A haunting we will go — for costume deals
Empty stores in malls and strip shopping centers are being haunted by new tenants for Halloween.
Spirit Halloween is catering to costume-seeking consumers with 15 temporary pop-up shops in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties. The New Jerseybased chain, a sister company of Spencer’s gag gifts, carries thousands of costumes, spooky decor, scary animatronics and fun gag gifts. There are 80 stores in Florida, of 1,300 locations temporarily open around the country.
But, like Casper the Friendly Ghost, they will vanish by Nov. 1. Find a store, and a 20-percent-off coupon, at SpiritHalloween.com.
The seasonal chain has plenty of retail space to choose from after a record number of retailers — such as Alfred Angelo, Payless, The Limited and at least a dozen others — have gone belly up this year. Toys “R” Us may soon make a trip to the graveyard, too.
Spirit Halloween rents space and starts setting up stores in late July. It takes weeks of work because the chain constructs elaborate, screaming and talking animatronic displays that rival those at a theme park. It’s fun to discover eerie surprises at every turn. Stores can employ up to 20 temporary employees, depending on sales volume, according to the company.
“It’s hard work getting things up and running, but it’s the most fun job I’ve ever had,” says Wendy Costa, manager at the Fort Lauderdale store, which occupies the normally vacant former home of the Office Depot at 3935 N. Federal Highway.
Action hero and superhero costumes, Disney characters and animals are top picks for kids, according to the National Retail Federation.
At Spirit Halloween in Fort Lauderdale, clowns were the talk of the store thanks to news about the recently unmasked Wellington clown murder and other creepy stories unfolding internationally. On a shelf, I noticed a Clown in the Closet, a creepy twist on the Christmas Elf on the Shelf, could be your new family tradition. Think of the years of fun you could have taking turns hiding and finding this ugly $27 doll in odd spots around the house, as his flashing eyes and evil laugh mock you.
Spirit Halloween says the most popular costumes flying out of its stores include getups for Wonder Woman and characters from the Emmywinning Netflix show “Stranger Things.” There are even President Trump masks.
“I want to be scary this year,” says Hudson Hall, of Pompano Beach. He’s dressing up as Pennywise the Dancing Clown from Stephens King’s thriller “It,” which is in theaters now. The mask retails for