Spirit Halloween’s $2 billion business has been a success thanks to acquiring short-term leases from bankrupt stores
The store that shows up one night at your local mall like an apparition has only a few months to generate a year’s worth of revenue. But with nearly 1,500 pop-up locations and 50,000 seasonal workers, Spirit Halloween remains the king of spooky spending.
Spencer Gifts, the early August mall icon, bought Spirit in 1999, and when current Spencer’s CEO Steven Silverstein started in 2003, the Halloween retailer had just 130 stores across the United States. Moody’s Ratings recently estimated that Spencer’s and Spirit would generate about $1.9 billion in 2023, with Spirit bringing in more than Spencer’s.
The key to success, long immortalized in memes, was Spirit’s commitment to collecting Short term leasesespecially after leaving the bankrupt supermarkets:
- The company has always pursued unconventional, months-long leases, for which commercial landlords typically charge higher fees. But the growing number of large job openings in the past decade has given Spirit more leverage.
- Most retailers sign leases at the beginning of the year, so by mid-summer, when Spirit is looking for empty buildings, there’s not as much competition for whatever is available.
Looking forward…The company will open 30 pop-up Christmas locations after packing all the creepy hint costumes.millimeter
This was the report Originally published by Morning drink.
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