Scary, but temporary
They come and go nearly as fast as a bagful of Halloween loot in the hands of a 10-year-old trick-or-treater. Temporary Halloween stores move into vacant retail space at the end of the summer, set up shop and then, like an apparition in a good ghost story, disappear without a trace.
They compete with established stores selling Halloween merchandise, yet have three short months to move in and break down, while stocking and restocking inventory to maximize profit.
The stores are looking for a share of the $5.07 billion that the National Retail Federation expects consumers to spend this year on costumes, decorations and other assorted Halloween merchandise.
The federation commissioned BIGresearch to survey nearly 9,000 people on their Halloween shopping habits. The survey found the average person planned to spend $64.82 this year, up from $59.06 a year ago.
Spirit Halloween, a temporary store that’s an offshoot of Spencer’s, is in its eighth year in Spokane. The store has more than 540 locations nationwide, including those at Sprague Avenue and Pines Road, on north Division Street and in Coeur d’Alene on west Appleway Avenue.
Lorene Roullier-Bennett, district sales manager for Spencer’s, starts looking for vacant retail space early in the year. While store locations vary annually, she tries to advertise on the same billboards to help customers find locations. The company also has a toll-free phone number and a Web site, spirithalloween.com.
Although she couldn’t give specifics on sales figures, Roullier-Bennett said sales have increased steadily.
“We see a lot of the same customers every year,” she said.
Deborah Kelstrom, a 40-year-old who recently moved here from Northern California stopped by the Valley Spirit Halloween with her children on Sunday.
“We had Spirit stores down in our area,” Kelstrom said.
Halloween Express recently opened at Northpointe Plaza shopping center, in a strip mall in front of Target. The chain has more than 200 seasonal stores nationwide, according to its Web site, halloweenexpress.com.
Elaine Praegitzer, a Southern California resident who purchased local franchise rights for Halloween Express with her sister-in-law Linda Praegitzer of Boise, said they invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in setting up the business and purchasing more than 10,000 different items.
The two visited a Chicago trade show earlier this year and then started ordering, Elaine Praegitzer said, adding, “We have to go to all the vendors and work out terms with them.”
In addition to the standard pirate, princess and ghoul costumes, the store features an oddly fascinating selection of wearable giant sneakers, large diaper pins, big arachnids, haunted books, realistic human organs and holographic portraits of stiff Victoria-era subjects who turn into skeletons in the blink of an eye.
“There’s something for everybody, but some people get a little squeamish,” she said.
Because it’s a franchise, Praegitzer said, they own the inventory, display shelves and cash registers. Unsold merchandise will be stored over the winter, she said, adding that they anticipate extra inventory because they reorder throughout the season.
Praegitzer, who is looking at residential property to move to the area, said they went through a mountain of paperwork to get licensed in Washington, but anticipates that next year will be easier. Another challenge was hiring the right people for the temporary positions, she said.
Darren Brady, a Mead High School senior, was among 15 hired at Halloween Express. He works there with his twin brother, Dillon, and enjoys a job where he can don different costumes and ham it up for customers.
“It’s all I could ask for, really,” he said.