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Dear Friends,
You have probably heard of the military industrial complex, but the Halloween industrial complex is no joke.
The National Retail Federation (NRF) estimates that US consumers will drop $10B+ on costumes, candies, and decorations for Halloween 2022.

The biggest winner of the Big Halloween market? Spirit Halloween.
There are three things that you can count on in the fall: Football, Pumpkin Spice Lattes, and Spirit Halloween.
It is predicted that Spirit Halloween is going to do between $500-$750 Million worth of revenue this fall.
In 1983, the first ever Spirit Halloween popped up in Castro Valley, California. It was an extension of founder’s Joe Marver women’s clothing store.
Historically speaking, October is a slow month for retail stores. However, Marver saw that there were lines coming out of a local Halloween store which led him to putting costumes in his store.
Marver did not name the store “Spirit” because of Ghosts. He simply took the name of his women’s clothing store (Spirit Women’s Discount Apparel.)
In the first year, Spirit Halloween did $100,000 in 30 days. Over the next 16 years, Spirit Halloween opened in 60+ locations that only operated in August, September, and October.
In 1999, Marver sold Spirit Halloween to mall retailer Spencer’s.

For Spirit Halloween, a pop up lease is ideal because they are only paying for retail space when they truly need it.
They are not a year-round business, so they do not need a year-round lease.
In the early stages, it was really hard for Spirit Halloween to convince Landlords to go along with their idea of a pop-up lease.
However, when the Great Recession hit in 2008, Landlords found that pop-up leases were a good way of filling vacant retail spaces. In other words, some money was better than no money.
Spirit adds a kick-out clause to their lease which means that the Landlord can kick them out, if they find a long-term tenant.
The key for Spirit is finding a giant space that is vacant. They are looking for around 40,000 square feet of real estate. This is usually found in shopping centers or shopping malls.
Signing the lease is just the beginning of this tough process for Halloween.
Spirit is literally starting from scratch in every aspect of each store. They have to set the store up, bring in the merchandise, and hire the entire staff.
As of October 2022, they have around 1,480 stores around the USA open.

Due to the supply chain crisis of 2021, Spirit faced a lack of inventory across multiple stores and struggled to meet the oncoming demand.
However, they are fully stocked and fully prepared for that demand this fall.
I hope everyone has a great rest of the week!
If you have any questions, feedback, or just wanna say hey, email me at mattallenletter@gmail.com
P.S. Follow along on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter for more recommendations, inspiration, and giveaways.
Stay Hungry, Stay Long,
Matt Allen