Halloween Stores

mjhale
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Re: Halloween Stores

Post by mjhale »

Brian Lutz wrote: September 7th, 2021, 8:50 am I'm actually seeing significantly less Spirit Halloween locations around here this year than usual. In previous years there have been locations in Lake Stevens and Everett (the Everett one being in the former Sears space at Everett Mall) but this year the closest one is in Lynnwood. It seems there's less large vacant spaces available here than you'd expect...
I wonder if Spirit Halloween has a preferred size for their stores? Around me Spirit Halloween has been in everything from closed Rite Aid locations all the way up to about 1/2 of a former Toys R Us/Babies R Us combo store. This year, the Spirit Halloween closest to me is in a former And That! location that lasted about eight months which itself is a former Food Lion store.
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Re: Halloween Stores

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

In El Cajon, CA, there are 2 Spirit Halloween stores across the street from each other. One of them is a pop-up set up in a giant tent, the other is in a former Office Depot.
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Re: Halloween Stores

Post by buckguy »

Haven't seen many this year, but stores seem to have bigger stocks of Halloween candy than last year. With schools open and some low-key events continuing, there's probably some cautious optimism for the holiday which falls on a weekend and may still be celebrated in some fashion.
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Re: Halloween Stores

Post by mbz321 »

For those curious, on Spirit Halloween's store locator, it even tells you the former store it is occupying for most of their listed locations (I imagine the ones that don't are spaces that have been vacant for quite a long while). It does seem like they are a bit more selective in their locations this year though.
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Re: Halloween Stores

Post by BillyGr »

mjhale wrote: September 7th, 2021, 6:54 pm I wonder if Spirit Halloween has a preferred size for their stores? Around me Spirit Halloween has been in everything from closed Rite Aid locations all the way up to about 1/2 of a former Toys R Us/Babies R Us combo store. This year, the Spirit Halloween closest to me is in a former And That! location that lasted about eight months which itself is a former Food Lion store.
One in this area is in a former supermarket. Having not been in, I might suspect they don't use all the space and just negotiated a rent based on what they wanted to use (since no one else has shown interest in the space, as they have been there each year since said supermarket moved to a different former supermarket space).

In a different direction, there is a new one this year in a former Peebles location (which is moderate sized but not super huge - it started as a local dept. store many years ago, but some space was removed over the years to make other spaces on both sides of the corner it occupies).
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Re: Halloween Stores

Post by Brian Lutz »

Last year in Everett a Spirit store opened inside the former Sears at Everett Mall, taking up about 1/4 of the Sears space. The space is still vacant and available, but is also right next door to a Party City store, and my guess is that they objected to mall management allowing a competitor to open up next door, so there's no store there this year. The previous two years they opened up in a vacated Toys R Us across from the mall and next to a Michaels and a Walmart, but that space has been reoccupied by a trampoline park / family entertainment center currently under construction.

When I think about it there really are very few vacant big box store spaces in the local area. the only one I can think of right off hand is a former Big Lots on Evergreen Way that was vacated last year when that store moved into a former Albertsons a half mile north of there. The former Albertsons / Saar's Super Saver store in Lake Stevens is currently being turned into a Grocery Outlet, and Frontier Village is fully occupied after Ross took over the former Bartell Drugs last year and the old Sports Authority store got subdivided into a TJMaxx and a Michael's store. I'm also not aware of any spots where a Spirit store could really go in Snohomish or Marysville.
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Re: Halloween Stores

Post by storewanderer »

I think with all the uncertainty this year the attitude of these Halloween Retailers is to book as many sales right now, early, as possible. Spirit runs on all sales final policy. There is so much uncertainty with everything, who knows what it is going to be like at the end of October. I think the general population would love to celebrate Halloween but it may not be up to them to make that decision.

Also I think some folks have more money flowing in late August/early September than they may have as September draws on due to the unemployment payment timing. So the Halloween Store needs to capture more money when the money is flowing.

I'm all set for Halloween from the 90% off sale at Wal Mart in past years. It is all junk anyway. No need to pay full price for it.
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Re: Halloween Stores

Post by Knight »

I am yet to see a quantity of Halloween specialty retail stores open. Chains such as Spirit of Halloween may have failed quickly, and are making smarter decisions if they remain in business.
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Re: Halloween Stores

Post by BillyGr »

BillyGr wrote: September 9th, 2021, 12:14 pm In a different direction, there is a new one this year in a former Peebles location (which is moderate sized but not super huge - it started as a local dept. store many years ago, but some space was removed over the years to make other spaces on both sides of the corner it occupies).
This one is interesting - I think it is just opening this week, but they have a sign that looks to be made of more permanent lettering (rather than the traditional banner posted). Not anything that attached (like no electric to light it) but still somewhat more than normal.
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Re: Halloween Stores

Post by cjd »

I can confirm the Goodwill Halloween section is not related to Spirit. They gave me a sticker last week and it's just "Goodwill's Planet Halloween". I have not seen a Spirit Store here since Ashley Furniture moved into the former Circuit City.
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