Spirit Halloween is perhaps the most well-known popup store in America, with thousands of temporary locations throughout the country. The stores are known for popping up in empty retail locations in the months leading up to Halloween. With Halloween fast approaching, the company announced plans to keep stores open a little longer this year to help spread some Christmas spirit.
Spirit Opening Ten Christmas Stores
Spencer Spirit Holdings recently announced plans to keep ten stores open through the 2024 holiday season to sell Christmas merchandise. The idea makes good sense, considering the stores already have lease agreements and staff in place. Extending its operating season to include Christmas will give the company a share in the biggest shopping season of the year.
Fortunately for shoppers, Spirit Christmas will offer much more than wrapping paper and ornaments. Spirit Christmas is set to deliver what the company calls a “unique holiday shopping experience.” In addition to decorations, stores will sell apparel and gifts and will offer a meet-and-greet with Santa.
Spirit Christmas will only operate ten stores for the 2024 season, including locations in:
- Waterford, CT
- Dartmouth, MA
- Erie, PA
- Brick Township, NJ
- Marlton, NJ
- Mays Landing, NJ
- Woodbridge, NJ
- Albany, NY
- Bohemia, NY
- Poughkeepsie, NY
If things go well this year, Spirit will likely increase the number of stores for the 2025 season and hopefully expand into other major cities around the country. It is still unclear when the stores will open with Christmas merchandise, but they will likely close for a week or two after Thanksgiving to redecorate and bring in new inventory. However, it does look like Santa will begin doing meet-and-greets at the ten locations starting November 10th.
An Obvious Next Step
Spirit Halloween stores have a pretty good hold on spooky season merch. The stores really took off as major retailers like Walmart began focusing less on Halloween and going right to Christmas at the end of the summer season. However, creating a popup store based on Christmas may be a little more challenging than people think.
There are year-round Christmas stores throughout the country. Additionally, big box retailers are selling Christmas merchandise as early as August at rock-bottom prices. Luring consumers away won’t be easy, considering Spirit Christmas will have to wait to open until after Halloween.
Still, expanding beyond Halloween and into Christmas is an obvious move. It is also the most realistic way to expand and a win-win for people who own empty storefronts, as they will now get a couple more months of rent out of the deal. The biggest challenge will likely be convincing consumers to venture beyond the big box stores they already shop at, and with more consumers choosing to shop online each year rather than in brick-and-mortar stores, Spirit Christmas has its work cut out for it.
This Isn’t Spirit’s First Christmas
Although Spirit is known as a Halloween retailer, it has tried to open for Christmas in the past. In the 1990s, Spirit attempted to expand into the Christmas season, but the concept never took off. About a decade later, the company again tried to open Christmas-themed stores but still failed to garner the success of Spirit Halloween.
Now, nearly twenty years later, a lot has changed, and Spirit thinks Christmas stores will work this time around. That is why they are starting slow, with only ten out of their 1,500 Halloween locations opening for Christmas.
What We Are Looking Forward to at Spirit Christmas
While Christmas decorations are available at nearly every major retailer, there is always room for more. The number of products Spirit Christmas plans to carry is still unclear. Spirit Halloween is known mostly for its costumes, but it also carries decorations. Therefore, we expect Spirit Christmas to stock a lot of decor for both indoors and outdoors.
Hopefully, the decor includes a pretty broad mix of items that are not readily available at big box stores. It appears the stores will also stock apparel, which makes sense since Spirit Christmas is owned by Spencers’ parent company. They may even sell Spencers’ items like Tee shirts, drinkware, and bags as stocking stuffers at Spirit Christmas.
If there is one thing that is certain, you can’t have too many Christmas stores. Hopefully, these initial Spirit Christmas stores turn out to be a smashing success and more open in the coming years.
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