# Anyone look into opening a seasonal store?



## Jackielantern (Oct 31, 2005)

I was blindsided Monday during lunch when the owner of the company I work for asked for me to research opening a seasonal halloween store. Holy crap! I never would've guessed my love of halloween would follow me to work. (I'm an accountant)

So...I've been spending a good portion of the last 2 days researching and sending out a couple emails to some of the franchise companies. I have so many questions right now I don't know where to start. lol So I guess I'll start here...anybody know of any direction to definately NOT go?? Or any experiences they want to share?

TIA!


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## Scatterbrains (Nov 16, 2008)

I just don't see how you can run a halloween store year round. I know there's one in Vegas and I'm guessing that it's the costumes that make that store viable year round. I think Spencers would be close to what you'd get as they carry the strobes and blacklights and stuff like that that could be used year round. I don't see that many heads on a hook being sold around Easter


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## UnOrthodOx (Apr 24, 2007)

Scatterbrains said:


> I just don't see how you can run a halloween store year round. I know there's one in Vegas and I'm guessing that it's the costumes that make that store viable year round. I think Spencers would be close to what you'd get as they carry the strobes and blacklights and stuff like that that could be used year round. I don't see that many heads on a hook being sold around Easter


Hm. 

Yeah, you need something else to carry you year round, for sure. The one's I've seen work are year round Costume rental stores that ramp up and sell things on Halloween, stores that specialize in the SUPPLIES to build props, as us crazy builders are year round, and the party supply stores.


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## Jackielantern (Oct 31, 2005)

I'm sorry, I wasn't very clear. She's looking into a temporary store, one that's only open Sept. and Oct.


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## Blumpkin (Aug 5, 2009)

check this place out


http://www.christmastraditions.com/Themes/HWeen/TradHall.htm


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## RCIAG (Jul 19, 2010)

But that's a year round thing & mostly Christmas the rest of the year.

How to open a Halloween store.



> I ran across a blog post that has lots of good facts and one huge error about opening a temporary Halloween store. The blog is called The Daily Apple and has been publishing on blogspot since 2004. The blog post is Apple #414: Those Halloween Stores.
> 
> I’ll get the error out of the way up front so you know to disregard the sales figures and profitability guesses in the post. The author claims a single Halloween Express store rung up sales of $70 million in 2 months (which is unfathomable). From that he deduces what you can make, conservatively:
> 
> ...


The article quoted in the above post:
http://dailyapple.blogspot.com/2009/10/apple-414-those-halloween-stores.html

Looks like a lot of initial investment (which is typical with a franchise I think) with returns in the second year or so. And as with any store it's all about LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION!!

Interesting bit there about them paying double or triple the usual rent. No wonder Spirit has such high prices!!


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## Scatterbrains (Nov 16, 2008)

Jackielantern said:


> I'm sorry, I wasn't very clear. She's looking into a temporary store, one that's only open Sept. and Oct.


You were clear....I misread it.

RCIAG nailed it...it's about Location, Location, Location.

I've got two spirits and a halloween city within a ten minute drive.

I'd be interested to see if Spirit posts there individual store sales somewhere


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## pandora (Jul 15, 2004)

Jackielantern said:


> I was blindsided Monday during lunch when the owner of the company I work for asked for me to research opening a seasonal halloween store. Holy crap! I never would've guessed my love of halloween would follow me to work. (I'm an accountant)


OHHHHHHHHHHHH I'm so jealous! You may have the coolest boss ever. That is my absolute dream plan! I must start buying Lotto tix!!!


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## Bear (Aug 24, 2009)

Hey Jackie, we opened a store this year...drop me a PM and we can discuss it.


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## Jackielantern (Oct 31, 2005)

RCIAG - I found that article yesterday in my research. I thought it was pretty interesting.

I have some emails out to some of the franchises available, just waiting to hear back.

I even researched importing. _GEEZ_...that is complicated it seems. I have PAGES on import rules from US Custom and Border Patrol.

Pandora - lol My husband was jealous too. I'm just confused at this point!


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## HalloweenHouseParty (Sep 14, 2010)

I live in a thriving economic area and the multiple store managers I spoke with said sales were scary bad this season at Spirit and Halloween City. 
I'd demand "verifiable" numbers before getting into a Halloween franchise.


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## Screaming Demons (Sep 15, 2008)

I think what you stock the store with is important.

The two Halloweenish stores we have ever had in my county had more wigs left at the end of the seasons than we had people interested in Halloween. Some of the bigger props are pretty expensive and pretty lame. Party City has some stuff here at 50% off that they still can't sell. I'm sure all of those leftover items hurt their bottom lines pretty badly.

On the other hand, certain types of props, costumes and effects flew off the shelves. You could probably stock a million dollars of stuff that will sell and sale out. Unfortunately if you order wrong you might end up with $900,000 of stuff left over.

In regards to the high retail rents, that must be why I saw some online photos of Halloween stores in tents. Makes sense - just set up in an empty corner of a busy shopping center and then take it down at the end of the season. There are many trade-offs though, as many of the posts on here about getting rained out or blown away will prove.

Here is another company that many order from: http://www.morriscostumes.com/

And your boss' idea reminds me a lot of those who want to get into professional haunted house ownership. You see a long line outside a haunted house on a Saturday night, multiple the number of people by the ticket price and then by the number of days in October and figure you can become a millionaire in a couple of years. But there is more work to it than anyone realizes, and it takes a lot of time, effort and money to get those long lines forming.


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## Jackielantern (Oct 31, 2005)

Thanks everyone for your input!

I certainly agree about location and about the merchandise carried. People I talked to in town were telling me how crazy it was at Party City. I'm assuming because the box stores carried next to nothing and the temp stores are so high priced? That was the case for me anyway.

I don't think getting rich quick applies to my situation. Just a good supplimental income.


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## ondeko (Oct 14, 2008)

Jackie--does the Fargo/Moorhead area have any of the temp Halloween stores? If there are already several it may become a saturated market and thus more competitive. Good for consumers but harder for retailers. If I recall correctly the best location options are mostly near the expansive shopping area near the mall--make your signs visible from I29--or a bit farther north and east but near NDSU and try to get student business. As for inventory, would your boss warehouse anything for the next year or dispose of inventory and start fresh again? some stuff never loses its appeal: foam skulls, rubber bats, bluckies, etc. If you can afford to store them it might be worth doing so. Other stuff like packs of spiderweb take up too much room to be worth hanging on to. Hope some of this is helpful.


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## Jackielantern (Oct 31, 2005)

Ondeko-
Yeah, we have a Halloween Express and a Spirit store both near West Acres. We do not have one in Moorhead though, which is close to 2 universities and a tech college.

As busy as these stores were I don't know if we are all that concerned as long as we can find the right location for the right price.

Storage as long as it's not a ton, isn't an issue.


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## ondeko (Oct 14, 2008)

Jackielantern said:


> Ondeko-
> Yeah, we have a Halloween Express and a Spirit store both near West Acres. We do not have one in Moorhead though, which is close to 2 universities and a tech college.
> 
> As busy as these stores were I don't know if we are all that concerned as long as we can find the right location for the right price.
> ...


If this goes through, let us know. I've got friends in the F/M area and I'd rather have them shop for Halloween stuff where it supports somebody from this forum if it's possible.


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## MLuther (Apr 8, 2009)

There's a year round Christmas store in Frankinmuth Mi called Bronners that's very successful. It's huge and has a very wide seection, probably atrributing to it's success.


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## propmistress (Oct 22, 2009)

Scatterbrains said:


> I just don't see how you can run a halloween store year round. I know there's one in Vegas and I'm guessing that it's the costumes that make that store viable year round.


There is also a year round Halloween store in Burbank Ca. 

However I think the entertainment industry and slutty costumes keep them in business 




Scatterbrains said:


> I don't see that many heads on a hook being sold around Easter


lol


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## Jackielantern (Oct 31, 2005)

I will keep y'all posted, it might be awhile before I know anything.

Ondeko- That would be great! Maybe you'd have to roadtrip to do you're shopping.  It would be fun to meet and talk some "shop". lol Where is Savage?


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## Xane (Oct 13, 2010)

As far as year-round holiday stores go, we have a Christmas store here but I can't imagine that they do well in the off season, even considering Christmas is probably the biggest holiday. We also have a year-round fireworks store that's always empty whenever I go by it except for the 4th of July and New Year's. The only thing I can think of is that bulk purchasers for sporting events are what keeps them going. Though I could probably use some of their flash and smoke effect items for Halloween.

You'd probably have to be in a very big city to make a year-round store remotely feasible. Having 5% of a 20,000 population town buying things outside of season probably isn't enough to keep you going, while 5% of a 750,000 pop town might be.


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## RCIAG (Jul 19, 2010)

Screaming Demons said:


> And your boss' idea reminds me a lot of those who want to get into professional haunted house ownership. You see a long line outside a haunted house on a Saturday night, multiple the number of people by the ticket price and then by the number of days in October and figure you can become a millionaire in a couple of years. But there is more work to it than anyone realizes, and it takes a lot of time, effort and money to get those long lines forming.


I think retail in general is more work than most people imagine. Good retail anyway. Anyone can hire some people, train 'em & keep a store running for a month or more, it takes someone that knows what they're doing to keep it running longer & running well with repeat business.

Retail is long hours, 7 days a week, even some holidays. It's not easy. I did it for 12 years & only miss it occasionally. I miss some customers & the free movies more than anything else. I met my husband at my retail job (video store) so it wasn't so bad!

When I left the video store the owner sold the place, yes, I shut the place down!! There were only 3 of us that worked there regularly, me, the owner & one other girl who was only weekend help, & I was the other "full time" person so it left the owner there for 12 hours a day for 5 days a week. 

Anyhoo....the new owners thought they'd be sitting on a gold mine like Blockbuster. They had no idea what movies or how many to buy or even how much they'd cost, they just thought they'd be rolling in the dough. This was just as DVD was picking up but VHS was still around & VHS tapes could cost us $30 or more, originally they were $80 because small stores didn't have an inside track to the studios like Blockbuster. Needless to say they lasted less than a year there before selling to new owners.

Though by that time the video store industry was on its way out & even if the store had been run perfectly & efficiently with no change in ownership, it was still on it's way to extinction.

But it was a good run, we knew what we were doing, we were consistent, people liked & trusted us & we liked & knew the product!

And really, isn't that what most of us want out of retail, consistency, trust, knowledge of the product & some friendly clerks? And since you know all about Halloweeny stuff, you're set in the knowledge arena & I'm just gonna guess that you're pretty nice so there you've got 2 down!


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## ondeko (Oct 14, 2008)

Jackielantern said:


> I will keep y'all posted, it might be awhile before I know anything.
> 
> Ondeko- That would be great! Maybe you'd have to roadtrip to do you're shopping.  It would be fun to meet and talk some "shop". lol Where is Savage?


South metro area of Twin Cities--about 4 hours +/- a little from Fargo. I could see making a road trip to shop and talk shop.


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## spookyspirit (Jul 14, 2009)

*Seasonal Halloween Store*

http://www.spirithalloween.com/consignment-opportunities/ will get you started in the right direction.


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## Meagan Porter (Jul 3, 2014)

Hello, I am also interested


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## Blarghity (Sep 2, 2012)

Just tell your boss to start by buying a few shipping containers worth of pose'n'stay skeletons and halfway decent life size skulls, then sell them online at a reasonable price year round.


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## PoCoHauntGal (Sep 2, 2010)

Blarghity said:


> Just tell your boss to start by buying a few shipping containers worth of pose'n'stay skeletons and halfway decent life size skulls, then sell them online at a reasonable price year round.


Yes, I agree. Online is the way to make money long term especially if you can store the stock yourself and not be paying out rent. These seasonal stores up where I live rent space in locations that have been laying empty for a while - thus the owners are usually glad to get any rent even for the short time! Knowing a few people who have worked or owned small stores in the past, Christmas was 70 - 85 % of the year's profits - it had to carry them through the rest of the year. As many have stated, seasonal is short term so you ideally want to sell most as much of your stock as possible in the short term - Big stores have better buying power and can get the lowest wholesale price. And honestly, with dollar-like stores so prevalent, there's a lot of stuff you can buy there for so cheap, why go anywhere else? In my own case, I might buy a small accessory in a Halloween store but a lot of the props are so cheesy or cheaply made, I prefer to make my own. The people who could be your greatest purchasers would be the Halloween aficionados but they know their stuff - they're not going to spend good money for junk! And there are very few who would or could shell out hundreds or thousands for props no matter how fantastic they are! Of course, not saying I wouldn't - IF I COULD! 

For many years, I had to drive down over the border just to get decent Halloween stuff - now much of the same can be got be bought up here or online. Prop making companies like Gemmy seemed to have much better quality in the past. When I bought my Horace the Butler, I got him from a local grocery store for $25 - he was the display and the costume on it was very poor quality. I bought him because I liked his face and I knew I could make him into something much better. He's played many roles in my haunts and I'm sure feels much better with his upgrade in social status! (Ever notice how we talk about these characters like they're real?)



Anyways, I think it could work depending on what you offer. Chances might be better if you could align yourself with another business or service (like offering fireworks or a place like a decor store that would also benefit from an increase in store traffic. I have a small party /costume store near me that at Halloween, sets up a prop room with some of the lifelike props - last year was done up like a cabin in the wood with the rocking granny and gramps and assorted stuff that fit the scene. They don't really try to sell these larger props - they just use them as a way to draw people in to see the rest of their offerings. They've managed to stay in business for as long as I can remember but then Halloween supplies are just part of their business. 

Sounds like it could be fun especially if the risk is hers, not yours. *Of course, if it doesn't at least cover the bills, it might not be witches flying out the door but the accountant!*


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## thepropfinder (Aug 15, 2012)

Hey guys she was mentioning a franchise but how could I open a halloween manufacturing company?


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## RCIAG (Jul 19, 2010)

Depends on what you want to manufacture I'd suppose.


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