Here’s what Spirit Halloween seeks in an ‘ideal’ retail location

(NEXSTAR) – Spirit Halloween made headlines earlier this week after being lampooned in a sketch on the season premiere of “Saturday Night Live,” during which the retailer was mocked for allegedly seeking out “dead end towns” and “abandoned Kmarts” to operate from, and then “bouncing” as soon as Halloween is over.

On Monday, Spirit Halloween fired back on X, in the form of a meme which accused “SNL” of being an “irrelevant show” with “dated references” and “unknown cast members.”

The company’s post further suggested that the Spirit Halloween sketch, and its stores, were somehow responsible for making “SNL” more relevant in the days following the episode.

“We are great at raising things back from the dead @nbcsnl,” reads the tweet.

A representative for Spirit Halloween did not respond to a request for any additional comment, nor which specific jokes the company took umbrage with. But in the past, the retailer has been somewhat forthcoming with how it chooses its pop-up locations.

In August, a spokesperson for Spirit Halloween told Nexstar’s KDVR that the company — while unable to reveal all of its “operational secrets” — seeks out certain criteria when hunting for locations ahead of Halloween.

“We look to identify stores in lifestyle centers, strip centers, free-standing stores, major downtown retail locations, and in major malls that are surrounded by a national retailer mix,” the spokesperson said. “Ideal locations for a Spirit Halloween store offer between 5,000 and 50,000 square feet of sales floor space with great visibility.”

Online, Spirit Halloween revealed additional details of its “ideal” locations on a resource webpage for potential landlords.

“Our aim is to set up in communities that have 1) a population of approximately 35,000+, 2) living within a 3-5 mile radius, and 3) with a car count of at least 25,000 cars per day,” the webpage says.

The company added that it seeks just three-month leases, from middle of July to the middle of November. Those leases may also include a “kick-out clause” to allow the property’s owner to back out if they find a more permanent tenant before June, according to the site.

“Spirit Halloween can take your vacant store and – presto! – make it ‘So Much Fun, It’s Scary!’” the company says.

Spirit Halloween, meanwhile, is no stranger to mockery, and has even joined in on the fun in recent years. The company has shared and even encouraged memes at its expense on social media, including one meme in 2022 that made basically the same jokes as the “SNL” skit, and described its own stores as operating out of “abandoned buildings” while further extinguishing “the hopes and dreams of everyone whose childhood store [it] replaced.”

“Is this too meta?” Spirit Halloween joked at the time.

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