What KC's Spirit Halloween used to be
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A former Bed Bath and Beyond store, I'm sure. Photo by Patrick T. Fallon/Getty Images
Spirit Halloween is haunting 10 empty storefronts around the metro this fall; among 1,500 locations, it opens nationwide in the shells of stores that didn't make it to 2026.
The big picture: The stores appear and vanish each fall, so finding this year's Spirit often means directions in retail shorthand: "Where the old Party City used to be." In KC, that's the old Tuesday Morning, the old Pier 1 and, somewhere, a Painted Tree.
How it works: Spirit, which bills itself as North America's largest Halloween retailer, signs short leases on vacant storefronts and is gone by November.
- Landlords get a few months of rent and foot traffic while they hunt for a tenant.
- Spirit Halloween didn't respond to a request for comment, which is on brand for a store that leaves without saying goodbye.
By the numbers: More than 1 in 10 Spirit locations Axios analyzed, 153 in all, were labeled "Former Joann" in Spirit's store locator, a year after Joann closed every one of its fabric and craft stores.
- Big Lots came next with 103 former stores, then Party City with 100. Both shed hundreds of locations after bankruptcy, which means a lot of people are buying Halloween costumes in the exact spot they used to buy Halloween costumes.
- Closer to home, Missouri has 23 Spirit stores this year and Kansas has eight, with 10 of them in the metro.
Zoom in: Spirit admits to a former tenant at only three metro stores: the Tuesday Morning in Lee's Summit, the Pier 1 Imports at Stateline Station in south KC and the Painted Tree in the Northland.
- The other seven are identified by whoever's still open next door, including a Dollar General in Gladstone, a PetSmart in Belton and Children's Mercy North near Metro North.
💭 Abbey's thought bubble: I love being surprised by one of my favorite stores turning into a Spirit Halloween. It feels spiritually right.
💭 Travis' thought bubble: Trust the store locator over any maps apps. I once spent half an hour driving to non-locations because they hadn't been updated.
The bottom line: Retail in KC doesn't die. It comes back for six weeks with a fog machine.