스피릿 할로윈: 팝업 리테일을 10억 달러 규모의 비즈니스로 전환하기

### 성령 할로윈의 부상: 계절 소매업을 10억 달러 규모의 비즈니스로 전환하기
* 🎃 매년 여름이 끝날 무렵, 북미 전역의 **1,500개 이상의 지역에 Spirit Halloween이 등장**하여 **약 10억 달러의 수익**을 창출하며 빈 공간을 활용하는 독특한 부동산 모델을 선보입니다.
* 🏬 2024년에 오픈한 뉴욕의 플래그십 스토어는 **이전에 바이바이베이비로 사용되던 21,000평방피트 규모의 공간**을 인수하여, **버려진 소매 공간을 수익성 있는 팝업 스토어**로 탈바꿈시키는 Spirit의 방법을 선보입니다.
* 💰 2003년 스티븐 실버스타인의 지휘 아래 130개 매장에서 400개 매장으로 확장하는 것이 목표였던 Spirit Halloween은 **2024년까지 1,500개 매장을 돌파**하며 시즌 소매 시장에서 괄목할 만한 성장 궤도를 그렸습니다.
* 🛍 미국인들은 **2024년 할로윈에 2019년보다 30억 달러 증가한 116억 달러**를 지출할 것으로 예상되며, 코로나19 이전보다 매출이 두 배 이상 증가한 **Spirit Halloween은 이러한 추세의 수혜**를 받고 있습니다.
* 📦 이 회사는 파산한 소매업체가 사용하던 빈 건물의 임대인으로부터 **단기 임대**를 받아 **할로윈 시즌 동안 소매 공간**을 빠르게 활용할 수 있습니다.
* 🔄 Spirit 할로윈은 **2024년 10월에 10개의 Spirit 크리스마스 매장을 시범 운영**할 예정이며, 이는 할로윈 이후에도 시즌 리테일 모델을 확장하겠다는 전략으로, 일부 매장은 이미 일반적인 퇴거일 이후에도 임대 계약을 체결한 상태입니다.
* 👥 이 회사는 **2024년에 5만 명의 계절 근로자**를 고용할 계획이며, **할로윈 쇼핑 성수기 수요**를 충족하기 위해 필요한 운영 규모를 강조하고 있습니다.
* 📊 판매에 영향을 미치는 날씨와 해외 상품에 대한 관세와 같은 잠재적인 문제에도 불구하고 **Spirit Halloween의 고유한 재고 전략**을 통해 판매되지 않은 상품을 다음 시즌으로 이월하여 유연하고 탄력적인 비즈니스 모델을 보장할 수 있습니다.

Spirit Halloween은 단기 임대를 활용하고 시장 트렌드에 적응하여 임시 소매점을 19억 달러 규모의 운영으로 전환했습니다.

Each year as summer winds down, the ultimate American pop-up retailer winds up. We've sort of now established August 1st as National Spirit Halloween Day. Here for work this week from Ireland. And yeah, my wife was asking to get some like Halloween stuff while we're here and we don't have Halloween stores like this back in Ireland. In 2020 for the Halloween chain has opened over 1500 locations across North America and grosses around $1 billion, according to some estimates. Achieving this is not an easy feat considering the company's unique real estate model. We don't see an abandoned Kmart. We see a Spirit, a Spirit Halloween. This New York City flagship Spirit Halloween location opened here for the first time in 2024. Previously, this 21,000-plus square foot store was a Buybuy Baby that became vacant after the company

went bankrupt last year. We spoke with the broker, who told us that the asking price for the ground floor of this location is $100 per square foot. The property also includes additional space downstairs at a lower cost. It's unclear what Spirit paid for the duration of its lease in retail. You know, Black Friday holidays. You know, the periods where you make most of your money. But here you're literally making your entire year in four weeks. You know, and you have to do it so effectively. And they're really good at it. So how did Spirit Halloween turn the pop-up store concept into a $1 billion operation? These are fun. I'll be a pickle. Okay, I'll be the pickle. I'll be the cup of noodles. Longtime mall retailer Spencer's bought the Spirit Halloween brand in 1999. After serving as the president of Linens N

things, Steven Silverstein stepped in to run the company in 2003. I got us all together, and I said, All right, let's just imagine for a second. I don't know how we're going to do it, but if we could, what do you think the market potential is for Spirit Halloween? So this is 2003, and we had 130 stores. And we all sort of got together, held hands, and said 400. If we could just get to 400, man, that would be unbelievable. About a decade later, Spirit Halloween surpassed 1000 locations. Today it sits at over 1500. This is pretty awesome. Spencer Spirit Holdings is a privately held company and declined to share financial data with CNBC. But in 2015, Moody's estimated the company's sales to be around $400 million. By January of 2024, that number had reached $1.9

billion for the combined businesses. Spencer's currently operates less than half the number of Spirit Halloween's, but its stores are open all year round. Most of the revenue and the you know, the margin is generated by by spirit and most of their you know, the overall businesses income and revenue is generated leading to Halloween that quarter that has Halloween in it. Let's see what the cost of this costume is. I'm interested. So this would run you $30 to be a pickle. Spirits growth in recent years reflects broader U.S. Halloween spending trends. Americans are estimated to spend $11.6 billion on Halloween in 2024. That's around $3 billion more than 2019. You go back to what happened in 2020 2021. People had money in their pocket from stimulus. So people started spending more on Halloween. Business at spirit has more than doubled and pre-COVID

in terms of revenue, but they've really been able to drive additional traffic in the store. The company does operate an online storefront, but told CNBC that that accounts for a single-digit percentage of its sales. That's because a key part of its offering is the experiential nature of its stores. Take a look at these animatronics or this funhouse right here. Spirit Halloween's entire business relies on landlords that haven't been able to sign their property full-time, and are willing to take a short-term lease. Out of the top five prior tenants of Spirit Halloween locations, four of the five filed for bankruptcy in recent years. CNBC looked at a dozen random Spirit Halloween locations across 11 different states. 11 out of the 12 previous tenants have filed for bankruptcy at some point. The short-term lease is often a win for a struggling landlord as well. It gives them time to negotiate and sign a lease.

with a long-term lessee, while still drawing foot traffic and security to the area. They're looking to rent that space to a permanent tenant. That will only happen in the beginning of the year because very few retailers will build out a space and miss Christmas. So once you get to June or July, if you've got an empty retail space, that space is not going to get occupied at the very earliest until January or February of the following year. Pricing is another important consideration. This leasing proposal is for a storefront in Redding, California, that was previously a Barnes and Noble. A once bankrupt retailer, a broker that CNBC spoke with, said that a permanent tenant in the area would pay between $16 and $18 per square foot. That's about $27,000 per month for that location. It's also about the same price as Spirit's proposal for the four and a half month contract.

Suburban locations usually fall in the range of 20 to 40 thousand dollars for the Halloween season, according to experts that CNBC spoke with. Meanwhile, a storefront in New York City may be well north of six figures. The difference between 5 and 50,000ft is not we don't pay ten times the rent. We're looking at each of these locations, understanding what our volume potential is, which we've learned over many, many years, and that will translate into a fair rent payment. Now, the pop-up chain is looking to take its business. Past Halloween, it announced the piloting of ten Spirit Christmas locations in October of 2024. Eight of those stores are currently Spirit Halloween's, meaning those leases are signed beyond their typical move-out dates. Four of them were formerly Christmas Tree Shops, which filed for bankruptcy in 2023. Over the years, Spirit Halloween has become a

trusted company within the real estate world. Larry Link, president of New York real estate firm Level Group, told CNBC that its track record has eliminated the risks of a standard pop-up, and Spirit can use that to drive an aggressive deal. This is unique because Link says that New York City pop-up stores would typically pay a 20 to 30% premium to use the space for a short-term contract. That's because renting space to a temporary storefront comes with more risk than a traditional retailer. Some may not decide to leave when their 3 to 4 month lease expires, and litigation is expensive and time-consuming. Spirit says securing contracts was a lot more difficult in its early years. There was hesitance because of the unknown. We were not known. It was just, you know, we had to explain, well, what does Spirit Halloween. You do what? And how do you do that?

And why should I have confidence that you're going to come in and be a benefit to me? The typical challenge of a regular retailer is that you commit for a lease for five years, and you discover you have a terrible location, but now you're stuck. Well, they are not in their case. Once they find the saturation point, they will learn it immediately, and then all they need to do is not reopen that location next year. I think this is pretty great. Chips and salsa. Chips and salsa. Okay. All right, let's do it. I think we'd get a lot of funny looks at the office, but. I did not wear a costume last year. I know some people did. I think this is our year to run its 1500 store. Temporary retail business. The company is hiring 50,000 seasonal workers in 2024. Labor market can fluctuate from year to year.

Labor market can be fluctuating because of more short-term issues that are harder to anticipate. And I think that that's kind of the exposure that Spirit and other companies are selling for short time windows are exposed to. But there are some other potential challenges, too. Although many Spirit Halloween stores are open for three months, a lot of the company's sales are done in the two weeks leading up to the holiday. If it's a really cold year, if there's a storm coming through and the kids are not going to be able to go out trick-or-treating, all those things are going to have a huge impact on the demand for that particular year. By then, the stores are already committed, the inventory is already committed, and that can affect the performance of the Halloween season for that particular year. When it comes to merchandising at stores, the company carries a mix of things that are ultra

relevant and trendy to the current year. Think about the Beetlejuice movie that just came out. It has a whole section here dedicated to just that. But then there are things that are more classic Halloween. Think evergreen costumes like witches or cats. The company can rely on the fact that year after year, things like a broomstick are going to be sought after. The evergreen stuff doesn't sell. No harm, no foul. You just carry it into the next season. Unlike most of retail, having inventory is not a bad thing. You know, if you have to hold it year over year, you can still use it. It's funny because, you know, you go from these, like, bloody scream masks to Garfield all within 20ft. It's hilarious. We're actually looking to be in stock going into those last two weeks whereas other retailers who are

trying to fully liquidate. Really have to be sort of at their last licks, if anything. Another consideration is tariffs with merchandise coming from overseas. Those could increase depending on the results of the 2024 election. They need to anticipate those orders sometimes months in advance to the Halloween season. They buy in locations of the world that are like cheap to produce. You can think of like Southeast Asia, China. That's probably where many of these products are coming from. These require long lead times and a lot of long-term planning. We're deep into 2025 right now, even conceptualizing 2026. And that's really part of that supply chain puzzle. It's a relay race. We have a calendarization of everything that has to happen. So right now we're in the concepting phase and we're doing a lot of the early prep work. But you have to get those seeds in the ground and, you

know, certainly will be influenced by what comes out of our Halloween experience this year.

How Spirit Halloween Became A Billion-Dollar Business

Welcome to the official YouTube channel for CNBC. From 'Wall Street' to 'Main Street' to award winning original documentaries and Reality TV series, CNBC has you covered. Experience special sneak peeks of your favorite shows, exclusive video and more.

For real-time news updates from around the world, visit: http://www.cnbc.com

For CNBC's primetime TV lineup, visit http://tv.cnbc.com

For CNBC's International YouTube channel, visit: http://www.youtube.com/cnbcinternational

CNBC

Spirit Halloween은 2020년까지 북미 전역에 1,500개 이상의 매장을 오픈하고 약 10억 달러의 매출을 달성하며 주요 팝업 리테일러로 성장했습니다.

2024년에 뉴욕에 플래그십 스토어를 오픈하는 등 독특한 부동산 모델과 효과적인 시즌 전략이 성공의 열쇠가 되었습니다.

1999년 스펜서스가 인수한 이 브랜드는 2013년까지 매장 수 1,000개를 돌파하고 2024년 1월까지 19억 달러의 매출을 달성하는 등 괄목할 만한 성장을 이루었습니다.

성령 할로윈의 비즈니스 모델과 성장

성령 할로윈의 매출은 주로 할로윈 시즌에 발생하며, 이는 미국의 할로윈 지출이 증가하는 광범위한 추세를 반영합니다.

이 회사의 성공은 파산 신청을 한 이전 임차인의 높은 이직률과 함께 어려움을 겪고 있는 임대주로부터의 단기 임대에 힘입은 바가 큽니다.

Spirit의 독특한 서비스는 매장의 체험적 특성에 있으며, 이는 소규모 온라인 매장에도 불구하고 고객 트래픽을 유도하고 매출을 높이는 데 도움이 되었습니다.

성령 할로윈의 비즈니스 전략 및 확장

교외 지역의 Spirit 할로윈 매장 임대료는 일반적으로 2만 달러에서 4만 달러 사이인 반면, 뉴욕시의 매장 임대료는 6천만 달러를 넘을 수 있습니다.

이 회사는 2024년 10월까지 10개의 Spirit 크리스마스 매장을 시범 운영 중이며, 일부 매장은 원래 퇴거일 이후에도 임대 계약을 체결했습니다.

Spirit Halloween은 부동산 분야에서 성공적인 실적을 거둔 덕분에 팝업 스토어와 관련된 위험을 제거하여 공격적인 거래를 추진하고 2024년에 50,000명의 계절 근로자를 고용할 수 있게 되었습니다.

Spirit 할로윈 매장은 단기적인 이슈와 날씨 관련 요인으로 인해 수요 변동에 직면합니다.

이 회사의 매출은 할로윈을 앞둔 2주에 집중되어 있어 예상치 못한 이벤트에 취약합니다.

Spirit 할로윈은 트렌디한 상품과 클래식한 상품을 혼합하여 판매되지 않은 재고를 다음 시즌으로 이월할 수 있습니다.

기업들은 재고를 완전히 청산하려고 노력하고 있으며 2024년 선거로 인해 해외 상품에 대한 잠재적인 관세 인상에 직면해 있습니다.

동남아시아 및 중국과 같은 저비용 지역에서 제품을 소싱하고 있으며, 2025년에 초점을 맞추고 2026년까지도 구상하는 등 긴 리드 타임과 광범위한 계획이 필요합니다.

이 회사의 공급망은 올해 할로윈 시즌의 결과에 따라 영향을 받는 세부적인 작업 일정과 초기 준비 작업을 통해 릴레이 경주처럼 운영되고 있습니다.