The History of Spirit Halloween

Joe Marver founded Spirit Halloween in 1983. He opened the first temporary location at the Castro Valley Mall in California after experimenting with the Halloween business in his women’s apparel shop. According to Marver, he was “laughed at” initially, but proved naysayers wrong by doing $100,000 worth of business in just 30 days. In 1999, Spencer Gifts purchased Spirit Halloween, which by then had become quite well-known for selling costumes, candy, and other Halloween-related items. While Spirit Halloween is now all but synonymous with Halloween, it doesn’t have any permanent storefronts. In fact, all Spirit Halloween locations — over 1,500 in total — are temporary, seasonal pop-up shops set up in vacant retail spaces all over the country. A year-round team analyzes available real estate and the process of setting up the stores starts in the middle of the summer (reportedly, most set-ups take around a fortnight to complete). Spirit Halloween reportedly prefers locations with high visibility and a substantial population, but is known for making nearly any space — no matter how large or how small — work. According to CEO Steven Silverstein, part of the success of the stores is the brand’s name recognition. And indeed, Spirit Halloween stores are extremely recognizable and well-known all across America today. In fact, for many people, the sight of a Spirit Halloween sign marks the official start of “spooky season.”