People Are Loving The Spirit Halloween Costume Memes, Here Are 30 Of The Funniest Ones

Spirit Halloween was created by Joe Marver in 1984. He opened his very first pop-up Halloween store in the Castro Valley Mall in California and grew the business to have 60 seasonal stores throughout the United States over the next 15 years. In 1999, Spirit Halloween was acquired by a larger company, and since then, they have expanded to having over 1,400 locations in North America. The concept of having pop-up stores on short-term leases and a massive variety of merchandise available was completely innovative, and unsurprisingly, Spirit Halloween is now the largest Halloween retailer in the world.

Despite the shift the world has seen in online shopping becoming the new norm, Spirit persists in their profitable in-person sales, bringing in about $8.4 billion annually. And although the store is full of spooky, gorey and frightening products, Spirit Halloween has a heart. They launched a program called Spirit of Children in 2006, to raise money for children’s hospitals, and have since donated over $29 million and held countless Halloween celebrations in hospitals, supplying costumes and decorations free of charge. 

I remember taking my annual trips to Spirit Halloween as a kid, always thrilled when one of my parents finally said, “Let’s stop here” and pulled into the parking lot of the Halloween holy land. I marveled at the racks and racks of costumes, masks, headbands, candy baskets, dresses, makeup, props, fake blood, decorations and more. It’s hard to describe the pure magic that Spirit Halloween finds a way of creating, especially given their short stints in their stores.

According to NPR, each location that Spirit rents out for two to three months needs to be between 5,000-50,000 square feet (or 464-4,645 square meters). But aside from having space, there aren’t many other requirements needed to set up camp. “Spirit is pretty much a bottom-feeder business that works only at the expense of other stores; if there weren't vacant storefronts, this business wouldn't exist," writes Rachel Quednau, program director for Strong Towns, an urban planning advocacy group that emphasizes incremental city planning.