Retailers get into Halloween spirit
They may come and go quickly compared with their full-time retail counterparts. But experts say the revenues generated annually by temporary holiday stores — about $12 billion from September through December — are hardly fly-by-night.
For instance, much of the more than $5 billion expected to be spent nationally this year on Halloween costumes, candy and decorations will be forked over at hundreds of popular stores that opened in mid-September and won’t be around much past Nov. 1.
As Halloween draws closer, daily crowds have become bigger at Spirit Halloween Superstore, located in a strip shopping center on South E Street in San Bernardino.
“On the weekends, it’s been packed,” store manager Greg Hambarssoomian said. Pirates and Transformers have been the most popular costumes this year, he said. “People are lined up outside to get in, and we actually tend to have more business on the adult side than with the children’s costumes.”
