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Spirit Halloween is a renowned pop-up Halloween costume shop that helps boost business in local malls. With reasonable prices and both relatable and classic Halloween costumes, Spirit Halloween has taken the costume and business marketplace by storm. 

The store appears seasonally, starting in August and closing shortly after Halloween. Spirit Halloween brings in extra business for both Merle Hay Mall and Valley West Mall, both local to the Des Moines Area. 

Spirit Halloween provides a variety of different costumes and accessories to costumes for many different ages. As a pop-up shop, they also provide seasonal work. 

To run a pop-up within vacant space in the mall, they first start with the leasing manager. At Merle Hay Mall, the process starts with Jared Hassman. Hassman, oversees the vacant spaces in the mall that Spirit Halloween gets to use. 

The pop up drives more than just Spirit Halloween’s business, it also boosts the mall’s revenue in general. Hassman says that anytime a patron steps into the mall for a retail transaction, it generally increases revenue in the mall, though they may not always know the exact measurement or degree in which it does so. The pop-up also offers seasonal options for the mall. 

“Retail options that are good with the seasons, think like a backpack dealer came in around August… really just offering retail consumers the products they need,” Hassman said. 

Spirit Halloween’s products are more centered around the costumes regarding specific social media trends, new movies, and TV shows that are creating more buzz. This year some featured trendy outfits include costumes from “Barbie”, “Blue Beetle”, “Wednesday” and “Ashoka”. 

Spirit Halloween has a wide range of costumes and home decorations to offer, with blow up ghosts, jack o’ lanterns, witches, and cats. Light up graves, graves that speak, and witching bowls are also on sale, and also have devoted a section of the store solely to Harry Potter. 

Merle Hay Mall will not be supporting a Spirit Halloween this year due to developments. 

Specifically, new building plans for the empty space to become a new home for the local hockey team. 

“In the previous Yonkers space, where they exist, we are planning an arena. A Hockey arena for the Des Moines Buccaneers,” Hassman said. 

Spirit Halloween has moved to the old Von Maur location of Valley West Mall. Though the location has changed, Spirit’s pre-open process remains the same. 

Pop-up businesses like Spirit Halloween start planning early in the calendar year. They scope out new trends and submit requests for contracts.Grand View University Business Professor Dr. Kip Bottenfield offered insights on how it all works. 

“Especially with getting the contracts for the costumes, and the supply chain, would be a few months out. And of course, shops who do it year after year, the planning gets easier, but it’s still quite a ways out,” Bottenfield said. 

With trends changing each year, Spirit Halloween has to stay on its toes to make sure they have the costumes and accessories that are going to be popular. Though the trends change from year to year, the process remains the same. The company has to buy in bulk from the supply chain, wait eight to twelve weeks for the shipment to arrive, and sell out enough to break even. 

Just as the process is the same, Spirit Halloween faces the same economic problem year after year, that being volume. Bottenfield explains the issue using a comparison of a fireworks booth. 

“I’d say its volume, you know with the fireworks model, he uses a container to transport, sets up the tent, rents the space, so he has all those calculations so he knows the exact amount he needs to sell… If the volume isn’t there, then the only reason to do it is passion,” Bottenfield said. 

And for Spirit Halloween, they have shown with each year they sell out of stock on costumes, they obtain most of the Halloween shopping revenue in the Des Moines area. With sales bringing in enough capital to only open for three months out of the year, Spirit Halloween is knocking on Wall Street’s door. 

Spirit Halloween has provided residents of Des Moines with costumes that fit with trending pop culture and the cult classics. 

With the booming business they manage to accrue despite a limited schedule, it seems fit to coin them the Howling Wolf of Wall Street.