Dia De Los Muertos parade, Oregon District, Dayton 2018 | Photograph: Michael Krieger | The Wright State Guardian
Spirit Halloween, a company that sells Halloween decor and costumes, has a strange and interesting history.
The company has turned the pop-up store business into a multi-million-dollar commodity. According to an article written by Mental Floss, Spirit Halloween made over $400 million dollars in 2015.
The original owner, Joe Marver, started out selling women’s clothes and switched to selling Halloween costumes after seeing the success of a nearby costume shop. Marver made over $100,000 in the first month after the switch.
In 1999, Spencer’s purchased Spirit Halloween. According to an article written by Bloomberg, the pop-up chain had 1,300 locations in the U.S and Canada and is continuing to expand.
The pop-up stores use abandoned big box stores as locations and will rent them for a short period of time. Landlords need to fill these large spaces and Spirit Halloween is able to fill that space.
The company has its own charity called Spirit of Halloween that raises millions of dollars for pediatric hospital programs. They donate costumes and decorations to hospitals for Halloween.
According to Spirit Halloween’s website, their goal is to “make hospitals less scary for kids and their families through the support of the Child Life department at partner hospitals in our local communities.”
Spirit Halloween continues to sell products all year round in their online store. They sell decorations and costumes for other holidays, including St. Patrick’s Day, Thanksgiving, Cinco de Mayo and Easter on their website.
There is a Spirit Halloween located in Beavercreek.
“I like how there’s a lot of decorations and cool costumes. This place offers a lot of options,” one customer said.
