SPEAKER_01: 0:29

Yay. Hello, friends. Uh it's almost Halloween. And we're so glad you're here. And I'm bringing the Lloyd Christmas vibes real hard because I chip my tooth and I'm I'm a little bit messy these days. But uh we're gonna we it's this is the how-to show for women who chip their teeth when they fall down. Um and who buy their Halloween candy early and then have to buy it again and again, probably one more time before Halloween. Uh probably that morning is my good host. Yeah. Always. Always, yeah. But I'm Caitlin, and with me today is Ariel Monti. She is a novelist and a human equivalent of a buy one, inspire a dozen deal. What amazing. I'm really cool. Actually, I think my sister mentioned cheaper by the dozen, and I got that idea, and that's what I wrote it down. She loves that. They my sisters loved that movie when we were kids. So anyway, it doesn't matter. Today I am going to wow you with a festive story, the story of everyone's most favorite retail experience, especially now that we're not going to target spirit Halloween.

SPEAKER_00: 1:48

Yes, I am so ready for the Spirit Halloween lore. I am okay getting but comfy in my chair.

SPEAKER_01: 1:59

Yeah, make sure you're comfy. Um, before we do that, though, are you subscribed to the show on our social channels? Make sure you hit follow and subscribe on Ariela underscore Monty on Threads and Instagram, or us DK and GK Podcast on Threads and Instagram. And make sure you're following episodes too. Although, in fairness, I don't exactly have a topic for our next one narrowed down yet. So just focus on social for now.

unknown: 2:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 2:27

Um, my sources and mentions for today are Daniel Murray, who is the writer of the Marketing Millennials e Newsletter, which is if you're a marketer, it's a great one to be following. Um, a National Retail Federation survey, and of course, Spirit Halloween on Twitter slash X uh and other platforms. So at Spirit Halloween, good times.

SPEAKER_00: 2:55

Their they I have to say, their threads, their threads content is worth a lot. Yeah, it's a lot better than you would imagine it would be. I I do enjoy following them.

SPEAKER_01: 3:08

We're gonna get to that because um I do think they know what they're about. And I think they know that everyone else knows what they're about. So yeah, yeah, okay. So unless you're driving, raise your hand if Spirit Halloween is part of your fall traditions. My hand is up.

SPEAKER_00: 3:26

Oh, it's not part of my fall traditions, but I've been there. We love it.

SPEAKER_01: 3:30

We've been there, yeah. It we love it. Yeah, um walking through those stores with your kids and jumping at animatronics that scare you is fun. Um, and somehow those stores like magically appear every September and then they're gone November 1st. It's wild. So I'm sure you're wondering how that became a thing. I'm sure you're wondering how they make money only being open three months a year, if three months counts, right? It's like September, mid-September to November. So maybe like what six, ten weeks at most, right? Um, this is a story about how one guy in the 80s basically invented an entire business model by paying attention to other people. And also because this is a show about learning things that help us. I just hit the microphone. This is sort of um how you can pay attention to things and turn them into your own hopefully lucrative side hustles. So I'm gonna take you back, dear readerslash listener, to the early 80s. And there's a man named Joe Marver. Okay, we're gonna call him Joe for this episode. Yeah. Perfect. Joe owns a discount women's clothing store in Castro Valley Mall, which is an Oakland, a mall in an Oakland suburb. And on one slow business day, he notices a massive line at the neighboring dancewear store. This is the 80s, okay? Dance wear like leotards, leggings, all neon. Why is there a massive line there? There shouldn't be. Right. He's confused. Nobody needs that many leotards. This is not judgment on you. Right. This is not judgment on you, your mom, or the vast number of leggings that you have in your collection, and the majority of which are black. I understand that they all have different fits and cuts and purposes, and you wear them for different things. I'm not judging, I'm just saying he knows nobody needs that many Lieotards, right? Right. Then Joe notices customers leaving the store. They're dressed as ghosts, witches, the grim reaper, etc. And he realizes that the dancewear store is actually also selling Halloween costumes.

SPEAKER_00: 5:47

Hold on. Are they the plastic Halloween costumes that were like the apron with like the plastic mask cutouts?

SPEAKER_01: 5:58

They could have been.

SPEAKER_00: 5:59

They could have been, right?

SPEAKER_01: 6:01

I don't know. I wasn't there. I didn't see exactly what Joe saw. Okay. All right. So he decides to take action in 1982. He this is how long Spirit Halloween, we're going back early 80s, before you and I, right? Adds Halloween's costumes, Halloween's cost, Halloween costumes to his women's clothing store, and they outsell everything else in the store.

SPEAKER_00: 6:30

Wow.

SPEAKER_01: 6:33

In 83, the dancewear store closes and Joe makes a big bet. He buys out an entire Halloween trade show, puts all of his women's clothing. I know, right? Puts all of his women's clothing in storage, and temporarily converts spirit women's discount apparel into spirit Halloween. Swear. Oh my God. Right? Right? I literally gave myself chills from that story. Now, in his first 30 days being open, he makes$100,000. Oh my god. In today's money, I'm gonna pull a uh Karen in Georgia from my favorite murder. In today's money, do you know how much money that would be?

SPEAKER_00: 7:24

I mean, I know because I'm looking at the script, but go ahead and tell me, please.

SPEAKER_01: 7:29

Okay, folks, make your guesses.$325,000 in 30 days.

SPEAKER_00: 7:36

That's wild. I mean, that's over the equivalent of$100,000 a day in sales. I that's a lot of freaking money.

SPEAKER_01: 7:48

Well, not in a day. It's the equivalent of$30,000. Oh, 30 days. 30 days, yeah, yeah. Right. We're talking about 30 days divided by 100. So yeah, we're getting we're getting close. Yeah, it's it's a lot. It's a lot of them. So no, I got you. Um, okay, so he's not even like a Halloween guy, he just loves this business model because it makes sense. Right. Joe Marver, our dear pal Joe, is responsible for the temporary hyper-seasonal pop-up store. That's wild. Right, right. Okay. So now we have to consider the context of which this or in which this is happening. In the early 80s, not that I was around then, because I'm not that old, but this is my understanding. But I am. I I'm 84. All right. I'm I'm elder millennial for sure. I'm almost Gen X, but I'm not quite. Okay. The Hollywood horror boom is happening at the same time that he's doing this. So we're talking Nightmare on Elm Street, Child's Play, It, and the whole Halloween franchise, all happening around this time. Um, so what he does is source trending costumes in addition to classics.

SPEAKER_00: 9:06

What are the classics in 1982?

SPEAKER_01: 9:09

Well, I would imagine it's just things like witches, ghosts. I'm thinking like peanuts characters, how they're all in a sheet, right? Like those are classics. Mummy, a pumpkin. Right? I was a pumpkin for my very first Halloween costume. It's precious. He starts opening up more and more pop-ups every year. And by 1999, Spirit Halloween had 60 locations and was acquired by get this, Spencer's gifts for an undisclosed sum of. I mean, that makes sense. Spencer's totally makes sense, but also like what a blast from millennial past for those of us who are if you know, you know, right? If you had, did you have a shroom necklace? It probably came from Spencer. Did you have one of those plastic jokers? It either came from Claire's, which we're also not shopping at anymore, or Spencer's. So there you go. Yeah. Okay. So that's the that's the context. That is how Spirit Halloween came to be. I need to go over some of this actual stats on this store because I my mind is blown. And again, shout out to Daniel Murray for putting all this together. And I just took it and and made it into my language. Here's here's where Spirit Halloween is at today, by the numbers. Spencer's Spirit Halloween holdings are an estimated two billion dollars, billion with a B in annual revenue, the majority of which comes from Halloween. So that's Spencer's Spirit Holdings. Okay.$2 billion in annual revenue. Okay. Now.

SPEAKER_00: 10:40

So are is Spencer gifts they're they're not like around anymore, right?

SPEAKER_01: 10:46

I'm sure they own like certain, I'm sure they own certain brands, but I haven't seen a Spencer store. Now, granted, when was the last time I was in a mall?

SPEAKER_00: 10:53

I don't know, when it was 17, but like it's possible that that Spirit Halloween outlived Spencer's stores.

SPEAKER_01: 11:02

Spencer's stores, yes. That's why it's possible. Do I know to be true? No, this show is fact adjacent. I'm telling you what I know to be fact is on the on my notes. We are we are not going to the mall to test this theory. No, I'm not testing this top. Okay. Um, they have more than 1,500 stores, and new locations are scouted out every year. They employ 50,000 or so, more or less, temporary workers during the times that they're open. And they're only open for three months a year, max. Spirit Halloween is the world's number one Halloween store, and they have zero permanent storefronts.

SPEAKER_00: 11:43

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_01: 11:46

Here's how it works for those of you looking for an inside scoop into Spirit. By November 1st, all the stores vanish. That's part of the business model. They have to go away because you don't want to pay rent for another month, right? So that's how you do that. All the unsold merchandise gets moved into warehouses. Their only permanent real estate is in warehouses so that they can store their product year round. Yeah. They have a small full-time team that does work year-round. They're uh scouting new locations for pop-ups and they're buying new merchandise to like, you know, keep things going for the next year. Right, right, right. You, the listener and consumer, can continue to shop at Spirit Halloween online all year round because they do have warehouses and you can, yeah, you can purchase from them. So, like, let's say you have some random like 70s party that you're going to for someone's birthday, you could totally look at Spirit Halloween online and get a costume from them.

SPEAKER_00: 12:48

I mean, that shouldn't blow my mind, but it is. It shouldn't for some reason.

SPEAKER_01: 12:51

But it is shocking because they are they are gone. You don't see them as of November 1st. They're the the plastic sign is everything's gone. Yeah, yeah. Right? Now, here's why it works. There's some business stuff here about how much marketing is actually needed, the amount of overhead real estate, blah blah stuff that I don't understand. Um, but basically, Halloween is the perfect marketing holiday, which I do understand. It's always the same day every year. Not day, not it's always the same date, not always the same day, right? Okay, right. It's loved by kids and adults, and kids are the drivers of the consumption, which is not like Christmas. Christmas is for every age, whereas really Halloween, a lot of people view that as a kid's holiday, right? Right, right, right. It's mostly consumable goods like candy.

SPEAKER_00: 13:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 13:45

Unlike Christmas, which is not mostly consumables. Pop culture drives different trends of Halloween costumes every year. Right. A few years ago, the costume, the topical costume, was Tiger King, right? Everybody was doing some sort of mullet something, right? But there have been plenty of years where it was like Joe Dirt, again, real similar, let's be real clear. But like any other movie, there's gonna probably be some K-pop demon hunters this year. There's a whole bunch of ways that you can make new money off of current trends. And it falls between back to school and Black Friday. So it's not like everyone's broke because they just spent all their money on back to school stuff, and they're not considering the future spending that's coming with Black Friday. So there is money-ish there, right? Right. Okay. You and I are old enough. You, the listener, might not be old enough to have a good enough memory to remember Spirit Christmas. I recall seeing a Spirit Christmas. It was kind of like um the what those Mandela effect things where you're like, you swear you saw Sinbad as Shazam, but you didn't. Um that's how I felt about it. I know, right? That's how I felt about Spirit Christmas, where I was like, no, there was a Spirit Christmas. I feel like I remember this. And maybe someone told me about it, but I know I've like seen a picture, like I can see the plastic sign in my brain. Now, Spirit Christmas was a complete failure because it's the opposite of what those reasons are that I just told you, right? Right. Yep. So ultimately, Spirit Halloween works because shopping there is like an annual tradition. It's a rite of passage for a lot of families. The store feels like a haunted house without actually having to go to a haunted house. There's themed environments, interactive displays, motion sensor animatronics, all kinds of fun. Like I like to just go and put the hats on and just for fun and then not buy anything. Like, but I usually end up buying something because I have a child. So yeah. Right. Basically, it's retail entertainment. Again, mall haunted house without the fear. You know? That makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. So the other thing to note is they get it, they they understand themselves. Last year, pretty sure this was last year, it could have been two years ago. Last year there was a SNL sketch about their pop-up model and about dying retail. Spirit Halloween 100% clapped back with their own thing. And this is why you this is what there's a picture on the notes of this costume. It was like the plastic bag with the orange costume thing, and it was like SNL 50, irrelevant 50-year-old TV show, includes dated references, unknown cast members, and shrinking ratings. And they and everyone was doing spirit Halloween memes last year.

SPEAKER_00: 16:47

Yes.

SPEAKER_01: 16:48

But they are responsible for that. They they clapped back, and that's how that got started. So they understand who they are, they understand what they do, and they know that they're the butt of the joke. But you know what? It's two billion dollars in revenue. So clearly it can't be that bad. Yeah, yeah. So I'm gonna prove what I'm saying here because on the rare occasion that I'm not fact adjacent, I need you to understand exactly how right I am. Okay. Americans spend on Halloween, it's what we do. All right. Um, and I can tell you this because my sister, who lives in Germany, gets excited for trick-or-treaters and they don't get them. It's like it's it's not an American-only holiday, but it is a intense American holiday, right?

SPEAKER_00: 17:37

Right. Yeah, the way we celebrate it is very specific.

SPEAKER_01: 17:41

It's hardcore.

SPEAKER_00: 17:42

It's the United States, yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_01: 17:43

Yeah, yeah. Okay. In 2024, Americans spent an estimated$11.6 billion with a B dollars on Halloween, according to that NRF survey that I cited earlier. This total is down a little bit from the$12.2 billion spent in 2023, but is still higher than pre-COVID. And if I remember correctly, I should have pulled the number on COVID uh spending, but people went out, people went all out for COVID out on outdoor things. So I don't know. I would that that number would be interesting. Here's where they spend their money, and you'll see what I'm talking about with this consumable stuff. Candy, approximately$3.8 billion. I feel like I can account for like right. I'm like only like 15% of that. Not a big deal. Um, costumes around three and a half to four billion for children's adults and pet costumes. Uh, decorations, about three and a half to four billion. And when you think about two of these, it sounds like these are um hold on, let me say the last one. Greeting cards. People do send greeting cards for Halloween, um, an estimated half a billion dollars.

unknown: 18:56

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01: 18:57

Greeting cards. Yeah. So when we talk about how Halloween is a consumables holiday, candy, yeah, it's a third of the, it's a third of the sales, it's a third of the revenue. Costumes, a lot of people only wear their costumes one time. None of us are Ron Swanson wearing the exact same pirate costume every single year. Like, that's not happening. Um, and decorations, like, I don't know about you, but a deer just walked through my decorations and ripped up my uh spider web. So now I have to get a new one of those. Like, it's not like I spent a ton of money on it in the first place. Yeah, it got stuck. It like walked through the the antlers got stuck and then it like whipped it off. And so I had a spider in the neighbor's yard, and my yeah, it looks fine. I mean, it's a it's a little bit of a bummer. I feel bad for the deer, but the deer clearly is okay because my net is shredded, so it's fine. Anyway, um the real driver here though is millennials and Gen Z. They love Halloween, and now that they're becoming parents, they're passing down this love of Halloween to their kids. How many women our age are like, yes, fall vibes? And I'm such a basic bee about all this. Like, I love me some fall and all the Halloween things. Give it all to me. I'm obsessed. Yes. No. Yeah. We would be remiss if we didn't talk about what this means to you, the listener, aside from me just wowing you with all the things that I've learned and know. And thank you again to Daniel Murray because he's the driving force behind this. Here's what we can learn from Joe. Sometimes the best ideas come from just paying attention to what's going on around you. Had he not noticed all these people going into this, you know, active, we we would call it active wear now. It's like a dance where, you know, with all these where all the leotards are, and then been like, wait, everyone's coming out with Halloween costumes. It never would have happened, right? Right. You don't need a business degree or some sort of master plan before you start doing. It'll come to you. You'll hire people who will do those things for you. He just watched a line at another store. So if the idea is good and people love it, it'll do things for you. Acting on an idea matters more than having the plan. Start small and test it out. He added costumes to his existing store first and then branched out, right? Now, granted, he only gave it a year, but still. Right. When something works, lean into it harder. That doesn't have to be for just business, right? If something feels good to you, you you know, not drugs, not condoning bad things, just lean into it. Just lean into it, just lean to it. Just lean into it. When things feel good, right? Ariello writes spicy content for a living. Earlier today, she was telling me about her swamp sunflowers that thrive in damp and warm environments. And I was like damp and warm environments, yeah. Yuck. Okay. Gross. Anyway. Here's how this matters for you. I want you to think about a few things. What patterns are you noticing that everyone else is missing? For me, it's probably not, I probably don't notice until it's too late. And I've driven myself crazy. Where could you experiment without a huge risk? Do you have a side hustle idea that you keep thinking about that people are saying you should sell this? This is not to be just like confused with a hobby that you love. That's not what we're saying. We're saying, like, do you make cakes for people on the side and they keep asking you to like sell you, sell them, and that's not the thing that brings you the most joy, then okay, great. Right. Don't ruin your hobby. That's not what we're saying. Yeah. Okay. Is there a different approach to something at work that you could take? Something to consider. A new way to handle a recurring problem at home. These are just things that you could experiment on, that they're not gonna be a huge risk involved, and you might see some really good benefit from it. You have permission to pivot. Joe had one business and then pivoted his business and it worked. You are not locked into doing things the way you've always done them. You are allowed to change. I feel like we could say that about a lot of things. You're allowed to learn something new and grow and then change your opinions about things.

SPEAKER_00: 23:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 23:23

Yeah. Just putting that out there.

SPEAKER_00: 23:25

Everything, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 23:26

Everything, right? Um yes. Your failures, of which I have many, including sometimes some episodes of this podcast might just be experiments that taught you something. Yeah. Right? Like all of these things are things we can learn from Joe. The bigger lesson here is that success isn't always about working harder at the things you're already doing. Sometimes it's just about noticing what actually works and doing more of that. And if you're someone who deals in uh selling a good of some sort or whatever you are producing, whatever you're producing, make sure that people associate it with an experience, right? It's not about the transaction, it's about the experience. You know this, you write for a living, people have an experience as they write your book. As someone who creates content for people to listen to, my hope is that they enjoy the experience of listening. It's experiences that keep people coming back. It's not the transaction itself, right? So just keep that in mind whenever you are doing any sort of thing. If we're talking about planning a birthday party, make it about the experience, not about the item. Lean into that piece of it because that's what makes people happy. Okay. Yes. All right. So that's my history of Spirit Halloween. We will be right back. Okay, y'all. POV. You find a diary exposing forbidden magic, and the hot museum caretaker's life depends on you burning it. Roots and Inc., the debut novel by Ariela Monti, is the fantasy romance for rebels. Use promo code CK and GK to get 20% off your copy at arielemonte.com. Again, that's all caps at C K A N D G K for 20% off on Arielemonte.com. Get your copy for 20% off today. So it'll be a surprise to everyone when you guys return. Everyone will be surprised. Everyone will be surprised. But by the time we get back, we will be past Halloween and into the like getting into the holiday season. And there are some people who will be very upset that I said the holiday season starts right after Halloween. But I will tell you that I don't care when my joy starts. I will start my holiday joy when I feel like it because everything is burning around me. And so I'm going to lean into my Christmas tree on November 5th. I don't know if that's what day I'll put it up, but I'm just saying. I put it up right before Thanksgiving. It's Christmas, Christmas, Christmas, Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving Day, and then the day after it's Christmas until the rest of the year.

SPEAKER_00: 26:30

Yeah, I wouldn't even I wouldn't even put up a Christmas tree at this point if I did not have a child. I would Oh really? Yeah, no, I would I like decorating for winter. Like, yes. I like winter decorations. I don't like decorating for Christmas.

SPEAKER_01: 26:47

That's very aesthetic of you.

unknown: 26:50

Right.

SPEAKER_01: 26:50

Winter is aesthetic.

SPEAKER_00: 26:51

No, but you know what it is? It's because I'm lazy and I don't want because I you decorate for Christmas and no, okay. Let's let's be clear. I have a very complicated relationship with Christmas because my birthday is so close to it. So I'm a little bitter. But on top of that, like there, it's it's a very small window of time that you're that you've got your Christmas decorations up. But winter can go from December all the way to like, you know, beginning of March. And I know that's true. Yeah. My college sweetmates will tell me I could leave all of that stuff up for as long as I'd like, but I don't like it enough.

SPEAKER_01: 27:43

No, I gotta I I and there are some things like that that I will leave out that are the winter vibes, right? But like even at this point, snowmen, I'm like, nah, it's Christmas. I gotta, it's gotta go. Gotta go. And usually uh I know lots of people who take their Christmas tree down like the day after Christmas because they're like, I can't. I I know some people who take it down Christmas night. They're like, nope, it's over, we're done. Yeah, yeah. Which I can't I can't do. Like, I know it that makes my heart sad, but I can't but I do like to have it done the day after like New Year's Day. I'm like, all right, let's, it's gotta go. I like having the lights for New Year's. Um, but New Year's Day, it's gotta go.

SPEAKER_00: 28:21

Yeah. Yeah, no, definitely.

SPEAKER_01: 28:24

Here we are talking about Christmas decorations, and Halloween hasn't even happened yet.

SPEAKER_00: 28:30

No, but I bet you so last year, so last episode we were talking about about Halloween traditions, and I like thought of one. Yes, yes, so um the one tradition that my kid and I have sort of like started is every year we will go and buy some more Halloween decorations because we really don't have many. So every year we'll buy like yeah, we'll buy a few things um to add to the to the to the house.

SPEAKER_01: 29:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 29:05

Um gotcha. And last year we went to we went to Lowe's Hardware. I can't tell you why we went to Lowe's Hardware. Yeah, we went to Lowe's Hardway Hardware on October 7th, and everything was gone, stuff was on clearance, and half the Christmas stuff was already out. I'm like, what?

SPEAKER_01: 29:30

What are we doing?

SPEAKER_00: 29:31

Is it right? Even my kid was like, what is happening? Like it is October 7th. Right. So I bet I mean we went to we went a little bit earlier this year, and so we went to Michael's and it is plenty, plenty of Halloween stuff. But I bet if I went now, it would be all Christmas.

SPEAKER_01: 29:53

We did Joanne fabric last year before they went bankrupt. And that was a good, that was a good place to go to get some stuff because of the the sales. But this year, uh I did go to Michael's to see if there was anything we we needed. We didn't need any we never need what we want sometimes. Um but I one other thing I would recommend, and this is for the people like me who just who buy things and then forget that they bought them. At the end of the season, if there's anything you didn't put up and you don't love, don't eat it. Get rid of it, don't keep it in your house because I cannot buy any more big tubs. To hold stuff. I've got to hair down and yeah, you know, it's enough stuff. Like that is one thing I will say about taking down the decorations, is that it just feels less cluttered in my house. Right. Because I do put up a lot. Like I I I go hard on Christmas decorations and stuff like that. Uh so anyway, that's that's the that's our holiday preview discussion. I don't know. I don't know what we're gonna talk about next, guys. If you liked this episode where I told you a story about some sort of cultural phenomenon, like please let me know. Tech send me a text. I would love to hear if you liked it. Send me a DM. You can send a text or a DM through the links in the show notes. There's our Instagram is linked, there's threads, there's again send us a text link. I would love to know if you liked this because I will lean into this if you guys liked it. This the story of Spirit Halloween, I immediately told Ariella, like, I have to tell you this story. I loved it so much. So this was fun for me. So I hope you guys enjoyed it. Uh make good choices. We'll be back next week. Love you, mean it. Have a great and safe Halloween. Bye. Bye.