During the Halloween season, Spirit operates over 1,400 store locations in North America. The Spirit Halloween website is open year-round, offering its in-store products online. The stores are usually open for 30 or 60 days prior to Halloween. Spirit has announced Montgomery County locations via its website, including:
• Burtonsville at the Former Fashion Bug, located at 15791 Columbia Pike
• Gaithersburg (Rio) at the former Charming Charlies, located at 101 Boardwalk Place
• Rockville at the former Pier One, located at 12137 Rockville Pike (Pike Center)
Joe Marver created the Spirit Halloween business model, a pop-up store catering to Halloween revelers. Starting with his first pop-up location in the Castro Valley Mall in 1984, he grew Spirit Halloween to 60 seasonal stores nationwide before it was acquired in 1999. His approach to short-term leases, locations, and the stocking of widely varied merchandise was novel in the Halloween retail sector.
Today, the Spirit Halloween network of pop-up stores is bigger than any other specialty retailer in the category, with new ownership expanding Marver’s original concept to more than 1,100 locations across North America. Spirit Halloween serves a Halloween consumer market estimated at $8.4 billion dollars yearly, according to the National Retail Federation. Despite online shopping creating challenges for brick and mortar stores, Spirit thrives with in person purchases-possibly due to its relatively lower overhead with seasonal rentals of the physical spaces.
1 comment
Spirit Halloween in Rockville at the old Pier One is open! Even though the sign does say opening soon we are open!