Popular Halloween pop-up stores help push for annual 'Halloweekend'

Succeeding where others have failed is the name of the game for Halloween pop-up stores taking advantage of bountiful shuttered storefronts in strip malls throughout the suburbs.

Pop-up stores always must go the extra mile in marketing to snare customers during an eight-week bonanza where Halloween retail outlets make the vast majority of their profit for the year. The period from mid-September through Oct. 31 is so crucial for these retailers they are lobbying for a permanent national change to Halloween that could impact trick-or-treaters forever.

"In terms of importance, it doesn't get more important than right now," said Heather Golin, director of corporate communications for New Jersey-based Spirit Halloween. "This is it. This is our Super Bowl. This is when there's business to be had."

Just like the Super Bowl, planning for Halloween begins as early as December when Halloween retailers head to China to scout new costumes and make product purchases for next season. Real estate teams then begin scouting new locations for pop-up stores, a task that's been easier this year than ever before. The evidence of that can be found in the more than 25 Spirit Halloween locations and the half dozen Halloween Express stores in the North and West suburbs.

"This year the number of choice real estate locations was much better than last year," Golin said. "We have a number of (former) Circuit City and Linens 'N Things locations. We definitely look for that high traffic area with high visibility."

Spirit Halloween is one of the largest Halloween retailers with 725 locations across the country. But just being located on a main street doesn't necessarily equal success, as evidenced by all the previously empty storefronts pop-ups have found this year to move into.

Rich Kizer and Georganne Bender, a St. Charles-based retail consulting team, said pop-up stores like a local Spirit Halloween shop are prime examples of retail outlets who do nearly everything right as a matter of survival. In eight weeks, Halloween retails make 70 to 80 percent of their revenue for the entire year, they said. That's because when they open, Halloween pop-up stores often do far better business then even the major retail chains in the same strip malls.

"If you're willing to do 1 percent more than anybody else, you win the war," Kizer said, eyeballing a Spirit Halloween employee dressed as a penguin roaming a parking lot on Randall Road in Elgin. "This store has got to sell itself."

A big, bright neon-colored sign adorns the outside of the store. Inside, a mechanical ghoul crawls toward the front door, stopping customers in their tracks. Bender said that's a key ploy to keep customers in the store longer. The more time spent in the store, the more money a customer tends to spend. Indeed, the whole store is decorated with functioning, large yard displays of varying levels of terror and humor from animatronic slashers from well-known horror films ("Friday the 13th" and "Halloween") to your basic talking heads, er, skulls.

"What they are selling here is an experience," Bender said. "These displays are speed bumps to make you forget what you're here for."

An experienced sales team is often a rare commodity at pop-up stores because of the short duration of employment. But that's another area where Golin said Spirit Halloween steps up the competition. Spirit Halloween keeps in contact with all its employees throughout the year and invites them back every Halloween.

"The people that work for us tend to be Halloween enthusiasts," Golin said. "They love Halloween. Working in our locations during their favorite season is just a lot of fun for them. You can be creative yourself in just coming up with different ideas of how to dress up at the store."

Halloween retailers will receive up to a 30 percent boost in sales this year because the holiday falls on the weekend. Golin said sales are better whenever that happens because hosting costume parties and taking children trick-or-treating is far easier without the burden of work or school on the same day or following day. For that reason, lobbyists for Halloween retail outlets have hit the halls of Congress this year to lobby for a permanent change to the date of Halloween. Instead of Oct. 31, retailers want to change the holiday to the final Saturday in October, regardless of the date.

Golin said lawmakers seem interested in the idea.

"We've gotten a lot of positive feedback from them," she said. "Once we raised the idea, it kind of made light bulbs go on in their heads."

<p class="factboxheadblack">This year's hot costumes</p> <p class="News">• Gumby</p> <p class="News">• G.I. Joe</p> <p class="News">• Transformers</p> <p class="News">• Zombies</p> <p class="News">• Michael Jackson</p> <p class="News">• Lady Gaga</p> <p class="News">• Kate Gosselin</p> <p class="News">• Bernie Madoff</p> <p class="News">• Various versions of vampires</p> <p class="News">• Yo Gabba Gabba</p> <p class="News">• Fairy and princess costumes that light up</p> <p class="News">SOURCE: Area retailers</p>