First off, Halloween is not a season, “it’s a lifestyle,” says Sarah Burton, a Spirit Halloween sales associate.
Classic Halloween costumes are “classic for a reason and never go out of style,” adds Burton. “You’ve got your witches, vampires and horror-themed people.”
“And the inflatables have been massive the last six years and they just keep getting crazier. They’re a lot of fun,” notes Burton.
Other costumes on sale this year are on-point, with Beetlejuice being quite popular in 2024, due to the new “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” sequel plus costumes inspired by all the other movies that have been released this year.
There’s also been a lot of new animatronics added to the store’s scarifying stock this year. “Things we haven’t seen yet. That was a lot of fun.”
According to Burton, the store also received close to twice as many home decor products, including signs, posters and knick-knacks. “You could almost leave up all year round.”
“They usually boost up in those departments,” says Burton. “A little bit of everything this year.”
Spirit Halloween opened Aug. 1 in the Main Pavilion at Exhibition Park and it started off slow with a little bit of customers trickling in to check things out. “But we expand our hours as we go,” Burton explains.
This weekend should be “ridiculously fun in the store,” as it’s the last weekend for ghouls and goblins to get their costumes before Oct. 31. And no doubt, there’s plenty of Halloween celebrations for young and old.
The store does see a little bit more business, as Halloween selections at other retail stores seem limited. “What we find is, at Halloween, they don’t bring in as much stock as they do for Christmas. We find their stocks are lower to begin with and as it gets closer and they start pushing out their Christmas stuff, people are trying to find things. So they’re coming to us more and more, as we get closer to the day.”
Burton says the new location has been good. “We were a little unsure. You never quite know with something different. And having the other events on the grounds has helped. We’ve been able to play off of that.”
“The building itself is the perfect size because it’s big and wide open with tons of room for us. That was nice, we didn’t have any challenges of trying to figure out how to fit into the space that was already there. It just worked,” says Burton.
As for after Halloween, Burton says the store will be open Nov. 1-2. “And probably that’s it. But we’ll have some sales going on, we’ll close it up and get ready for next year.”
