Ready for the spooky season? Spirit Halloween is already gearing up, and they’re hiring.
The seasonal and ubiquitous pop-up retailer famous for its wide variety of costumes, decorations and animatronic horrors will be hiring 50,000 people for the more than 1,500 retail locations expected to open ahead of the 2025 Halloween season.
When do Spirit Halloween stores open?
The stores typically open in August, a couple of months before the holiday. Most U.S. consumers (47%) begin their Halloween shopping before October, according to the National Retail Federation.
As of June 26, there are 1,140 positions available in Florida at work4spirit.com.
“With the anticipation for Halloween at an all-time high, we are committed to creating the same immersive experience that keeps our fans coming back year after year,” said Spirit Halloween CEO Steven Silverstein said in a press release.
“The talent and enthusiasm of our associates is the driving force that brings Halloween to life each year, and we look forward to welcoming new and returning faces for another killer season.”
This is Spirit Halloween’s 42nd year in business after opening its first pop-up store in 1983 in the back of a women’s clothing store in the Castro Valley Mall in Castro Valley, California, according to a 2000 Los Angeles Times article. Last year there were more than 1,500 locations across the country.
Last year, the iconic Halloween store even took a shot at another holiday with some experimental Spirit Christmas stores in the Northeast.
How many Spirit Halloween locations are in Florida?
The list for this year isn’t up yet, but last year there were nearly 80 Spirit Halloween stores in 66 cities in the Sunshine State.
Once the bright orange signs start going up, you can find locations at stores.spirithalloween.com/fl/.
How to work at Spirit Halloween
Interested? You can get more information at Work4Spirit.com where you can search by ZIP code and city for jobs such as sales associate, assistant store manager and district sales manager.
Potential workers can also text “Reaper” to 85000 to apply for a position.
The company touts employee benefits including competitive salaries, flexible scheduling and a 30% discount on Spirit Halloween purchases.
Spirit Halloween stores close after the spooky season, but throughout the year, you can go to Spirit Halloween’s website to purchase costumes – including new Lilo & Stitch costumes – giant towering animatronic characters including the 10-foot-tall Giant Death Ray Animatronic extraterrestrial ($299.99) and other decorations.
What is Spirit Halloween?
Spirit Halloween is an oddity in American businesses, as it traditionally does not occupy a set, year-round location.
Instead, at the end of every summer — sometimes earlier — the company begins moving into existing, empty storefronts and rapidly turns them into creepy, brightly-colored festivals of costumes, makeup, accessories, and massive animatronic horror scenes suitable for freaking out and/or entertaining your neighbors. The abruptly moving displays in the middle of the store help add an amusement park destination feel, something Floridians can appreciate.
Spirit Halloween has become a pop culture phenomenon in the U.S., not only for its massive collection of costumes but as widespread memes for unlikely costumes or ironically abandoned locations.
How does Spirit Halloween choose where to open?
Spirit tends to focus on locations where there are more than 35,000 people within a 3-5 mile radius and ideally looks for locations with 5,000 to 50,000 square feet of sales floor space, according to Drew Griffiths, divisional vice president, marketing and social media for Spirit said. But they’re flexible.
“No store is too large – or too small,” Griffiths told USA TODAY in 2023.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Spirit Halloween is hiring 1,100 Florida workers, here’s where, when stores open
Reporting by C. A. Bridges and Mike Snider, Daytona Beach News-Journal / Florida Today
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
