How Spirit Halloween makes vacant stores a little less spooky for retailers
Well shoppers, it’s time.
Spirit Halloween has popped up in more than 1,500 retail spaces across the nation, including three in the Tri-Cities.
The unusual retailer is a seasonal staple, known for bringing temporary life to empty stores in the three-plus months leading up to the big day.
The Spirit season begins in August and concludes in early November..
For 2025, Spirit Halloween has opened stores in the former Toys R Us spot at Columbia Center mall in Kennewick, the former Tuesday Morning home goods space on West Canal Drive in Kennewick, and the former Office Depot on George Washington Way in Richland.
As a pop up, Spirit has carved out a niche in a world where commercial landlords prefer long-term deals that produce reliable rents year after year but make deals with short-term occupants to enliven dark spaces.
Costumers, accessories
Spirit may be temporary, but it is a win for both customers and for landlords with empty space dragging their rent rolls, said Rob Ellsworth, a commercial broker with SVN Retter & Company.
Ellsworth focuses on all aspects of commercial real estate and has worked on Spirit leases in the past. He was not involved with the 2025 leasing cycle.
“I think it’s good for your community. You can go in and get all kinds of Halloween stuff you couldn’t find otherwise” he said. “They go very deep into costumes and accessories.”
It’s good for property owners too, bringing in rent for space that otherwise generates no income.
Spirit Halloween tends to favor larger spaces, starting at 10,000 or more square feet. That kind of space is readily available in the Tri-Cities.
“There’s always three or four of these options,” he said.
Brokers say Spirit stores are good for neighboring businesses, too.
The period between back-to-school shopping season and the Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday season tends to slow down for retailers.
Halloween ranks behind Easter, Valentine’s Day and graduation season for sales, according to the National Retail Federation. It calculates U.S. consumers spent $11.6 billion at Halloween, including candy, in 2024.
Nearly half of Halloween shoppers start purchaing for the holiday before October.
Shoppers spent an average of about $104 at Halloween in 2024. That compares to nearly $1,500 for back-to-college, $900 for the winter holidays, almost $860 for back-to-school, $260 for Mother’s Day and $200 for Father’s Day.
Cooperative tenant
Ellsworth said Spirit Halloween is a cooperative tenant that understands its role.
When he had prospective tenants interested in a space being used by Spirit, local managers allowed them to tour the space, including backrooms.
“They know they’re temporary,” he said.
Spirit itself pitches itself as a good partner for properties with empty space. “Why let that space sit empty?” it asks on the leasing page of its website. The company could not be reached to comment on the 2025 season.
It even acknowledges landlords might want to break up if a better tenant comes along.
Its leases let landlords to back out of deals if they secure permanent tenants by June, about the time it begins preparing its stores to open in late August or early September.
The ramp-up period gives the temporary tenant time to move in displays, point-of-sale systems and in-store displays. For 2025, Spirit Halloween stores feature a haunted subway platform packed with spooky details and animatronic figures including Twisted Grandma, Trick or Treat Pete and Jack the Ripper.
Vicki Monteagudo, a commercial broker with NAI Tri-Cities. She likened Spirit Halloween to H&R Block, the income tax service that pops up in retail complexes around New Year’s in advance of the April filing deadline.
Most people don’t need year-round tax preparers, and even the most ardent Halloween fans don’t need gore stores beyond fall. “Obviously, we don’t need a year-round Halloween store,” she said. Halloween is predictable, concentrated and profitable, making it ideal for short-term retail stores.
She hasn’t been involved with Spirit Halloween leasing. She said property owners typically don’t seek out temporary tenants, but they don’t shy away from them either. A lively space is better for property managers and for neighbors.
A dark retail space can be a blight on a shopping center, whether it is an enclosed mall, strip mall or a combination of both.
“Empty spaces just naturally starts to take over,” she said.
Pop-up retailers inject energy into dark spaces and can even show that a particular address can make sense.
“If Spirit Halloween can pull it off and get that type of traffic, why can’t another retailer,” she said.
This story was originally published August 31, 2025 at 5:00 AM.