Spirit Halloween, LLC is an American seasonal retailer that supplies Halloween decorations, costumes, props and accessories. It is the country’s largest Halloween retailer. It is currently owned by Spencer Gifts.
Spirit Halloween was founded as Spirit Party & Costume Co. sometime in 1983 by Joseph Marver after he had decided to compete with a pop up Halloween store that opened near his clothing store Spirit Women’s Discount Apparel. Marver opened his first location in the Southland Mall located in Hayward California that very same year. Around 1990/1991 the name was officially changed to Spirit Halloween. By 1999, the store had 60 seasonal locations across the United States and was purchased by Spencer Gifts that same year.
On June 3rd 2003, Steven Silverstein became the CEO of Spencer Gifts and Spirit Halloween and remains in that position today. Since then, the number of Spirit Halloween stores has expanded to 1,300 locations across North America, making Spirit’s network of pop-up stores larger than any other specialty retailer of its kind.
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 Tekky Design, Gemmy, Yu Jun, Seasonal Visions International, Crazy Create, NewRaySun, PartyTime Costume, Seasons USA, Morbid Enterprises, Pan Asian Creations and more. Many decorations are exclusive to Spirit.
The retailer makes use of vacant retail space. 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.
Today, the Spirit Halloween network of pop-up stores is bigger than any other specialty retailer in the category, with new ownership expanding Marver’s original concept to more than 1,100 locations across North America. Spirit Halloween serves a Halloween consumer market estimated at $8.4 billion dollars yearly, according to the National Retail Federation. Despite online shopping creating challenges for brick-and-mortar stores, Spirit thrives with in-person purchases-possibly due to its relatively lower overhead with seasonal rentals of the physical spaces.
According to en.wikipedia.org. Source of photos: internet
