Spirit Halloween is getting into the Christmas spirit this year.
The Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey-based retailer will convert a handful of its seasonal pop-up shops into Spirit Christmas stores. Spirit Halloween is testing the waters for expanding beyond the spooky Oct. 31 holiday in a pilot program of 10 Spirit Christmas stores, including some former Spirit Halloween sites and some new locations.
"Spirit Christmas is a new concept for us, and we’re hopeful it will resonate with our customers," a Spirit Halloween spokesperson said in an email to CoStar News on Tuesday. "Our goal is to create a festive retail experience that captures the spirit of the season, much like we do for Halloween."
The new Spirit Christmas stores are concentrated in the Northeast. Four are slated for New Jersey, including the concept's flagship. It's scheduled to open in Mays Landing on Oct. 18. The remainder of them will debut in early November and stay open through the holidays.
This year, a record of roughly 1,525 Spirit Halloween pop-ups rolled out across the nation, an annual event so well known in pop culture that "Saturday Night Live" parodied it a few weeks ago. The seasonal retailer inks temporary leases for vacant retail space from August through the start of November.
To open Spirit Christmas, it will just have to extend some of those leases. It looks like Spirit Halloween, owned by Spencer Gifts, is looking to tap into winter — and not just autumn — holiday spending. But it will face challenges as it tries to learn it can duplicate its success with seasonal pop-ups for Halloween for Christmas, according to one analyst.
Dipping a toe
"Christmas is a more difficult occasion for Spirit than Halloween as products are more confined to decor and there is far less emphasis on costumes," Neil Saunders, managing director and retail analyst for GlobalData, said in an email to CoStar News.
He added that "there is also enormous competition as most chain retailers go all in on Christmas decorations and accessories. Nevertheless, there is a market here so it makes sense for Spirit to dip its toe into the water and see if it can extend its selling season beyond Halloween."
Halloween has evolved into a very lucrative season, with total spending expected to reach $11.6 billion after last year’s record-setting $12.2 billion, according to the National Retail Federation.
The market has also become very competitive, with players that include giants like Amazon, Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Lowe's and Party City, which discontinued opening its own pop-ups, Halloween City, this year.
And the winter holiday season is also an important revenue generator for retailers. Next week, the NRF is slated to present its 2024 sales forecast for the Christmas season. Last year, the industry trade group forecast that U.S. holiday retail spending would reach between $957.3 billion and $966.6 billion.
Booking Santa
Spirit Christmas stores will offer holiday decor, apparel, inflatables, gifts and stocking stuffers. Shoppers can already book times online to have photos taken with Santa for their annual Christmas cards, and to receive a free digital postcard featuring them with Santa. The stores will also feature a life-sized gingerbread village where kids can mail their letters to Santa at the North Pole, according to the Spirit Halloween spokesperson.
Chuck Lanyard, president of the retail brokerage the Goldstein Group, said the foray into Christmas is a good move for Spirit Halloween and will also benefit landlords.
"Like Halloween stores, a Christmas store would pay a premium rent for only three months of being open, which helps landlords," Lanyard said in an email to CoStar News. "The months of October through February tend to be slower for retailers, so many retailers would want to wait to lease a space until late winter to first open up. So for a landlord, who normally would have a former Halloween space to lease on Nov. 5, they can now collect considerable rent during this period just before Christmas, as well."
The Spirit Christmas locations for the test are:
Connecticut
Crystal Mall, 850 Hartford Turnpike, Waterford.
Massachusetts
Faunce Corner Shopping Center, 65 Faunce Corner Mall Road, North Dartmouth.
New Jersey
Market Place at Brick, 465 Route 70, Brick Township.
Willow Ridge, 740 Route 73 S., Marlton.
Consumer Square, 230 Consumer Square, Mays Landing.
The Plaza at Woodbridge, 675 U.S. Highway 1 S., Woodbridge.
New York
Colonie Center, 131 Colonie Center, Albany.
Sayville Plaza, 5181 Sunrise Highway, Bohemia.
Chestnut Plaza, 2020 South Road, Poughkeepsie.
Pennsylvania
Mill Creek Mall, 345 Millcreek Mall Blvd., Erie.
Spirit Halloween has tried out testing a Christmas store concept in the past by extending its temporary leases past November, according to several published reports. One such pilot was in 1990 under the chain's founder, Joseph Marver. Spencer Gifts purchased Spirit Halloween in 1999, and from 2005 to 2006 it tried out a Christmas format again.