Spirit Halloween haunts our retail graveyard
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Spirit Halloween is haunting the shelves of former big-box stores again this fall as it opens 1,500 locations nationwide, including more than a dozen in the greater Pittsburgh area.
The big picture: The stores appear and vanish each fall, so finding a Spirit often means relaying directions in retail shorthand: "At the old JoAnn's."
Zoom in: Spirit stores in the Pittsburgh metro include a former Kirkland's on McKnight Road in Ross Township; an old JoAnn on William Penn Highway in Monroeville; and the former JC Penney at the Beaver Valley Mall, per Spirit's locator.
Zoom out: Of the locations analyzed by Axios across the country, 153 — just over 1 in 10 — were labeled "Former JoAnn" stores in Spirit's locator. The company closed all of its stores in 2025.
- Former Big Lots stores ranked second with 103 locations, followed by Party City with 100. Both chains shed hundreds of locations after bankruptcy.
Between the lines: Spirit, which bills itself as North America's largest Halloween retailer, relies on temporary leases to transform vacant storefronts into seasonal shops.
- The arrangements bring property owners exposure and a few months of rent while they search for long-term tenants.
The bottom line: Spirit's most popular costumes this year include "Toy Story" favorites, "K-Pop Demon Hunters," superheroes, Greek gods and warriors, and Y2K looks.