Benjamin Ashford|Halloween in July is happening. But Spirit Halloween holds out for August. Here's when stores open

It's still summer,Benjamin Ashford but you may feel a chill in the air: It's coming from Spirit Halloween, which is scaring up its annual retail assault to bring shoppers nationwide everything Halloween.

The pop-up retailer, which takes over local storefronts for a few months each year, is expected to open more than 1,500 locations in August. The Spencer Gifts-owned subsidiary began prepping for the 2024 holiday season in June with its search for up to 50,000 seasonal employees.

Halloween has become a monster holiday, with consumer spending hitting records each of the last three years – $12.2 billion in 2023, according to the National Retail Federation.

And the opening of Spirit Halloween is a key milestone on the path to the holiday.

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What is Spirit Halloween?

A Halloween-focused company, Spirit Halloween opened its first pop-up store in the Bay area in 1983. Purchased by Spencer Gifts in 1999, the company has grown to more than 1,500 seasonal locations across the U.S.

Spirit Halloween does have a website open throughout the year where you can buy costumes, decorations and giant towering animatronic characters including the 6.2-foot-tall Art the Clown Terrifier ($199.99) a 10-foot-tall Giant Death Ray Animatronic extraterrestrial ($349.99; spaceship not included).

When does Spirit Halloween stores open for 2024?

Spirit Halloween has announced its flagship store in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, will open Thursday, Aug. 1, with a special grand opening celebration.

The company did not respond to queries about when other stores would open. However, job descriptions for store manager and sales associate say work starts on or about Aug. 1. The Spirit Halloween site suggests returning to the site on Aug. 1 to find your local store.

Target, Home Depot among stores with Halloween animatronic toys

Spirit Halloween isn't the only retailer unearthing a squad of scary towering Halloween decorations.

Home Depot has unveiled its 2024 Halloween lineup, which includes a new, limited edition model of its 12-foot skeleton Skelly with a rotating head, called "Servo Skelly," available online only for $379. Also available: the original $299 Skelly, which helped jumpstart the animatronic craze when it went viral in 2020.

Other new offerings include Skelly's dog ($199), which stands at 7 feet long, and a 7-foot-tall animated Frankenstein's monster ($279).

Target recently also unveiled its Halloween lineup and it includes some monsters, too. Returning is last year's hit purchase Lewis the Pumpkin Ghoul ($180), an 8-foot pumpkin-headed figure with a face that lights up and makes noises. There's also an 8-foot Bruce the Skelton Ghoul ($180), whose eyes and rib cage glow.

Lewis is joined by a quartet of new pumpkin-headed decorations: a 70-inch motion and sound-activated guitarist Pumpkin Rocker Billy ($150), plus hanging decorations the 65-inch Little Lewis ($30) with a pumpkin head that lights up, Pumpkin Iron Lewcy ($20), a light-up ghoul pumping dumbbells, and Baby Lewis ($10), which also lights up.

Halloween 2024: Decorations go big

Other stores going big into animatronics include:

• Costco: It has a 7-foot animated pumpkin-head scarecrow ($224.99). But its Giant Ground Breaking Skeleton ($249.99-$330), which is more than 5 feet tall – and stretches across more than 9 feet – was sold out for some on the Costco site on Friday, but has been spotted in stores – and on reselling sites such as ebay.com for more than $700.
• Party City: Among its scary products is a 9.7-foot Dr. Payne the Fire Eater on Stilts ($324.99).
• HalloweenCostumes.com: Its selection includes moving 6-foot Freddy Krueger, Michael Meyers, Pennywise the Clown, and Nightmare Before Christmas characters, all priced at $299.

Contributing: James Powel and Mary Walrath-Holdridge.

Follow Mike Snider on X and Threads: @mikesnider & mikegsnider.

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