Spirit Halloween Runs 1,600 Stores Eight Weeks a Year — and Just Bought Hot Topic

Spirit Halloween operates roughly 1,600 stores every year — and each one is open for only eight to 10 weeks. Steven Silverstein, CEO of parent Spencer Spirit Holdings, doesn't call that temporary.

"There's nothing temporary about a temporary store," Silverstein told Fortune. "We are 24/7, 365 Halloween, and you just don't see it."

The numbers back him up. When Silverstein joined Spencer's in 2003, Spirit had 130 stores nationwide. Moody's estimated Spencer's and Spirit together made about $1.9 billion in 2023, with Spirit's two months of operations bringing in more than Spencer's does all year. This year the company closed its purchase of Hot Topic, BoxLunch and Her Universe from Sycamore Partners, pushing its footprint past 3,000 stores across North America.

What happened to the competition?

Spirit is the largest Halloween specialty chain in North America, and its biggest rival no longer exists. Party City filed for bankruptcy for the second time in December 2024 and shut its nearly 700 stores by the end of February 2025. This fall, about 100 Spirit Halloween stores occupy former Party City buildings, according to an Axios analysis of Spirit's store locator.

"We don't sell anything anybody needs. We only sell things you have to have," Silverstein said. "It's based on wants, not needs."

How does the real estate work?

The hunt for buildings runs in March and April, when Spirit signs its leases. The company is, in Silverstein's word, "opportunistic" — but visibility matters more than vacancy.

"We want to be somewhere we're going to be seen," he said. "Because we're not always in the same place, where we are is a critical question that we're constantly thinking about."

Spirit doesn't pay market rent. It pays a lump sum for space that would otherwise earn the landlord nothing, on leases that last exactly as long as the store stays open.

"We're the empty seat on the airplane," Silverstein said. "If we don't go in there, the landlord is not going to generate any revenue."

He said the deals help other tenants too, since Spirit draws shoppers to centers that would otherwise have a dark storefront. Spirit often returns to the same buildings year after year.

"Even though we are called pop-up, we really do look at ourselves as being permanently in these markets," he said.

How do you build 1,600 stores at once?

About 75% to 80% of Spirit's merchandise is designed, developed and sourced by the company itself, mostly in Asia. Shipping starts in April — staggered, because there's nowhere to put everything at once.

Containers land at four or five North American distribution centers, which sort goods into store groups. This year those groups moved through 63 third-party logistics sites, each staging boxes for 25 to 30 stores before trucking them out.

"They're literally virtually creating a store," Silverstein said. "If you imagine 1,600 stores happening all at the same time, it's like a web of activity."

Who staffs the stores?

Spirit employs more than 52,000 people during the season, many of whom return annually — some plan their year around it. The company describes its structure as an inverted pyramid with store workers on top.

"We know that our front line is the most important part of our business," Silverstein said. "It's not about a top-down driven organization."

What about the memes — and Hot Topic?

Spirit spends little on traditional advertising. Silverstein calls the company "alternative marketers," leaning on storefronts, the internet and tie-ins with Dunkin', Butterfinger, Chipotle and, this year, Goodyear — which produced a blimp costume. Asked about the memes, including a Saturday Night Live skit in the show's 50th anniversary season, Silverstein deadpanned: "I don't know what you're talking about." Then he conceded the company earned them: "When SNL did the skit, hey, that's the highest form of flattery."

The Hot Topic deal came together in August and closed in early September; terms weren't disclosed. Sycamore had taken Hot Topic private in 2013 for about $600 million. Orv Madden opened the first Hot Topic in Montclair, Calif., in 1989, and licensed band T-shirts made up about 40% of its revenue in 2007. Hot Topic now runs more than 615 stores and BoxLunch more than 280; both keep their California headquarters, with Hot Topic CEO Steve Vranes — more than a decade in the job — now reporting to Silverstein.

"Hot Topic is the best at really talking to the fans of their properties," Silverstein said. "I'm entertaining you." With Party City gone and the mall chain absorbed, the two-month retailer now anchors a year-round, 3,000-store pop-culture empire.