Spirit Halloween opened a record 1,550-plus stores this year. The secret is short leases, flexible store sizes, and a year-round hunt for empty storefronts.
Every September, it happens again. The old Party City down the road lights up with inflatable ghouls and a wall of costumes.
That’s no accident. Spirit Halloween opened a record 1,550-plus pop-up stores in 2026, per Bisnow, even though empty retail space is hard to find right now.
“Spirit is an opportunistic real estate player,” Todd Drowlette, managing director of TITAN Commercial Realty Group in Albany, New York, told Realtor.com.
How does Spirit Halloween pick its locations?
It hunts for big empty stores near busy shopping.
“They target busy, regional locations with high traffic counts and traffic generators in the center or retail corridor like Target, Walmart, or grocery stores,” Drowlette said.
Spirit’s own website spells out what it wants, per both outlets: power centers, strip centers, freestanding stores, downtown retail and major malls. It looks for communities with at least 35,000 people within a 3- to 5-mile radius and roads with at least 25,000 cars a day.
And it isn’t picky about size. Spirit takes spaces from about 5,000 to 50,000 square feet, per Bisnow. That flexibility is how it grew even with national retail vacancy stuck around 4.4%, per Colliers data cited by Bisnow.
Why do landlords rent to Spirit Halloween?
Because it’s easy money on a space that would otherwise sit empty.
Spirit’s “ideal lease” runs about three months, from mid-July to mid-November, per Bisnow. It even includes a kick-out clause if the landlord finds a permanent tenant by June.
“Landlords will do deals with them, because they are short term deals and Spirit typically takes the locations ‘as is’ so it is basically some cash flow for the property owner while the vacant space is being marketed,” Drowlette said.
Spirit starts working on deals about a year ahead of time, Colliers’ Anjee Solanki told Bisnow.
“They’ve really proven the model,” Nicole Larson, senior manager of national retail research at Colliers, told Bisnow. “There’s really not much holdover, very minimal risk.”
Is a Spirit Halloween a bad sign for your neighborhood?
Usually not, experts say.
“A Spirit Halloween store near you does not have any direct impact on your home’s property values,” Drowlette told Realtor.com.
Stephanie D’Amico, a vice president at CrossMarc Services in Winter Park, Florida, said an empty store with a short-term tenant is just part of how retail works. “Having a vacancy is not a harbinger of the death of retail. Retail is just evolving,” she said.
There is one warning sign, though. “If Spirit rents the same vacancy two years in a row, that is a serious red flag for that shopping center and market potentially,” Drowlette said. Most spaces Spirit rents are leased by the next Halloween.
When did Spirit Halloween start?
1983. Joseph Marver opened the first one as a single pop-up store in San Francisco, per Bisnow. Spencer Gifts bought the company in 1999.
Does Spirit Halloween sell Disney costumes?
Yes. Licensed Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars costumes are a big part of the lineup most years, so it’s a regular stop for families going as Stitch or Elsa.
What is Spirit Christmas?
Spirit’s newer holiday spinoff. It launched in 2024 with 10 pilot stores and grew to 30 locations in the Northeast and Great Lakes in 2025, per Bisnow.
So if the Spirit near you turns into a Christmas shop after Halloween, now you know why. It’s the same playbook, just with more tinsel.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
Pirates and Princesses is your destination for Disney news, theme park updates, and the pop culture you love. From Disney cruises and travel tips to Disney fashion, food, collectibles, and movie news, PNP covers it all. Visit us at piratesandprincesses.net for daily coverage. Follow PNP on Facebook and Instagram, and listen to the Pirates & Princesses podcast on Apple Podcasts and YouTube.
Hat Tips:
Realtor.com (Eric Goldschein, Sept. 25, 2026), Drowlette and D’Amico quotes and Spirit’s location criteria
Bisnow (Ryan Wangman, Sept. 22, 2026), store count, lease terms, floor sizes, vacancy data, Colliers quotes, history and Spirit Christmas
New York Post on X (Sept. 27, 2026), the lead
AI Disclosure: All articles are assigned, edited and reviewed by an experienced human editor before posting. Like most modern newsrooms, WebReef Media uses a variety of AI tools to help with accuracy and efficiency. Ways AI may be used in article creation include research, grammar, fact-checking and ideation, as well as occasional AI generated or enhanced thumbnails or graphics. No articles are generated or posted without human oversight or involvement.