It’s not Halloween yet. But, whatever. Christmas fans, rejoice! Because we’re finally getting a Spirit Christmas store.
After years of the retail pop-up giant focusing on its unique Spirit Halloween business model—opening hundreds of temporary pop-up stores in vacant spaces for just 2-3 months a year—the New Jersey-based company is finally branching out to the other best holiday on the calendar.
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Spirit announced on Monday that it will open ten Spirit Christmas locations as part of its soft launch. The first batch of stores will be in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.
“Our goal is to create a festive retail experience that captures the spirit of the season, much like we do for Halloween,” a company spokesperson told CNN.
Visitors to this new winter wonderland setup will be able to meet and greet Santa and get a digital postcard afterward. The stores promise to have “aisles full of Christmas magic.” There also will be a giant gingerbread display that guests can stroll through and plenty of inflatables—and hopefully animatronics—that will adorn the aisles. Uhh, let’s fucking go.
The new spots are expected to open in early November. Not all of the Spirit Christmast stores will take over locations vacated by their Spirit Halloween predecessors; some will occupy new spaces altogether.
Spirit’s move to expand into new seasons makes a lot of sense, and it falls in line with its recent general expansion. For the Halloween season, Spirit opened a record-breaking 1,525 locations across the U.S.
Adding a new set of stores while capitalizing on the busiest shopping season of the year makes sense. In 2023, the November to December timeframe saw a 3.8% spending increase among consumers, according to the National Retail Federation. And Christmas decorations are popping up earlier in the calendar each and every year. I walked into a Lowe’s just last week and was inundated with a giant Santa blow-up, while all of the Halloween decorations were cast off in the clearance section, despite it being Oct. 1 at the time.
Up next, Spirit Easter?
