![]() Uzzolino told me that there are “over 1,300” Spirit Halloween stores in the United States and Canada this year, which she noted was a 5 percent increase from 2017. The company has been on an upward trajectory ever since. In 1999, Marver sold the company to Spencer Gifts, which is perhaps best known for carrying novelty T-shirts and cheap sex toys. The stores were a spinoff of Marver’s first retail venture, Spirit Women’s Discount Apparel, according to a 2016 Bloomberg report, and much of Spirit Halloween’s initial inventory was a mix of regular women’s clothing interspersed with wigs, makeup, and superhero masks. Joe Marver founded Spirit Halloween in 1983, spokesperson Marisa Uzzolino told me via email, and quickly grew the business from one pop-up store in the Castro Valley Mall in California to 63 stores across the country. Two stores - Spirit Halloween and Party City - helped transform the way people think about and celebrate Halloween, a holiday that was once considered child’s play. Halloween spending is expected to reach $9 billion in 2018, with the average person participating in Halloween festivities spending an estimated $86.79, according to the National Retail Federation’s annual Halloween survey.īut the holiday wasn’t always the big moneymaker it is today. Shockingly, even the rise of online shopping can’t seem to kill the Halloween store. ![]() When traditional retailers file for bankruptcy and leave empty big-box stores in their wake, they also give Halloween retailers more potential locations to choose from. Then, a day or two after the big night, they vanish, not to be seen or thought of for another year.ĭespite the brick-and-mortar retail apocalypse taking place across the country, Halloween pop-ups like Spirit have endured. They set up shop in whatever vacant retail space will take them, whether it’s a now-defunct Babies R Us, a former grocery store, or the first floor of the American Express building. They usually arrive in late summer or early fall, before the leaves have even started changing color. Pop-up Halloween stores exist all over the country. ![]() ![]() Now, for a limited time only, it’s full of Halloween costumes and spooky lawn decorations. The building, located in Manhattan’s Financial District, was built in 1916 and was used as American Express’s headquarters until 1975. The first thing I notice about the Spirit Halloween at 65 Broadway is that the building’s exterior is far too nice to house a seasonal Halloween pop-up shop, even though that’s exactly what’s going on. ![]()
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