The retailer Spirit Halloween only sells Halloween merchandise and doesn’t stock products for any other holidays. It carries a much larger selection of Halloween costumes, accessories, and decorations than any other retail store. But unlike other stores, it doesn’t have any permanent locations. It opens up pop-up stores in malls where other stores have recently gone out of business shortly before the holiday and shuts them down afterward. I’d consider opening up pop-up stores inside dead stores on-theme for Halloween. Anyway, here are some alternatives to Spirit Halloween.
Party City
Because it’s a specialized store that carries lots of holiday merchandise, Party City is a good place to shop for Halloween items. In fact, it even created its own pop-up Halloween store concept called Halloween City that was similar to Spirit Halloween. You can also buy Halloween candy, decorations, and costumes at Party City itself.
In 2023, Party City didn’t open up separate Halloween City pop-up stores and it’s not clear if it will do that in 2024 either. It’s possible that the Halloween pop-up stores will be located inside Party City stores in the future, so Spirit Halloween will no longer have a competitor with the exact same business model.
Dollar Tree
Another popular place to buy Halloween decorations is dollar stores and Dollar Tree is the best known dollar store. You can buy themed signs, plastic spider webs, plastic pumpkins, and other yard decorations there. Because of this store’s low price point, though, it might be better to buy pricier Halloween merchandise such as costumes at Spirit Halloween. Dollar stores can’t sell some of the products that Spirit Halloween sells because of the way their business model works.
Dollar Tree is a good place to get Halloween decorations for much lower prices than other retail stores. Of course, if you have storage space available, you can save even more money by buying its Halloween decorations after the holiday so you can use them next year.
Five Below
With a higher price point than dollar stores, Five Below is a place where you can buy pricier decorations such as yard signs that light up. You can also buy Halloween costumes at Five Below as well as bags of candy to hand out to trick-or-treaters. And while Five Below may sell a few items for more than $5, that’s uncommon, so this is an affordable place to shop for Halloween merchandise.
If you want to buy Halloween merchandise that would be too expensive for a dollar store to sell but still want to conserve your budget, this store would be a good choice. Spirit Halloween doesn’t have a fixed price point, though, so it may still sell specialty items that aren’t available at Five Below.
Goodwill
If you’re trying to save money, the thrift store Goodwill is another place where you can shop for Halloween costumes and decorations while paying very low prices. Since Goodwill sells products that it bought from other customers, it may sell used items that would normally have much higher prices at other stores. You might even see some merchandise from Spirit Halloween at a Goodwill store if you’re willing to look around the store for a while.
You might also be able to donate products you bought for Halloween to this store after the holiday to get tax deductions. That’s something you can’t do at other stores.
Hot Topic
This alternative mall store is popular with members of subcultures who like to wear shocking clothing year-round such as punks and goths. As you might expect, it’s also a popular place to buy Halloween merchandise and it does carry holiday products like Halloween T-shirts. It would also be a good place to go if you wanted to design your own Halloween costume because it carries lots of clothing and accessories that you can use to make a custom outfit.
Like Spirit Halloween, Hot Topic isn’t a discount store and it’s likely to carry lots of specialty products that aren’t available at dollar stores and variety stores.
Dollar General
While Dollar General is a discount store, it’s not a true dollar store and it does sell merchandise at higher price points. Its Halloween merchandise includes masks and costumes as well as bags of Halloween candy. But the main reason to shop at this store might be a lack of alternatives. While I’ve seen several Spirit Halloween stores in suburban malls, it’s unclear if it would be able to set up a pop-up location in a small town.
Dollar General has stores in rural towns where it’s likely that shoppers wouldn’t have anywhere else to buy Halloween costumes and decorations and the only other place to buy candy might be a gas station.