mornin’ merrymakers 🎃👻🍬🦇💀,
it’s officially a tradition.
every october, i dust off my letter on spirit halloween. & every october, it’s one of my most-read issues. year three is the same costume with new hot topic accessories.
quick refresher: spirit halloween is one of the most brilliant, profitable, & downright bizarre businesses in retail. operating since 1983. owned by spencer’s since 1999 (yes, the lava lamp & gag gift one).
& as of last month, spirit’s parent company also owns hot topic.
the mall misfit empire is real. more on that below.
grab your psl, let’s go 👇
in today’s letter, you'll learn:
→ the tricks & treats of a record $13.5B halloween
→ camp harbor lake & 2026’s trending costumes
→ how spirit moved into its old rival’s stores
→ the spencer’s x hot topic mall misfit merger
→ spirit christmas heads south
surprising stor(i)es & stats
let’s revisit the numbers that make halloween a $cary good retail holiday:
nrf forecasts a record $13.5B in halloween spending this year, up from last year’s record $13.1B.
per person, it’s ~$115. basically flat from last year. the growth is coming from more of us showing up, not each of us spending more.
the split: costumes ($4.4B), decorations ($4.3B), & candy ($4.1B).
we’ll spend $920M dressing up our pets 🐶
pumpkin is the #1 pet costume.
hot dog is #2.
74% of americans plan to celebrate, majority by giving out candy.
49% start shopping in september or earlier.
47% are using ai for their halloween shopping, mostly to brainstorm costumes.
spirit halloween is popping up 1,550+ stores & hiring 52,000 seasonal workers.
spirit’s 2026 drop
this year, select stores turned into camp harbor lake: an 80s horror summer camp, complete with an abandoned cabin & campfire-story animatronics.
willow witch ($299.99): a woodland sorceress with what spirit calls “industry-first conversation response technology.” yes, she talks back.
trash bandit ($149.99): an irradiated raccoon that glows under blacklight.
harmonica hank ($199.99): a backwoods drifter whose harmonica has bluetooth. so you can make him play your playlist.
crackles ($299.99): a carnival clown with a cracked porcelain mask. hard pass.
michael myers ($349.99): 7 ft tall, scored with the original 1978 theme.
the flagship grand opening in egg harbor township, nj drew ~3,000 people on august 1st. spirit swapped the multi-day campout for preregistration, & jack the reaper parachuted in from a blimp. a full comeback after 2025, when spirit canceled its flagship event, citing tariffs & supply chain challenges.
spirit’s predicting this haloween we’ll all be wearing:
varsity swag & campus crushes: hockey jackets & jerseys inspired by prime video’s off campus. couples costume bait.
toy story: woody, buzz, jessie, & a slinky dog ride-along duo for the whole TS fam.
kpop demon hunters, round two: last year i admitted i didn’t know what this was. a year later it’s still everywhere, & i officially have no excuse.
superheroes: spider-man: brand new day & the power rangers.
y2k “it girl”: butterfly clips, rhinestones, slip dresses. powerpuff girls too.
greek mythology: zeus, athena, medusa, the whole pantheon. thank you odyssey.
untamed fantasy: fourth wing & dungeon crawler carl. (the carl costume is basically boxers & crocs. low effort, high reward.)
gaming: fortnite & halo.
funny never fails: inflatables & mascot heads. shrek. lord farquaad. a goodyear blimp. (more on that one below.)
horror streetwear: ghostface & jason varsity jackets you can wear long after october. guess everyone is getting on the merch meets streetwear game.
the poppin’ pop-up
spirit halloween’s business model is almost too brilliant to be real.
they swoop in every year like clockwork, take over a vacant store for a few months, & vanish by november. national retail vacancy is actually low, around 4.3%. empty space isn’t everywhere.
what spirit feeds on is more specific: the big boxes left behind when chains go under.
this year’s haunted house roster, per axios’ count of spirit’s store locator:
153 former joann stores
103 former big lots
100 former party city stores
plus former rite aids, bed bath & beyonds, & even toys “r” us
that party city number is the plot twist. party city used to run its own halloween pop-ups, halloween city. now party city is gone & spirit is selling costumes out of its old stores.
the ultimate ghosting 👻
landlords have come around too. as one real estate exec told forbes: “they’ve really proven the model. it’s now become more of a welcome tenant
spirit’s social spook
spirit doesn’t just sell costumes. it is a costume.
one that lives rent-free on your social feed. every. single. year.
the brand leans all the way into its internet lore. when the fake spirit costume meme took off (photoshop any awkward moment onto a spirit package), they didn’t fight it. they ran #spirithallowmeme & more than quadrupled their brand mentions that october.
the unprepared hiker, the short king, & travis kelce are still fan favorites.
this year’s version of that energy:
their official trend report reminds us that halloween trends don’t come out of thin air. they come out of new jersey (spirit’s hq).
they launched the first officially licensed goodyear blimp costume. goodyear says fans have been diy-ing blimp costumes for years. spirit turned a fan tradition into a $79.99 product.
& jack the reaper made his flagship entrance by parachuting out of a blimp.
apparently 2026 is the year of the blimp.
costume crunch clutch
spirit’s ceo calls himself a “dyed-in-the-wool, brick-and-mortar retailer.” he’s also said “yes, you can shop on your phone, but it is not the same thing as in-person.”
the data’s on his side. this year, only 32% of shoppers say they’ll get costume ideas from online searches, the lowest in a decade. 26% will find them in stores.
& sure, half of us start shopping in september now.
the other half wait until october 28th, realize the office party is tomorrow, & panic-buy a costume. shipping deadlines are over. spirit’s right there, in a high-traffic strip mall (probably a former joann), waiting for you to stumble in.
they don’t fight our last-minute chaos, they monetize it.
so consider this letter your reminder to plan ahead…
though spirit’s betting you won’t 🎃
the year round costume
remember when i said spirit doesn’t just sell costumes, it is a costume?
this year, spirit’s parent company bought another year-round version.
in september, spencer spirit holdings closed its deal for hot topic, boxlunch, & her universe (at a reported ~$350M).
spirit is the costume you wear for one night. hot topic is the costume you wear to school on a tuesday.
& the stores themselves are the costume.
walk into a spirit, a spencer’s, or a hot topic & you’re not just shopping. you’re stepping into a world. the music’s loud. something’s screaming in the corner. there’s a little “your mom wouldn’t approve” energy.
they sell an attitude before they sell a product.
halloween just gives everyone permission to buy it for a night. now one company sells that permission 365 days a year 🖤
christmas is coming
halloween is spirit’s bread & butter, but they’re growing their interest in gingerbread too. spirit christmas, year three:
2024: ~10 stores
2025: 30 stores
2026: 44 stores in 15 states
in early november, dozens of spirit halloween stores flip from spooky to merry in a matter of days.
& it’s heading south: florida, tennessee, the carolinas, & virginia join the northeast & great lakes. one florida store is ~14 miles from disney world.
if you check out the stores, please do lmk what you think!
