters Club'' (1995), ''She's All That'' (1999), and ''Josie and the Pussycats (film), Josie and ...

was in development, with Strike Back Studios, Hideout Pictures, Particular Crowd and Film Mode Entertainment as co-producers, David Boag directing in his feature directorial debut, and Billie Bates writing. On July 31, 2022, the first teaser was released. The film was shot in

Rome, Georgia Rome is the largest city in and the county seat of Floyd County, Georgia, United States. Located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, it is the principal city of the Rome, Georgia metropolitan area, Rome, Georgia, metropolitan statist ...

and

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

. The film was released theatrically on September 30, 2022, before being released on video-on-demand (VOD) platforms on October 11, 2022.

References

External links