Spirit Halloween tends to vanish before you’ve finished your Halloween candy, but this year the retailer plans to stick around for a couple of months in some cities—with a slightly different focus.
Spirit plans to open 10 Spirit Christmas stores across the Northeast, to capitalize on Americans' love of decorating for the holidays. The stores will sell decorations and inflatables, as well as gifts. Shoppers will also have an opportunity to take pictures with Santa in a gingerbread-themed setting.
Some Spirit locations aren’t waiting for Halloween to wrap up before shifting over to holiday mode. The first Spirit Christmas will open on Oct. 18 in Cape May, N.J.
Other locations will be in Waterford, Conn.; Dartmouth, Mass.; Erie, Penn.; Bohemia, Albany, and Poughkeepsie, N.Y.; and Brick Township, Marlton, and Woodbridge, N.J.
Ten Spirit Christmas stores aren’t a lot, especially given the company’s footprint for Halloween: There are 1,525 Spirit Halloween stores nationwide this year, employing some 50,000 people. However, the pop-up stores could be a trial run for a larger presence in years to come.
That would make sense. Halloween is a lucrative holiday for retailers, with the National Retail Federation estimating Americans will spend $11.6 billion this year on costumes, decorations, and more. That’s nothing compared to the December holidays, though, where overall spending hit $964 billion last year.
Most of that, of course, is on gifts, but decorations make up a notable percentage. One study found that the average American who displays outdoor decorations will spend an average of $384 on them. And more than half of all homes decorate with tree lights and smaller decorations around the house.
