S1E17 - The Spirits (Spirit Halloween, pt2)

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Kayla: Coffee smells like whiskey. It smells like a hangover. I'm gonna throw up.

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Chris: Cause it's the whiskey coffee. Cause I'm trying to get rid of it.

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Kayla: I know were gonna talk about something. We were gonna have business, and I forget what it was. Oh, I think were going to tell all of our listeners that they need to stop what they're doing, shut the fuck up. Including listening to this podcast, run not walk, to go get some showtime, and then watch every single episode.

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Chris: Oh.

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Kayla: Of on becoming a God in central Florida.

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Chris: Oh, yeah, we have been watching that. Yeah.

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Kayla: It is imperative. It is. If you don't know what the premise is. It is about a mlm. Am I MLM in central Florida in the nineties? And, like, all of this weirdness that kind of goes along with the. With a character that comes into contact with it.

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Chris: And the tone of the show is about as weird as mlms are, which is to say quite weird.

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Kayla: Extremely.

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Chris: And I feel like it really takes. I think it would agree with our assessment of mlms from the Mary Kay episode, or at least from what the show. Yeah, I think they would say yes to that question.

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Kayla: That show is in line with our show, and I guess in the spirit of that as well. I think we've shouted it out before. But for all of you listeners who listened to the dream, and all of you new listeners who haven't listened to the dream, they have just released all four bonus episodes from their first season about mlms.

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Chris: Yeah. And episode three and four are about, like, how mlms can be culty, and they actually have a cult deprogrammer on to talk about it. It's really excellent.

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Kayla: It's perfect ancillary content for our podcast.

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Chris: And since I know Jane Marie listens to this shout out to Jane Marie.

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Kayla: Huge shout out to Jane Marie.

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Chris: That would be so cool.

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Kayla: Yeah, I know.

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Chris: It's never gonna happen.

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Kayla: She did. She did like your tweet.

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Chris: She did like my tweet, which I can die happy now, basically.

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Kayla: So that's all the business that I have. Did we have any further.

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Chris: Any more business? I don't know. Do we want to talk about, like, how we have some. An interesting, like, do we want to start talking about, like, season one finale, the end of season one, and take a couple months and then. Are we going to talk about that yet?

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Kayla: I mean, we just did. So let's talk about it.

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Chris: I mean, we could just not talk.

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Kayla: Listen to that. We.

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Chris: We have.

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Kayla: The power are coming up on our season one finale, and we have. We have something pretty fun in store.

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Chris: I think, to kind of tie something slightly different.

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Kayla: Yeah. Just to, like, tie it all together. Tie up all the loose ends, but leave enough loose ends so that we can come back for season two in the new year.

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Chris: Oh, and we have some cool stuff for season two.

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Kayla: Oh, we have some cool stuff. We have some. I mean, not to jump the gun. We have some cool stuff ahead for the rest of this season. So what will it be?

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Chris: No, the rest of the season's trash.

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Kayla: Fuck. But it'll be this. This episode and then probably one to two more episodes. And then our last one, I think.

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Chris: Yeah, I think it'll. Well, it'll definitely be two. I don't think it'll be. I think my next topic is two episodes.

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Kayla: Okay, so three more episodes, you guys. And then last one of the year.

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Chris: Yeah, three, including this one.

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Kayla: Three, including this one.

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Chris: Yeah. So. And then the third one. Yeah.

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Kayla: So stay tuned and just get ready. Strap in. Yeah, but I guess we are churn. We are getting ahead of ourselves. Cause we need to finish this episode from two weeks ago. We started talking about spirit Halloween and Halloween pop up stores and the retail apocalypse and kind of everything that went along with that. How much of a recap do you think we need to do? We, like, talked about spirit Halloween, how it started in the eighties. It started kind of as a first. It was a women's discount shop. And then the guy was like, I need to make some actual business. And so he started selling Halloween.

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Chris: Didn't he have, like, wasn't he next door neighbors or something?

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Kayla: He next neighbors to a costume shop, and he was like, I want that. Because they always get so much business during Halloween.

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Chris: Right?

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Kayla: And that's how he pivoted. Joe Marver pivoted into Halloween pop up stores. The first one he had, if we all remember, made $100,000 in the first month of being open.

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Chris: I want $100,000.

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Kayla: I know. Spirit Halloween has become so prolific and so profitable. The three months that it is open out of the year, it makes up Spencer Gifts, LLC, half of their entire yearly revenue. So remember, these stores are only open from mid August to November 1. And they make bank.

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Chris: And if they're open quarter of the year but make half the profit, then does that mean they're doubly as awesome?

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Kayla: I think it means 75 or 42. Yeah, it's one of those. But we also. We mostly focused on last episode. I feel like, kind of the origins of Spirit Halloween, and then we talked a lot about the retail apocalypse and how so many stores are moving either online or totally going out of business, and there's so much empty real estate now. And that's how these pop up stores are able to operate.

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Chris: And we posted some pictures of dead malls because those are just, like, hauntingly beautiful and fascinating to look at.

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Kayla: I also posted a picture, literally, today, because I was at a mall, and I walk out. I walk into the mall, and guess what? Guess what? I am greeted with. Guess what is the first thing I see?

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Chris: Spirit Halloween.

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Kayla: Build a bear workshop.

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Chris: Oh, hell, yeah.

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Kayla: So I took a picture, posted it.

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Chris: Well, I fucking build a bear. Let's do an episode on them.

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Kayla: Yeah. It's keeping that mall afloat. So.

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Chris: Yeah.

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Kayla: So that's kind of what we covered last episode. This episode, we're getting more into the nitty gritty details of exactly how these stores operate, what it's like to work there, what it's like to shop there. Kind of. Kind of all that. And that'll help us give a. We'll have a fully. A fully rounded. A well rounded view.

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Chris: Fully rounded.

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Kayla: Fully rounded.

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Chris: 367 degree view.

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Kayla: And then we'll be able to make our decision.

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Chris: Yeah. What would we say if we didn't say nitty gritty? Like, if you had.

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Kayla: I don't know, like, what would we say?

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Chris: The blank details.

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Kayla: The minutia, maybe?

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Chris: Minutiae. Yeah.

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Kayla: Minutiae feels so, like, flippant, though. Kind of feels pejorative.

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Chris: Mmm.

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Kayla: The deets.

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Chris: The deets. Ooh. Yeah. So we're about to give you the deets.

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Kayla: The deets. Let's go. All right, so let's talk about the life cycle of a spirit Halloween store.

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Chris: Ooh. So, like, two spirit Halloween stores that love each other very much have store sex, and then they make a baby Halloween store, and then. And then it grows up and dies. And is that.

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Kayla: Did you just create a fetish?

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Chris: Probably.

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Kayla: Is there fan art of this?

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Chris: I don't know. You said it was a lecture.

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Kayla: Any of our listeners, if you're good at drawing art, please draw a picture. Please draw us a picture of your Halloween store's having sex.

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Chris: Don't draw that. I'm sorry I said it.

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Kayla: Please do. Okay. As we've mentioned, spirit Halloween stores generally open in mid August and close about one to three days after Halloween. They keep somewhat long hours. Generally open from ten amish to 10:00 p.m. Ish, sometimes later on actual Halloween day. They hire store associates and managers several weeks before the stores open, like, in the mid summer, and continually hire store associates throughout the three months they're open, like, sales associates.

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Chris: How do they get people to work there when they know that it's only gonna be, like, a temporary.

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Kayla: We will get into it. We will get to that.

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Chris: Oh, shit.

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Kayla: Okay, so this is seasonal flexible work, with many employees maintaining other full time jobs while working part time at spirit.

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Chris: Team members get money away.

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Kayla: Oh, yeah. Team members get discounts on products they stay on for several weeks after closing to help tear down the store and then get an even deeper discount on items after the store is, like, fully fucked off. Anything that.

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Chris: You mean, like, after Halloween?

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Kayla: Yeah, like, after they've, like, torn the store down. Like, during that period, they can, like, buy things at a very deep discount.

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Chris: Right. That makes sense.

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Kayla: But there's still going to be stuff left over. And for these stores, anything that's not sold can generally go back into storage and then be put up for sale during the next Halloween season. That's actually one of the contributing factors to these store successes. They never have to dump or get rid of inventory because Halloween costumes can work year after year.

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Chris: Like, right. Like, we saw the jazz costume, and that movie came out in 19, actually. I guess there was the recent live action.

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Kayla: There was the recent, but still, like, Ed Buzz Light.

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Chris: Well, that was recent.

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Kayla: There's, like, if you made a Jasmine Halloween costume in 1994, like, the fact that it's still. People want a Jasmine Halloween costume 20 plus years later.

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Chris: I'd go as jasmine this year.

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Kayla: There's nothing stopping you. We saw it at the Halloween store. So that's the basics. Let's now get down to the specifics. While the stores themselves are only open for three months out of the year, corporate operations stay going strong during the other nine months.

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Chris: What? What are they doing? Are they just, like, playing mini golf in their office? Corner offices?

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Kayla: First of all, there is the. I forget if we've mentioned this already, but Spirit Halloween has a year round online presence, so that needs people. But even outside of that, before the stores even close on November 1, spirit Halloween sends scouts out into the world to begin searching for locations for the following year.

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Chris: Oh, my God.

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Kayla: There's a couple reasons. Yeah, it's like the article that I read. I forget which one it is. I'm gonna link. I have a ton of articles to link. I'm gonna link almost all of them.

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Chris: That suggests that they have it down to a science. That's really cool.

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Kayla: Oh, they do. I didn't even get into this, because, again, there's so much to get into. But, like, they also have this process where every single. I think every single person that works there, and also employees, like, people that go there, they provide feedback that is then funneled into the corporate headquarters in this very, like, feedback, like, of what worked, what didn't work, what can be improved. And then the corporate center spends the next year, mother brain. The mother brain spends the next year honing down on the best version. That's of spirit Halloween. That it can be based on all of this, like, from thousands of stores.

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Chris: That's. That's crazy. It's like a. It's like a genetic algorithm.

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Kayla: Yeah, it's. It's. The way this operates is amazing. So, okay, back to the scouters that scout, like, on November 1. Starting on November 1. There's a couple reasons why they need to start so early. One, it can actually be pretty difficult to secure short term leases, even when buildings have been empty for years.

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Chris: Makes sense. Nobody wants to have you pay them for three months, right? Piss off. Yeah.

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Kayla: Two, literally every year, each spirit Halloween store builds itself up from scratch.

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Chris: What the.

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Kayla: They have to. Basically, there's. It's a new business.

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Chris: I mean, I guess that makes sense.

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Kayla: Business every single year, because they completely disappear, and then they have to completely rebuild. Like, you gotta find a new building and secure the lease. You gotta find, hire, and train new employees, which there are more than 30,000 of across the world.

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Chris: It doesn't make sense that this is monetarily viable. It just doesn't make any sense.

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Kayla: It very much is. They have to, like, do complete and total buildup and takedown of over 1300 individual stores. Like, it's truly insane to think about. So, yeah. While the stores are only open for a short time, year round planning and preparation is absolutely necessary.

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Chris: Wow. Are we gonna call this episode the Masters of Logistics?

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Kayla: Sure. Well, you might be asking yourself, why is it so difficult to secure these leases? You're not actually asking yourself that? Cause you just answered the question.

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Chris: But that's what I wrote, so I. Say it anyway.

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Kayla: Say it anyway. I mean, yeah, you're right. In general, the folks, the very rich people who own these locations know that they're valuable and would often rather pass on a short term lease. That only makes them so much money in favor of holding out for someone looking for a long term lease.

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Chris: Right.

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Kayla: And this is the reality spirit Halloween faces. Every year. They have to find real estate owners willing to negotiate a short. A very short term lease.

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Chris: So what type of real estate owners is that?

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Kayla: I mean, they have to find people that are willing to do it. It's just really a matter of, like, finding a location that you want and seeing if you can negotiate the lease. They actually, you can go on Spirit's website and they have, like, if you're somebody who owns an empty building, you can go on their website and just, like, read about the process and then, like, contact them.

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Chris: Like, sign up.

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Kayla: Yeah, they haven't, like, there's a very specific, that's fascinating portion of their site that's dedicated to this because they're always looking for space. Because, again, it can be difficult to secure everything that they need.

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Chris: Right.

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Kayla: Like, Spirit Halloween also can't just stick itself in any old location. Like, they generally need to position themselves where there's already foot traffic or other shopping locations. And size is also an issue. Like, they do pride themselves and they do advertise themselves as being able to fit into a space as small as, like, 3000 sqft. They generally prefer to find spaces ranging from 5000 to 50,000. Think the average store is 10,000. But that kind of flexibility of anywhere between 3000 to 50,000 also contributes to the success of the business because they can kind of adapt to whatever.

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Chris: Right. It sounds like they need to be able to adapt.

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Kayla: Right?

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Chris: Yeah.

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Kayla: So with all of those parameters and restrictions, I personally do not envy that job.

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Chris: No.

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Kayla: But on the other hand, I did read a pretty compelling argument in a medium article that claimed spirit Halloween and other pop up stores like it actually provide great benefit to their surroundings. The article. Yeah, this article made me go like, ooh, I want to do this. I want to work at Spirit Halloween. The article basically states that spirit Halloween is responsible for revitalizing once floundering areas, bringing money back to shopping centers and strip malls without committing the act of gentrification, given their. Yeah, right.

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Chris: Because they bail.

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Kayla: After they bail, they're not like these stores are pop up by nature. They do not change the general, like, face or feel of the community. They're not trying to alter how the community exists. They just inhabit it for those three months. And they bring hoards of people carrying cash who, like.

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Chris: It's so counterintuitive to me because, like, if you think about it, you're like, would you, if you're in the community, would you rather have, like, a store come in and set up shop and be there for a long time and be part of the community and just constantly bring in people? Or would you rather have somebody be there for three months and then fuck off? I would always say the first one. So it's interesting.

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Kayla: The first one's not necessarily wrong. It's just if the first one is gentrifying, it's not ideal.

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Chris: Okay.

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Kayla: Like, if it's a. I always go back. If it's an artisanal cupcake shop in a food desert, like, that's kind of not useful to the local community. But if it's like a grocery store.

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Chris: Oh, right.

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Kayla: Then maybe it's slightly better. But spirit Halloween is potentially.

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Chris: Hold on. Are you saying that you can't subsist on cupcakes?

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Kayla: I am saying you can't subsist on cupcakes.

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Chris: That's just false.

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Kayla: It's absolutely true. I've tried.

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Chris: You can live on cupcakes. In fact, you should live on cupcakes. Don't, because they're delicious.

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Kayla: They are delicious. They are missing some major nutrition.

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Chris: You can eat cupcakes. They provide until you die. And it might be of only eating cupcakes, but you will be able to live until you don't anymore.

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Kayla: They provide plenty of nutritional value. They provide good fats and good carb, but you will be lacking in other nutritional areas. So I do not. In my expert opinion, I do not recommend trying to live on cupcakes.

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Chris: We should start a protein cupcake shop.

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Kayla: As long as there's carrots in it. As long as there's a carrot cake option, then you're good. Or a leafy green option, then you're fine. Anyway, so this article is saying that the spirit Halloween stores bring a bunch of people in back into the community, and, like, maybe that person needs to stop at the coffee shop next door and order an espresso because they're all tired from their shopping. Or maybe they're hungry after their excursion and need to, like, go across the street for some wings or a sandwich or whatever cupcake or a cupcake that's not artisanal and that actually serves the community. I thought that was pretty cool. Made me think about it a little differently.

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Chris: Fucking artisanal cupcake.

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Kayla: I'm not a fan. Okay, let's talk about reason number two as to why Spirit Halloween has to start prepping for the following season immediately after Halloween.

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Chris: Mm.

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Kayla: We already noted that they literally have to build up and tear down 1300 full businesses each year from absolute scratch. But that's not the only thing they need to start planning in advance. Remember how we noticed all those licensed costumes, ranging from movies to tvs to video game characters?

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Chris: Oh, yeah.

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Kayla: Well, spirit Halloween does its damnedest every single year to analyze and predict what each year's big Halloween trend will be.

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Chris: Damn, son. Wait so they have data now. Like they have, like they have me's there too.

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Kayla: Yeah.

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Chris: Can I work there?

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Kayla: Sure.

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Chris: Awesome.

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Kayla: So this process of analysis allows the company plenty of time to license and produce a costumes. They actually do a lot of work in this prediction area arena. I'll link to some articles about it because again, it's very cool. Like, they'll, one of the ways that they do this is they'll look ahead and see, you know, what big blockbuster movies are planned for that year. So if it's like Spider man, they'll order a bunch of Spider man costumes. Right.

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Chris: And if toy Story is coming out.

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Kayla: Right, right.

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Chris: Okay.

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Kayla: So they then start producing costumes based on that. Even so, Joseph Marver, the guy who founded it, told Newhouse news services that it's imperative to have some wiggle room just in case. Quote, you'd better have some money left over for sleepers, movies you didn't know would be a box office smash and kids are going to want.

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Chris: Oh, shit, that's so smart.

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Kayla: You have to, like, account for the unknown.

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Chris: The known unknowns leave a little bit of money for the own unknowns. Yeah.

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Kayla: Is that a known unknown?

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Chris: You know that it's. You don't know about it, so. Yes.

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Kayla: Okay.

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Chris: An unknown would be like, you.

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Kayla: Don'T even know that. You don't know about it.

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Chris: Yeah. Like, somebody invented a different form of entertainment that you didn't account for and people want to dress as that. Probably when fortnight happened.

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Kayla: I think it'd be more like if people started wanting to, like, dress up as tiktoks.

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Chris: Yeah, maybe more like that.

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Kayla: Speaking of inventory, let's talk about it. Spirit Halloween.

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Chris: I am so excited to talk about logistics and inventory.

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Kayla: Nah, this is more fun than that. Spirit Halloween and its parent company, Spencer's, literally partners with a bunch of different companies each year in order to sell all that sweet, licensed merch we saw. Like, they're not just getting licenses, they're. They form partnerships every year.

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Chris: Okay, so, like, with Disney and with Epic Games and.

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Kayla: Yeah, like, that's a great example. For example, Spirit announced a partnership with Epic Games earlier this year, and that's why they can sell Fortnite stuff.

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Chris: Got it.

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Kayla: They've partnered with Disney, I think, for, like, the last couple years in order to be able to sell specifically hocus pocus merchandise, which for some reason is, like, very popular. Like, hocus pocus.

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Chris: It's Halloween themed.

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Kayla: I guess it is Halloween themed, but it's an older film and it's just really interesting. That that film in particular is, like.

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Chris: Popular and also, like, as a reason to partner with Disney. Of all of the reasons to partner with Disney because they own all media.

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Kayla: Like, I mean, they may have partnered in other arenas to, like, sell the jasmine costumes, but, like, or any of the specifically, I read about the hocus pocus situation, because that's interesting.

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Chris: Your kids love Bette Midler.

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Kayla: The kids these days. Very into her.

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Chris: Yeah.

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Kayla: You should follow her on Twitter. Actually, don't. The list of these partnerships goes on and on. Because remember, spirit Halloween is not hurting for cash, so it can afford to make these deals that in turn, make them even more money back in sales. So it's a pretty nifty little loop, and it's a huge draw for the store. Way more people are gonna want to shell out for an official Mario costume than want to show up to their Halloween party as that.

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Chris: As italian plumber with nobody wants to.

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Kayla: Be turtles, italian mustache, mushroom stomper. They don't want to be that.

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Chris: Right. That's like a parenting fail, right? That's like, yeah.

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Kayla: If you don't buy your kids the expensive, licensed costume, you're failing as a parenthood.

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Chris: Okay, so maybe that's not how I meant that.

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Kayla: I never. Just full disclosure. When I was growing up as a kid, I never bought a Halloween costume. We always made our own.

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Chris: Oh, really? I feel like we frequently made ours, but sometimes I feel like we bought them. I don't even remember what I went as.

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Kayla: Oh, I do half the time. I actually talked about it a little bit later.

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Chris: I have a couple things I remember.

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Kayla: You were that robot. I'm definitely. We should post that robot.

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Chris: We're definitely posting a picture of me as a robot. That was a diY. I think it was adorable, but I think I was too small. Be diying. I think my mom and dad did that entirely.

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Kayla: Yeah, I don't mean I was. I wasn't making my costumes at four. My parents were making them. Frankly, something like licensed merchandise to me, seems like it would generate a lot of customer loyalty and keep customers coming back year after year.

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Chris: Yeah.

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Kayla: And the quality of the costumes are actually generally very good for the price. I did find some negative reviews online here and there, particularly when it comes to ordering off of their online store. But in general spirit, Halloween is known for having a slightly higher price point than other Halloween stores, but their costumes are also of that slightly higher quality than these other Halloween stores. It's also worth noting, do they capture.

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Chris: A large chunk of the market? Because if you're choosing between spirit Halloween and generic plumber costume store.

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Kayla: Yeah, no, they're the biggest Halloween store.

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Chris: Okay.

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Kayla: Like, they're the biggest Halloween store. It's also worth noting one day when we actually do Halloween itself as a topic, we can get more into it. But it's worth noting that spirit Halloween success in the mid eighties and beyond was also due to some pretty damn good timing over the past few decades. Like, once baby boomers started having their own kids. So, okay, here's a brief timeline. Halloween started getting, like, to be a big deal post World War Two when, like, it was the fifties and, like, kids could go walk around suburbia became a thing. Right? And then when once baby boomers became adults and had their own kids, they kinda. If we're like, I want to do Halloween too. Like, literally.

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Chris: Right?

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Kayla: Like, I want Halloween for myself.

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Chris: Well, yeah, I mean, to be fair, we do that.

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Kayla: Yeah, we learned it from the boomers.

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Chris: Every time it's Halloween. And, like, we get by candy and put it in a bowl.

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Kayla: Oh, no, I don't mean comes. I don't mean they want to give. They give candy. Trick or treaters. They want to have their own Halloween celebration outside of children. Like, this is a thing. Like, Halloween, over the past few decades, has become increasingly more and more adult. Starting when? With baby boomers who are starting to have their own kids.

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Chris: But wait, but boomers, as kids, got to do Halloween, so they just want to keep doing it. What do you think now, Kayla? I don't want to alienate a percentage of our audience. Boomers?

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Kayla: No, boomers are fine. But I'm just saying, like, I'm not making a judgment call on boomers. I'm just saying this is the timeline when that generation came of an age where generally most people had children. They. While, yes, they wanted their kids to celebrate Halloween, they also wanted to have their own adult Halloween. And that's why it's become increasingly more and more adult.

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Chris: And now that's why we have, like, sexy banana.

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Kayla: Yeah, exactly. Like, kids still trick or treat, there's still candy given out. But Halloween is now equally known for its adult only parties with the sexy Bob Ross costumes. And, like, general grown up.

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Chris: You gotta see sexy Bob Ross.

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Kayla: You haven't seen sexy Bob Ross. There's also sexy mister Rogers now.

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Chris: Oh, God.

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Kayla: Yeah.

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Chris: That's awesome.

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Kayla: I don't know. Along with this trend ramping up over the past few decades, the mid eighties was also when, according to a few articles I found, comic book publishers and movie studios started becoming more and more open to licensing agreements so Halloween stores could now, for the first time carry costumes of more specific characters for both kids and adults. And for a lot of people, this made Halloween more fun. Like, sure, who wants to dress up as a generic train conductor when you can literally be Wonder Woman or Spider Man? I mean me, because I literally was a train conductor for my first Halloween and it was fucking adorable. And every year Halloween I'm like, God, I wish I could do that again. And I can't and I don't, so.

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Chris: I wish I could still be Wonder Woman.

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Kayla: No, I don't want to be Wonder Woman. I want to be a train conductor.

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Chris: Oh. Oh.

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Kayla: I mean, sure, I want to be Wonder Woman, but I want to be in trend conductor more in my Halloween costume because it was such a cute fucking costume. And I'll try to find a picture. Another reason customers keep coming back year after year is just the sheer variety and volume of merchandise available in these stores. Like traditional retailers like Target and Walmart and some other, you know, dedicated Halloween stores generally carry about a thousand pieces related to the holiday.

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Chris: Okay.

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Kayla: Spirit Halloween kicks it up to eleven, and their stores generally carry 6000 pieces.

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Chris: Wow.

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Kayla: At each store.

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Chris: Wow. So, yeah, I mean, I remember that from when were there, it seemed like there was a wide variety of things. There was costumes for kids, costumes from video games, costumes for movies, costumes from tv shows. There was from other things.

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Kayla: Decorations.

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Chris: Decorations and wigs and. Yeah, animatronics. Right? Like, there was just a wide variety of things.

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Kayla: Like fog machine, anything. Fog machines, anything that you could want. You're going to find it and then some. It's beard Halloween.

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Chris: Yeah. By the way, the fog machine, we bought it's going here in the studio right now. So just imagine it being like, our studio is spooky. Okay.

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Kayla: Okay. Here's a couple interesting stats just to kind of wrap up our discussion on their merchant sales in general. An article about spirit Halloween from Eclincher.

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Chris: From what?

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Kayla: Eclincher.

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Chris: Is that a report? What is that?

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Kayla: It's a little website. They talk about clinchers.

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Chris: Clinchers? What's a clincher? What are you talking about?

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Kayla: It was an article on a website that was very interesting and it had like, sources cited and here.

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Chris: Okay, but is it like, that's what I'm saying. Like, is that like a, is it like Vox or is it like, is.

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Kayla: It just like a, it's like a hometown Vox.

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Chris: Okay, okay.

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Kayla: So they claim that as of 2018, adults accounted for 65% of Halloween costume sales.

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Chris: Holy shit.

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Kayla: Also as of 2018, the Halloween industry as a whole generated about $9 billion.

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Chris: Whoa.

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Kayla: Fudge in customer spending.

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Chris: That's a lot of fudge. And other candy.

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Kayla: It is a lot of fudge. In fact, it is 60% more fudge than the previous decade.

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Chris: Damn.

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Kayla: So you can see why spirit Halloween accounts for half of Spencer's revenue. Yeah.

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Chris: Yeah, that's starting to make more sense. God damn. That's crazy, though. Just, like, do you want me to.

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Kayla: Break it down even further?

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Chris: Yeah, break it down.

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Kayla: So, of that. Please stop doing that. That's horrible, and I hate it.

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Chris: You're gonna break it down on culta. Just weird.

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Kayla: I will not. I will stop talking. So, to break it down, $3.2 billion was spent on. What do you think?

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Chris: Oh, Is it. Is that what it was spent on? It was spent on a product called. What is it?

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Kayla: What do you think? The hot new game.

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Chris: Costumes.

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Kayla: And on costumes? Yes, costumes.

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Chris: 1St, 2.7 costumes.

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Kayla: Yeah.

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Chris: Okay, so third on costumes, the third on decorations, the third on candy. Bada bing, bada boom.

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Kayla: Yeah, but in that order. Like, it's. It's costumes first, then 2.7 billion on decorations, and then coming in third was candy with only 2.6 billion. Only 2.6 billion.

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Chris: Only 2.6 billion.

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Kayla: And, like, the remainder was, like, greeting cards and things like that.

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Chris: Right. Man, that's. That is a lot of reeses, and unfortunately, it's also a lot of things that aren't reeses, which is terrible.

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Kayla: Circus peanuts and candy corn. Yeah. Thank you.

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Chris: I don't want to get into that, so.

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Kayla: Okay. I think we have a pretty good sense of the general business practices of spirit Halloween and how it works. And while, yes, the way this company works is incredibly non traditional, one might even say weird. What could the cult aspects possibly be?

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Chris: Yeah, it sounds just like a store. Well, aside from the, like. No, I hope. Cut this if you're. If I'm jumping the gun here, but just the fact that it brigadoons in and out of existence every year is kind of like a weird, ritualistic thing.

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Kayla: I would not argue with you on that. Let's talk for a moment about the potential cult followers, spirit Halloween employees, and the customers themselves.

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Chris: Okay.

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Kayla: Okay, let's talk Halloween in general.

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Chris: We bought something there. So that's us now.

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Kayla: Us now, like, most things, Halloween, the holiday has some pretty intense super fans. Like, people.

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Chris: Oh, yeah.

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Kayla: Like, people who are obsessed with Halloween. Like, the holiday itself. We're just, like, living the Halloween lifestyle 24/7 they spend their time on Halloween forums, talk about all things Halloween just generally geek out over the spooky holiday. And I actually love that. I think it's really sweet.

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Chris: Drink psls.

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Kayla: I don't know if that's Halloween.

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Chris: It is. No, pumpkin. Pumpkin is Halloween.

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Kayla: Pumpkin is also Thanksgiving.

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Chris: It's both.

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Kayla: I'm just saying you carve pumpkins for Halloween. Dude, people who drink psls are not necessarily Halloween super fans.

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Chris: Okay, but there's probably an overlap.

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Kayla: Sure, sure.

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Chris: It's what we call that part of the Venn diagram, dorks.

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Kayla: I mean, either way, there's a huge fandom for. That was mean. There's a huge fandom for Halloween. There's a huge fandom for pumpkin spice.

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Chris: Lattes, and there's some overlap.

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Kayla: And again, don't worry, you're not dorks.

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Chris: I like psls, too.

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Kayla: Psls are fun.

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Chris: I'm very basic.

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Kayla: So we're talking about fandom, and when we start talking about fandom, we start wading into, like, some potentially gray or muddy areas that sometimes overlap with cult like behavior activity.

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Chris: Right. We've talked about fandoms being cult like.

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Kayla: Before, so let's talk about employees. First, I hunkered down and read a lot of forums and posts from people who worked at or wanted to work at Spirit Halloween. And in general, the reviews were largely positive. Like, almost entirely positive. One reason is that spirit Halloween seems to be a pretty, like, live and let live style employer. Like, I read about, I read one story where the guy was like, yeah, it was pretty chill and lax, but, like, my boss was also the store manager also was, like, vaping, like, off vaping half the time. So, like, it was just chill.

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Chris: Ooh, that was dangerous now, though, I guess, right? I don't know.

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Kayla: They also don't drug test. They're felony friendly. They hire people with no work experience, and they actively try to accommodate people's schedules and make working their funny.

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Chris: By felony friendly, you mean like, they, like, their employees commit felonies while you're working there?

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Kayla: No, it just means that if you have a felony in your past, you.

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Chris: Can still work there.

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Kayla: Okay, so.

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Chris: Or is it when you are so friendly that it's a crime?

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Kayla: It's a crime.

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Chris: I'm sure it's that I've met people like that.

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Kayla: So they also try to accommodate people's schedules and just generally make working there a fun experience.

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Chris: All of that sounds pretty good.

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Kayla: I know. Because they need so many seasonal employees, the interviews tend to be fairly easy, but they also tend to tremendously low ball their sales associates. You can really only expect to make minimum wage while you're there, even when you're working near Halloween, when it gets hella crazy. The WaPo report, Washington Post. Sorry. Reported in 2018 that, quote, nearly 70% of its business happens in the two weeks leading up to Halloween. Wow. So sales associates.

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Chris: That's crazy.

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Kayla: Yeah.

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Chris: They're open for what, three months?

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Kayla: Yeah.

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Chris: Wow.

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Kayla: So sales associates working minimum wage are expected to deal with what I found in one form described as black Friday level conditions for that long with that little of pay.

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Chris: Right. And they're on drugs and vaping, so.

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Kayla: It makes criminals, and they are having fun.

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Chris: They're criminally friendly.

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Kayla: Right. So it sounds like a little bit hellish in some ways, and it's honestly a little crazy to me that given how much money these stores rake in, they couldn't provide better than minimum wage to their employees. But, I mean, I'm no businessman. Just a thought. What seems even crazier to me is how often it seems like employees return to spirit Halloween year after year, only to work in the same conditions.

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Chris: Huh.

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Kayla: For my research, maybe just it's because.

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Chris: The benefits and perks, like, of being. Have it being, like, chill and lax and I, you know, friendly to various lifestyles and whatever, like, maybe that's enough that they don't care as much about the money, possibly. Maybe they're all Halloween fans.

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Kayla: Yeah, I think it's any and all of the above. But it's also important to note that it seems like there's generally, okay, there's potentially growth opportunities for, like, managers and associate managers and above sales associates.

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Chris: Like, internal growth. Like, you can be rise the ranks of the Halloween, or you can at.

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Kayla: Least come back with, like, a higher title, whatever, okay. Generally, sales associates have no upward mobility and are provided with no incentive, really to return. Like, there's no bump in pay. There's not really any sort of perk.

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Chris: So you can't become, like, senior skeleton costume associate. Three.

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Kayla: Right? Again, this is all mostly anecdotal from forums as well as reviews on indeed and Glassdoor and the like, but I just thought it was worth noting. Another thing I noticed was the ways various seasonal workers seem to end up working for spirit Halloween. Two ways which feel a little ritualistic. And one way that feels not the least culty way is just our economy. We know that in many, if not most parts of the country, and for certain swaths of the population, like you mentioned, millennials jobs can be somewhat scarce and hard to procure, and long term employment with benefits is basically a thing in the past for a lot of people. Instead, many people make ends meet via working a variety of temp jobs, odd jobs, gigs, and anything in between.

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Chris: Are you just trying to bring the whole capitalism as a cult thing into this episode? Because we need it for every episode.

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Kayla: It keeps coming up.

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Chris: Is that what we're trying to do?

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Kayla: Again, it's not my fault it keeps coming up. Okay, so one gentleman named George, interviewed by inverse.com in an article about Halloween pop up shops, does just that. Working at Spirit Halloween for those three months gives him the means to last long enough for me to make enough money to survive until Christmas. Okay, but that's in our yay subsistence salary. In our reality today, that's, like, pretty normal, right?

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Chris: Yeah.

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Kayla: Okay, well, that's. So that's one way. Another way employees come to work for Spirit Halloween. That kept popping up in my research. Recruitment by friends and family.

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Chris: Oh.

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Kayla: In several articles.

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Chris: Oh. Did they say? Did they say, I don't know.

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Kayla: There's no MLM here. There's no mlm.

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Chris: Do you want to be your own boss and make the money that you know you deserve?

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Kayla: I don't think they say that. Oh, no, they don't say that. But in several articles as well as forum posts, many spirit Halloween employees recounted that they'd been encouraged to apply for the job by people they already knew from the prowler.org interview with anonymous spirit employee. Quote, my cousin was like, you should come work with us. And I was like, no. He said, why not? And I said, fine.

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Chris: That's the best conversation I've ever heard. Also, that guy. Some MLM needs to get that guy. Cause he is low sales barrier for him.

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Kayla: Or maybe the why not? Was just that convincing. Maybe it was a very loaded, like, communicative.

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Chris: That's true.

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Kayla: Not.

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Chris: Yeah.

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Kayla: And it really made him think and go, like.

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Chris: Like look deep into his eyes and go, why not?

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Kayla: That makes me go, oh, yeah, you're right. Why not? I believe in myself.

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Chris: Right, fine. You're right. Okay, sorry. I'll do it.

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Kayla: Other stories I read about included two girls at the same store that were hired because they were already friends with the manager outside of work.

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Chris: Another two girls, one manager.

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Kayla: Two girls, one manager. My favorite movie. A number of forum posters talked about friends they knew who, quote unquote, raved about the job, convincing them to apply. Now, it's not necessarily weird to apply to work at places your friends and family already work. No, but I do think that across the Internet, there is story after story of people who absolutely love working at this place when it's a temp gig with no benefits and bad pay.

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Chris: Yeah, that is just saying. That is weird.

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Kayla: That was way number two. The third way that I came across in regards to how people come to work at spirit Halloween goes.

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Chris: Mind control device.

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Kayla: Yes. They implant it into. They actually put fluoride into the water.

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Chris: Okay, now it's sounding culty. Okay, I get it.

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Kayla: Fluoride in the water is good for your teeth. Just fucking drink the water. Okay, so let's go back to the Halloween enthusiasts, because that's kind of like the third way a person may arrive at Spirit Halloween. Forum post after forum post of Halloween enthusiasts excitedly talking about how to work there, what it's like to work there, loving working there, the great benefits of working there, which largely seem to be getting the opportunity to help others, like, enjoy the holiday and find costume, and then also the 30% to 80% discount they get on merchandise.

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Chris: Right. It sounds like being like a Disney character. It's a tough job, but it's like.

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Kayla: Being able to be a Disney character who's obsessed with Disney and gets to. Then that's a lot of Disney characters then get to buy. I don't know if that's necessarily true. I knew. I mean, I knew Disney characters at Disneyland, and it was more just. They were like actors.

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Chris: Oh. Oh. Cause, right. Cause you know land and I know world. World. It's more like weirdos. People that are fans.

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Kayla: Cultos.

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Chris: Cultos or weirdos. Actually, I guess we have said on the show that weird is not bad. So, yes, weirdos in the.

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Kayla: I love weirdos. I'm a weirdo. I'm doing this weirdo podcast.

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Chris: Weirdo in a positive connotation. Yes. My understanding is that there are. Yeah, there's a lot of Disney characters that themselves are like, rah, yay, Disney. I like Disney.

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Kayla: But imagine if those people then got an 80% discount on all the Disney products.

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Chris: Oh, shit. Disney would never do that.

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Kayla: Of course not. But that's what it's like for these Halloween enthusiasts. It's like, why wouldn't I do this job? I get to hang out in Halloween, and then I get to get a bunch of shit, right? So I thought that was really interesting to see. I mean, I had. I didn't. Of course, if I had thought about it, I probably could have figured it out, but I hadn't really known that Halloween enthusiasts were a thing before researching this topic. But again, it makes sense.

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Chris: You knew they were a thing.

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Kayla: I don't think I knew.

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Chris: Like, they were a thing. You didn't know, but you knew.

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Kayla: Like, I knew deep down.

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Chris: You knew deep down, you'd seen goth people. You'd seen people.

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Kayla: Goth people aren't necessarily obsessed with Halloween.

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Chris: No, no, but I mean, come on.

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Kayla: Come on what?

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Chris: Come on, you know?

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Kayla: Well, either way, if you are into Halloween, working at a Halloween theme store seems to be just another way to kind of feed your obsession and feed your fandom.

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Chris: Sure.

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Kayla: Speaking of fandom, let's talk about the customers. While spirit Halloween obviously serves a clientele as vast and varied as our general human population, it also has a habit of a cult following.

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Chris: Oh, cult following.

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Kayla: And spirit Halloween.

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Chris: Cult, which is weird.

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Kayla: Spirit Halloween encourages this. I think we already mentioned, and you can tell me if I'm wrong, the, like, haunted houses and animatronic displays. Yeah, you mentioned that, but I don't want to just. I don't want to downplay the spectacle factor. Many of these stores have, like, the. The haunted houses and the animatronic displays are a real thing.

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Chris: Like, I kind of want to go to a haunted house version now.

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Kayla: I know. Me too.

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Chris: The animatronic displays, we saw, like, a.

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Kayla: They're cool and serious.

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Chris: They were serious. Like, at least a dozen of them.

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Kayla: Yeah, all different.

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Chris: At least. All different. And, yeah, some of them were, like, legit. Pretty scary.

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Kayla: I mean, when that dog jumped out at me, I, like, yelped and, man.

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Chris: And then some of the, like, skeletons and, like, ghosts and whatever were, like, you know, like, pretty good.

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Kayla: Yeah. I like their animatronics. So it's clear that spirit really wants to deliver more than just a shopping experience. They want to deliver an entertainment experience. Their, like, store motto is so much fun, it's scary. I love that they encourage patrons to share pics of the store on social media. Try on costumes right there in the aisle. They build.

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Chris: That's smart.

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Kayla: Yeah. Oh, yeah. They build unique animatronic displays and haunted houses in each store, not just to show off how the merchandise can be used, but to also hook customers into enjoying themselves so much, they'll not only spread the word, but they'll also come back themselves. Like, you being like, I want to go and find a haunted house. One. Like, that's good for their business.

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Chris: That's what they want. Right. Which makes them a cult.

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Kayla: Yeah, absolutely. Spirit is so well known for its cult following and entertainment factor that Forbes magazine wrote an entire article about the store's practices, but not just to report on them. The article literally uses spirit's business as entertainment practices, as a teaching tool for other entrepreneurs.

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Chris: Oh, shit. So it's saying, like, if you're starting your own business, you could do well to learn from the, like, come here to get entertained and then buy stuff while you're here.

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Kayla: Right? Like, it literally has a list of strategies other businesses can lift from. So, like, some of those are, quote, craft, a rich emotional customer experience, and my favorite quote, leverage systems and processes to do the impossible.

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Chris: Mm. Yeah, that is some business speak right there.

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Kayla: But they mean. They basically mean, like, paradigm shifts and.

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Chris: Yeah, I know.

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Kayla: They mean figure out how to have 1300 stores every year for only three months by, like, game in the system of real estate and whatever.

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Chris: Right?

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Kayla: Whatever. Go read the Forbes article. I'll link to it.

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Chris: Mm. It sounds compelling.

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Kayla: Forbes isn't the only one obsessively singing spirits praises. I read a blog post from a fan that loves spirit Halloween and his spectacles so much that, quote, I honestly believe that some of these stores could get away with charging a small admission fee.

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Chris: Oh, right. You mentioned that.

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Kayla: So that's the cult quote, unquote, following present in spirits, employees, and clientele. Before we wrap up, I want to highlight three things. So let's talk about one major negative trait. Spirit exhibits.

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Chris: Oh.

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Kayla: One major positive trait it exhibits. And then one potentially cute, potentially weird, potentially ritual y trait it exhibits. Okay, let's start with the negative.

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Chris: Is there a tulpa store? Have they imagined a different store entirely? In the store's mind, but it exists as an independent store.

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Kayla: They haven't done that. But there might be a tulpa. Let's talk about it.

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Chris: Okay.

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Kayla: Starting with the negative. We've mostly talked about people's various positive experiences with the store, but that doesn't mean it's always sunshine and rainbows. The company has found itself in hot water multiple times over its selling of racist and insensitive costumes.

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Chris: Oh, well, yeah, you mentioned that thing with Spencer, so that makes sense.

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Kayla: Yeah. So, for example, just this year, an albuquerque location was called out by local activists and citizens for selling a racist caricature costume called Mexican man. The costume featured the tropes of a black handlebar mustache and a poncho and encouraged customers to wear it with an oversized sombrero. Pretty fucking racist.

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Chris: And, like, I'm laughing.

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Kayla: No, it's just. I don't understand how you do that in 2019. Okay, I do understand how you do that in 2019. It would take a whole other podcast to get into it, but I just mean, these are, like, mistakes that never should have been made. And this is like a mistake that would be called out in like, the.

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Chris: Eighties for mexican man.

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00:43:01,106 --> 00:43:02,850
Kayla: Yeah, that one's a little mexican man.

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Chris: That one's a little obvious. Yeah.

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Kayla: And mexican man is not the only time that it's happened. They've also come under fire for selling racist costumes depicting native peoples, particularly one called. It's like a play on the excuse the slur, indian princess thing. And it's called reservation royalty.

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Chris: Again, using the word reservation is probably not a good idea.

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Kayla: Not in this context. In this context, it's racist. In fact, it has gotten so bad with spirit sometimes that there have been multiple petitions circulating calling for the business to just like, cut it out with the racism. Yeah, we can talk about some other insensitive costumes that don't really have to do with culture. Racist costumes aren't the only ones spear just put on the shelves. One article described a quote unquote Cecil the lion costume for dogs, complete with a mane and fake blood. Do we all remember Cecil the lion? Cecil the lion was. He was. He was actually like an attraction lion in a specific wildlife park. I forget where.

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Chris: Oh, I for.

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00:44:07,424 --> 00:44:10,042
Kayla: And then like, a big game hunter killed him.

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Chris: Oh, that was Cecil, right?

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Kayla: It's not funny. I understand what you're laughing. The costume was like. I think it was for dogs and it had a mane and fake blood and I. The article wasn't saying that was an insensitive costume. I'm saying that I find that insensitive.

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Chris: It's definitely insensitive. You definitely shouldn't buy it. But it's also funny.

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00:44:28,330 --> 00:44:39,744
Kayla: Another one, another instance of this was a Wisconsin location in 2014. Found that the store stocked the shelves with both Slenderman costumes. Always goes back to Slenderman.

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Chris: Slenderman. Oh, that's why you said Talbazur here.

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00:44:43,120 --> 00:44:50,016
Kayla: Oh, I didn't even think about that. But yeah, Tulpizzer may be here in the form of Slender man. So they sold Slender man costumes and Slenderman inflatable yard decorations.

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Chris: Yeah. How do you dress as Slenderman? How do you become impossibly thin and 8ft tall?

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Kayla: We'll post pictures of the costume.

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Chris: Don't worry.

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Kayla: Well, what's so bad about Slendermande, you might ask?

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00:45:01,174 --> 00:45:02,494
Chris: I am asking that aside from the.

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Kayla: Fact that I'm terrified of him. Well, unfortunately, also in 2014, that same Wisconsin community was forced to confront the true horrible realities that Slender man can bring. When two teen girls became obsessed with the Slender man legend and believed they needed to murder another teen girl in order to satisfy him.

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Chris: What did that really happen?

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00:45:22,550 --> 00:45:26,334
Kayla: Yes. I don't want to go too into detail here because again, we're going to do Slenderman's topic in time.

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Chris: Oh, shit.

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00:45:26,902 --> 00:45:28,106
Kayla: But these two girls.

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00:45:28,238 --> 00:45:30,626
Chris: Super. Not spirit Helene's fault.

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00:45:30,738 --> 00:45:38,106
Kayla: No, it's not. But this was an extreme. Like, this was a pretty high profile case. Like, they stabbed their friend 19 times.

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00:45:38,178 --> 00:45:38,642
Chris: Oh, my God.

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00:45:38,666 --> 00:45:47,082
Kayla: And she survived. And it was about, it was baller Slenderman related. Like, this was in, like, this was on Yahoo. News. Like, that's how mainstream.

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Chris: It got that fucked up.

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00:45:48,746 --> 00:45:53,664
Kayla: And like, the, this community was traumatized by this.

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Chris: Right.

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Kayla: And the slender man costumes, they felt was kind of an oversight on the spirit, so they.

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00:46:00,908 --> 00:46:06,124
Chris: Spirit. Okay, I'm sorry. I thought it was. We were saying that, like, they had Slenderman costumes and it triggered these girls.

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Kayla: It was, it was. The stabbing happened.

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Chris: Horrible community traumatizing event.

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Kayla: Yeah.

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Chris: And then right after that.

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00:46:13,948 --> 00:46:14,620
Kayla: Yeah.

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00:46:14,780 --> 00:46:17,476
Chris: Spirit Halloween was like, wanna have a costume that reminds you of that?

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Kayla: Yeah. So they did, once there was outcry, they did pull the products and I think that was.

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00:46:22,206 --> 00:46:25,590
Chris: Yeah, that sounds like a oopsie daisy.

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Kayla: Okay, negative stuff over.

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Chris: Yay.

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00:46:28,814 --> 00:46:30,262
Kayla: Let's talk positive. And this is very positive.

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Chris: I like positive things.

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Kayla: This is very positive. We're gonna talk about. You may have, you might have talked about Spirit of children before. I'm not sure. So let's talk about it in depth here. Spirit of children.

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Chris: Yeah, I don't think we've talked about that yet.

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Kayla: In addition to providing customers with enjoyable experiences and cute costumes, Spirit Halloween has also run a pretty incredible charity for the last 13 years. We talked about, we didn't talk about it on the show. We talked about it with the lady at the store, but we didn't talk about this in depth. Spirit of Children was founded in 2006 and its goal is to, quote, make hospitals less scary for kids and their families. According to Spirit's own website, the charity has raised $55 million over the years and has used that money to support the child life department at various hospitals across the US and Canada.

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Chris: That's great.

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Kayla: Those millions of dollars in donations have funded art, music, aquatic and pet therapy programs, and also toys and educational items that can be used as like, distractions or something to focus on during medical procedures.

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Chris: That's so great. Cause like, hospitals are. Can be scary. Pretty scary.

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00:47:33,638 --> 00:47:35,182
Kayla: Sterile and sterile.

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00:47:35,206 --> 00:47:38,198
Chris: And there's beeping and there's people next to you.

477
00:47:38,294 --> 00:47:39,230
Kayla: Weird lights on.

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00:47:39,350 --> 00:47:40,670
Chris: Yeah, weird lights.

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Kayla: Strangers somewhere across the.

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00:47:42,878 --> 00:47:49,116
Chris: Yeah. Hospitals can be scary for adults, much less kids. So that's a good use of time.

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00:47:49,148 --> 00:47:55,700
Kayla: And money, and their specific focus is on kids that are, like, in hospital for long term stays, potentially, like, living there.

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00:47:55,780 --> 00:47:56,260
Chris: Right, right.

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Kayla: So in addition to these funding activities, they also donate Halloween costumes, accessories, decorations, and more to kids who are living in hospitals during the Halloween season. So they get to bring some of that spooky holiday spirit and a sense of normalcy to kids and family, families dealing with, like, traumatic and distressing experiences.

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Chris: Sweet.

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00:48:16,546 --> 00:48:24,458
Kayla: 100% of every dollar that spirit Halloween donates supports the child life department directly. So that's pretty fucking cool and pretty fucking positive.

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00:48:24,594 --> 00:48:26,914
Chris: Yeah, very culty, right?

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00:48:27,002 --> 00:48:37,270
Kayla: Yeah, charities are cults. You heard it here first. Okay, one last thing before we get to our evaluation. Do you remember the logo for spirit Halloween?

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Chris: Not off the top. Can you show it?

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Kayla: Can you describe it?

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00:48:40,726 --> 00:48:46,598
Chris: No, not if I don't remember it. Was I supposed to remember that? And then you were gonna say, I'm.

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Kayla: Just trying to find the picture now. Okay, I'm gonna turn this. This guy.

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00:48:51,830 --> 00:48:54,598
Chris: I don't even really remember seeing that.

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00:48:54,734 --> 00:48:57,950
Kayla: Okay, well, usually it looks like that or that.

494
00:48:58,110 --> 00:49:01,102
Chris: Yeah, I remember the orange sign. I just didn't remember the.

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Kayla: He's always on there.

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Chris: Okay, so what we're looking at logo wise here, listeners, is there is a. What appears to be a moon, large yellow circle. And then flying out of the circle directly at you is what appears to be the grim reaper. It's like a skeleton in a tattered cloak, but he's also floating. It's just like his torso. There's a few little bats just behind his head. And then right in front of him, just before. Just between you and him, as he's about to scarely grab you and take you to whatever it says, spirit Halloween. And there's little starbursts in the spirit font.

497
00:49:42,932 --> 00:49:44,244
Kayla: Thank you for that. It was very thorough.

498
00:49:44,332 --> 00:49:45,524
Chris: Yeah, you're welcome.

499
00:49:45,612 --> 00:49:57,236
Kayla: I'm gonna turn it back around. Okay, so this logo that you just described, I think is very iconic and has even crossed over into meme space, even though you described before.

500
00:49:57,268 --> 00:49:57,676
Chris: Yes.

501
00:49:57,788 --> 00:49:58,772
Kayla: Oh, the logo.

502
00:49:58,796 --> 00:49:59,956
Chris: I couldn't think of it.

503
00:50:00,108 --> 00:50:04,786
Kayla: The logo in the store itself even have their own, know your meme and tv tropes pages.

504
00:50:04,948 --> 00:50:05,894
Chris: No shit.

505
00:50:05,942 --> 00:50:13,734
Kayla: There was a really, like, part of why. Like, part of when it started becoming memetic was when. Do you remember when the government shut down? Like, last year. Two years ago?

506
00:50:13,862 --> 00:50:14,310
Chris: Yeah.

507
00:50:14,390 --> 00:50:16,446
Kayla: Under the current administration, there was, like, a big government shutdown.

508
00:50:16,478 --> 00:50:17,166
Chris: Yeah, yeah.

509
00:50:17,238 --> 00:50:38,124
Kayla: Some amazing genius person. I'll try to find who it was and link to it because it was fucking genius. They tweeted, like, something about how, like, government's living shut down for two days and one of those Halloween stores have already moved in. And it was this Photoshop picture of the White House with a big spirit Halloween banner. And it's so funny.

510
00:50:38,212 --> 00:50:39,188
Chris: That's awesome.

511
00:50:39,364 --> 00:50:52,476
Kayla: So I thought the logo that you just described was just like a generic creepy ghoul. You described him as like a floating grim reaper. I just thought maybe, you know, this is probably the result of some stock image somewhere.

512
00:50:52,548 --> 00:50:52,924
Chris: Sure.

513
00:50:53,012 --> 00:51:05,654
Kayla: No, the logo is actually. This is what I was talking about Tulpa wise. It's not really a tulpa. The logo is actually a character created by Spirit Halloween, complete with its own backstory and series of changes over the years.

514
00:51:05,772 --> 00:51:07,746
Chris: Oh, shit. Is it the spirit of Halloween?

515
00:51:07,818 --> 00:51:08,386
Kayla: No.

516
00:51:08,538 --> 00:51:10,618
Chris: Oh, well, that seems like a miss.

517
00:51:10,674 --> 00:51:17,818
Kayla: The ghoul on the logo is actually named Jack the Reaper, and he's been in use since at least 2011.

518
00:51:17,994 --> 00:51:23,090
Chris: That is. Okay, that's a name over the years.

519
00:51:23,170 --> 00:51:24,866
Kayla: Obviously. It's a play on Jack the Ripper.

520
00:51:25,018 --> 00:51:29,442
Chris: Oh, it's a play on Jack the Ripper. Thank you for explaining that to me.

521
00:51:29,506 --> 00:52:08,448
Kayla: The reaper, over the years, his eye color and body comp has changed a bit, but he's pretty much always been that same ghostly skeleton. Black hooded robe with the signature smile and the one glowing eye he's often incorporated into displays. The store calls themes, alongside some story that allows him to help sell and market various products to the store. Specifically, the animatronics did not pick up on that. I didn't see it in our store either. But, like, here is something from the actual spirit website that we can use as an example. So this year, across many spirit stores, Jack is featured in a theme called the SS Rip Tide.

522
00:52:08,584 --> 00:52:11,072
Chris: R I p. No, I get it.

523
00:52:11,176 --> 00:52:41,528
Kayla: Quote. We're bringing you the story of the Reaper's Wharf where Jack the spirit Halloween Reaper hijacks the SS riptide and collects many spooky, horrifying, and creepy accomplices along the way. What was Jack going to do with all these terrifying creatures? They crashed during their journey and completely took over Reaper's wharf, making it their own. We're going to try a paint a picture of how awesome this year's display is, but we highly recommend you check it out in person for the full effect and then just basically listed all the animatronics that were going to be, like, incorporated into the displays with descriptions.

524
00:52:41,624 --> 00:52:42,048
Chris: Question.

525
00:52:42,144 --> 00:52:42,536
Kayla: Yeah?

526
00:52:42,608 --> 00:52:44,152
Chris: Why is there a maritime theme?

527
00:52:44,216 --> 00:52:45,060
Kayla: No idea.

528
00:52:45,520 --> 00:52:46,120
Chris: Okay.

529
00:52:46,200 --> 00:52:48,152
Kayla: It just is. That's what they came up with this year.

530
00:52:48,256 --> 00:52:49,376
Chris: I see boats are trendy.

531
00:52:49,408 --> 00:52:50,296
Kayla: I don't know.

532
00:52:50,488 --> 00:52:52,536
Chris: So I should buy a boat.

533
00:52:52,648 --> 00:52:53,752
Kayla: Jack the Reaper.

534
00:52:53,896 --> 00:52:55,302
Chris: Yeah. Clever.

535
00:52:55,496 --> 00:53:11,190
Kayla: There it is. That is the full story of the incredibly iconic pop up store spirit. Halloween. Again, I have a shit ton of articles that I will link to. But before that, what do we think? Should I. Should I read out our criteria?

536
00:53:11,530 --> 00:53:15,066
Chris: Yeah, let's criteria this up. Let's do our ritual.

537
00:53:15,178 --> 00:53:23,902
Kayla: So for our ritual, we have obviously one, ritual. Two, charismatic leader. Three, antifactuality. Four, harm.

538
00:53:24,046 --> 00:53:25,062
Chris: What was expected?

539
00:53:25,246 --> 00:53:28,486
Kayla: Harm. I just wrote harm. It wasn't good.

540
00:53:28,518 --> 00:53:29,974
Chris: Harm. It harms the harm.

541
00:53:30,102 --> 00:53:34,278
Kayla: Five, is it niche? What are we calling it? Percentage of.

542
00:53:34,334 --> 00:53:40,190
Chris: No, it's niche. It's officially changed. We yap about it every goddamn episode.

543
00:53:40,230 --> 00:53:41,782
Kayla: But it started off, oh, population.

544
00:53:41,886 --> 00:53:44,078
Chris: Population size, and now is it niche?

545
00:53:44,134 --> 00:53:45,830
Kayla: And then percentage of life consumed.

546
00:53:45,910 --> 00:53:46,174
Chris: Right.

547
00:53:46,222 --> 00:53:48,008
Kayla: So go on through.

548
00:53:48,134 --> 00:54:29,750
Chris: So I'm going to give it, like, a medium to high on ritual. Because Halloween is a fairly ritualistic holiday to begin with. There's lots of things that you do in certain ways. You carve your pumpkins and you dress up and you get the candy and you have to say trick or treat. And there's certain stories that you tell every year. And so there's a lot of ritual involved in that. And it seems like this is no different. And of course, the fact that it's. It. I really don't want to keep saying Brigadoon because I don't think everybody has seen that play or heard of it. But, yeah, it disappears every year and comes back. So all that definitely seems like a little odd and certainly ritualistic. So let's give it a medium to high on that.

549
00:54:29,830 --> 00:54:30,570
Kayla: Okay.

550
00:54:31,350 --> 00:54:38,806
Chris: So I asked before about charismatic leader. I was like, is this the charismatic leader, the founder? And you said, we'll just wait. So who were you talking about?

551
00:54:38,878 --> 00:54:50,146
Kayla: I wasn't talking about. I was just. I was saying, wait, before you make that decision, because he goes out of the picture pretty quickly. And then also we talk about Jack the reaper. Maybe it's Jack the reaper.

552
00:54:50,218 --> 00:54:55,410
Chris: Maybe he's the charismatic. Yeah, that is a gigantic stretch.

553
00:54:55,490 --> 00:54:58,630
Kayla: I think he's on every fucking building.

554
00:55:00,090 --> 00:55:02,154
Chris: It sounds like the founder is the guy.

555
00:55:02,282 --> 00:55:03,098
Kayla: Marver.

556
00:55:03,274 --> 00:55:10,850
Chris: It sounds like. He sounds a little more like Donald Bren, where he's not necessarily charismatic. He's just a savvy businessman.

557
00:55:10,930 --> 00:55:11,550
Kayla: Right.

558
00:55:12,400 --> 00:55:16,984
Chris: So I'm gonna give it, like, a exists but low.

559
00:55:17,072 --> 00:55:19,968
Kayla: Okay. Anti factuality.

560
00:55:20,024 --> 00:55:28,740
Chris: Anti factuality. I wasn't picking up on any of that. Was there any, like, motivated reasoning like, not really close logical loops. Okay.

561
00:55:30,000 --> 00:55:33,380
Kayla: Harm, expected harm, financial harm.

562
00:55:34,000 --> 00:55:39,786
Chris: I'm not seeing the financial, like, most of the. Most of it seemed like benefit. Most of it seemed like revitalizing areas.

563
00:55:39,898 --> 00:55:40,550
Kayla: Right.

564
00:55:40,970 --> 00:55:45,482
Chris: The one caveat to that seems to be the tangent we took about the.

565
00:55:45,506 --> 00:55:46,906
Kayla: Racism and the insensitive costumes.

566
00:55:46,938 --> 00:55:50,810
Chris: Yeah, insensitive costumes. So a little bit potentially.

567
00:55:50,890 --> 00:56:07,370
Kayla: What about just the general harm of engaging so deeply in just consumerist culture and just really shoving down our throats our capitalist overlords of Disney and marvelous Fortnite? And.

568
00:56:12,710 --> 00:56:13,686
Chris: That'S valid.

569
00:56:13,798 --> 00:56:15,910
Kayla: Are they just starving us of culture?

570
00:56:16,030 --> 00:56:20,198
Chris: But I feel like that is part of a larger discussion.

571
00:56:20,334 --> 00:56:21,350
Kayla: It's when we do capitalism.

572
00:56:21,390 --> 00:56:32,038
Chris: When we do capitalism as a called. Which is maybe unfortunately, has seemed to become the meta theme of this. I was hoping it would be skepticism, but I guess it's more about boo. Capitalism.

573
00:56:32,094 --> 00:56:34,286
Kayla: Well, just be skeptical of capitalism. That's okay.

574
00:56:34,358 --> 00:56:35,750
Chris: Yeah, that's true. Okay, fine.

575
00:56:35,790 --> 00:56:37,530
Kayla: Or of how it is implemented currently.

576
00:56:38,790 --> 00:56:42,014
Chris: Yeah. Okay. All right. I can get on board with that.

577
00:56:42,062 --> 00:56:45,718
Kayla: I'm not. I was mostly making a joke. I don't think there's much harm here.

578
00:56:45,854 --> 00:56:46,526
Chris: Yeah. No.

579
00:56:46,598 --> 00:56:47,838
Kayla: Outside of that meta.

580
00:56:47,974 --> 00:56:48,366
Chris: Right.

581
00:56:48,438 --> 00:56:51,182
Kayla: And then the insensitive costumes is not right.

582
00:56:51,206 --> 00:56:51,958
Chris: So there's a little bit.

583
00:56:52,014 --> 00:56:54,810
Kayla: Right. It ain't niche.

584
00:56:55,270 --> 00:56:58,490
Chris: No, it's not niche. Everybody celebrates Halloween, at least in America.

585
00:56:59,260 --> 00:57:02,000
Kayla: Well, it's not celebrating Halloween. It's spirit Halloween.

586
00:57:02,300 --> 00:57:06,068
Chris: Well, does everybody know about spirit? I guess most people know about spirit Halloween.

587
00:57:06,244 --> 00:57:10,160
Kayla: There's 1300 stores. There's 30,000 employees.

588
00:57:10,740 --> 00:57:12,684
Chris: That's. Yeah, okay. That's not niche.

589
00:57:12,732 --> 00:57:13,676
Kayla: I mean, it's a nine.

590
00:57:13,788 --> 00:57:26,438
Chris: Certainly more niche than Mary Kay. They had more. Well, they had similar employees. No, fewer employees, but more distributors. So I don't know, but, yeah, you're right. It's not niche. It's not.

591
00:57:26,494 --> 00:57:26,830
Kayla: No.

592
00:57:26,910 --> 00:57:51,258
Chris: Just ain't life consumed. Life consumed. Seems like this is where we can maybe get some high marks potentially, for people that are. This is where we talk about the, like, fandom is a cult thing. That's where that. I think the percentage of life consumed is kind of where that rears its head a little bit. So, yeah, I think, like, for some of the employees that are working there year after year and trying to get their friends there or, like, working there.

593
00:57:51,314 --> 00:57:56,442
Kayla: During Black Friday situations where it's like, probably a lot of your life is consumed.

594
00:57:56,506 --> 00:58:03,418
Chris: So I think that this potentially scores a high, but not necessarily with expected harm.

595
00:58:03,474 --> 00:58:03,818
Kayla: Okay.

596
00:58:03,874 --> 00:58:12,058
Chris: It's not. It's consuming my life and also harming me. Right, right. Aside from, like, the whole minimum wage thing. But by and large.

597
00:58:12,114 --> 00:58:13,330
Kayla: Oh, we didn't even talk about that yet.

598
00:58:13,370 --> 00:58:20,538
Chris: That's. Yeah, but by and large, it's a little bit. But by and large, it sounded like people still wanted to work there despite that.

599
00:58:20,594 --> 00:58:33,970
Kayla: But I mean, people have to just have jobs. Like, we talked about George, who was like, I just need to be able to survive until Christmas. And he goes on to talk in an article about not having any sort of benefits in terms of, like, health insurance. Like, that sucks.

600
00:58:34,270 --> 00:58:42,130
Chris: Yeah. But also, what's the alternative? Is the alternative for George to not have a job during that season?

601
00:58:42,550 --> 00:58:50,648
Kayla: No, the alternative is for capitalism to allow for people to make fun of $15 an hour. Call your senators.

602
00:58:50,704 --> 00:58:55,128
Chris: Spirit Halloween. And we're saying, are they harming this guy? I mean.

603
00:58:55,304 --> 00:58:56,648
Kayla: I mean, I really.

604
00:58:56,704 --> 00:59:03,136
Chris: What's harming this guy is like the inability to exist within society based on how it's set up.

605
00:59:03,168 --> 00:59:20,632
Kayla: Okay, not spirit Halloween, but it would, I think, behoove us to potentially a supplemental content look into how much money like the current CEO of Spirit Halloween makes compared to their, like, their employees.

606
00:59:20,696 --> 00:59:33,232
Chris: And I think that's a valid thing to look into, but I'm not sure it would convince me that meant expected harm. I think that would mean not being fair. That would mean not paying a fair wage when you are able to, but it doesn't mean you're harming them.

607
00:59:33,376 --> 00:59:42,290
Kayla: I disagree. I think if you are paying somebody not a living wage when you have the capacity to, you are still harming them.

608
00:59:42,910 --> 00:59:44,182
Chris: But it's a voluntary.

609
00:59:44,286 --> 00:59:47,050
Kayla: See, now we're gonna go like, jobs ain't voluntary, man.

610
00:59:48,030 --> 00:59:55,566
Chris: I don't wanna be here another hour. This is another episode. So anyway, is that.

611
00:59:55,718 --> 00:59:58,862
Kayla: I'm saying there's 50 expected harms.

612
00:59:59,006 --> 01:00:02,958
Chris: 50 expected harms. Okay. Out of 1000, though, so that's not many.

613
01:00:03,014 --> 01:00:03,930
Kayla: No, 100.

614
01:00:06,160 --> 01:00:09,656
Chris: And is. Wait, was there one more? I forget. I forget my own criteria.

615
01:00:09,728 --> 01:00:11,568
Kayla: No, we ended on life consumed.

616
01:00:11,664 --> 01:00:42,674
Chris: Life consumed. Right. Okay. So a few of those got highs. If most of them, I think four of them out of the six got lows or exists, but low. So therefore, it's just weird. It's just weird. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I definitely see where it makes the cut because you have, you know, the cult fandom and you have the strange ritual. And as we talked about in last episode, sometimes just the presence of ritual is enough to make you go, huh, what's going on there?

617
01:00:42,722 --> 01:00:43,310
Kayla: Right?

618
01:00:44,530 --> 01:00:46,994
Chris: But looking at it closely, just weird.

619
01:00:47,042 --> 01:00:48,554
Kayla: Just weird. All right.

620
01:00:48,682 --> 01:00:53,978
Chris: Yeah. Good job, spirit Halloween. You are weird. And it's definitely weird. We physically went there. It was weird.

621
01:00:54,034 --> 01:00:56,026
Kayla: Yeah. And their whole business model is weird.

622
01:00:56,098 --> 01:01:04,194
Chris: But like, any Halloween store is weird. Yeah, because there's costumes and there's especially.

623
01:01:04,242 --> 01:01:12,510
Kayla: When there's like, one wall, there's like kids dinosaur costume, and then across on the other wall, it's like sexy thigh highs and a whip.

624
01:01:13,050 --> 01:01:13,818
Chris: Right?

625
01:01:13,994 --> 01:01:16,794
Kayla: Sexy Bob ross in between.

626
01:01:16,922 --> 01:01:19,914
Chris: In between, it's. Remember the steampunk bit?

627
01:01:20,002 --> 01:01:20,910
Kayla: Oh, yeah.

628
01:01:22,330 --> 01:01:23,430
Chris: That was awesome.

629
01:01:23,780 --> 01:01:24,492
Kayla: Cool.

630
01:01:24,636 --> 01:01:25,440
Chris: All right.

631
01:01:25,780 --> 01:01:26,540
Kayla: Happy Halloween.

632
01:01:26,620 --> 01:01:27,228
Chris: The end.

633
01:01:27,324 --> 01:01:28,548
Kayla: Happy Halloween, bitch.

634
01:01:28,604 --> 01:01:31,836
Chris: Happy Halloween. Happy Halloween, motherfuckers.

635
01:01:31,908 --> 01:01:32,660
Kayla: Happy Halloween.

636
01:01:32,780 --> 01:01:42,324
Chris: And if you're listening to this and Halloween is in a couple days, then go to spirit Halloween at your local, check them out, defunct mall or whatever the hell it is.

637
01:01:42,372 --> 01:01:43,236
Kayla: There's one near you.

638
01:01:43,268 --> 01:01:44,308
Chris: Check them out.

639
01:01:44,484 --> 01:01:45,732
Kayla: Buy a costume.

640
01:01:45,756 --> 01:01:47,556
Chris: Maybe Fortnite is a haunted house.

641
01:01:47,628 --> 01:01:48,404
Kayla: Mister Fortnight.

642
01:01:48,452 --> 01:02:02,988
Chris: Be Mister Fortnightdehe. But yes, Happy Halloween. And we will see you on the flip side. That just came out. Like, I couldn't stop it.

643
01:02:03,164 --> 01:02:14,556
Kayla: That's terrible. Do we have any sort of call to action for our listeners this time around other than having a fantastic Halloween season?

644
01:02:14,748 --> 01:02:20,516
Chris: Yeah, actually don't have a fantastic Halloween season. Instead, rate us and tell your friends about us.

645
01:02:20,708 --> 01:02:26,372
Kayla: Actually, when you go trick or treating, when they give you the candy, go, have you listened to culture? Just weird. You're welcome.

646
01:02:26,476 --> 01:02:46,284
Chris: Yes. And the reverse side of that, when the kids come to your house to get candy, every single one of them say, here's some candy. And also be sure to download and listen to cult of just weird. And the kids will go, oh, thank you so much. That is the best trick or treat gift I have ever received.

647
01:02:46,372 --> 01:02:47,580
Kayla: I mean, you got to get them early.

648
01:02:47,700 --> 01:02:53,140
Chris: Yeah, that's early. Yeah. If they're fans now, then by the time they grow up, they'll be giving us tons of money and.

649
01:02:53,260 --> 01:02:53,908
Kayla: Yep.

650
01:02:54,044 --> 01:02:54,380
Chris: Yeah.

651
01:02:54,420 --> 01:02:57,180
Kayla: And then we just do pop ups. Just work three months out of the year.

652
01:02:57,260 --> 01:02:59,812
Chris: Yeah, we'll do a pop up cult or just weird store.

653
01:02:59,996 --> 01:03:01,132
Kayla: That's not a bad idea.

654
01:03:01,196 --> 01:03:02,580
Chris: We'll sell cults and weirds.

655
01:03:02,660 --> 01:03:08,564
Kayla: And also, in the meantime, remember to keep emailing us your creative projects with your hometown cult story.

656
01:03:08,692 --> 01:03:11,484
Chris: Thank you, Michaela, for talking to us about your twitch stream.

657
01:03:11,572 --> 01:03:15,796
Kayla: So, yeah, so send us just like Mikayla, be like Mikayla, send us your projects.

658
01:03:15,868 --> 01:03:16,212
Chris: Yeah.

659
01:03:16,276 --> 01:03:18,212
Kayla: And we will pimp them on the show.

660
01:03:18,316 --> 01:03:18,820
Chris: Mm.

661
01:03:18,860 --> 01:03:19,828
Kayla: I shouldn't say pimp.

662
01:03:19,924 --> 01:03:20,364
Chris: Why not?

663
01:03:20,412 --> 01:03:21,880
Kayla: We will tout them.

664
01:03:22,540 --> 01:03:27,972
Chris: We will legitimately promote them on the show. We will legitimate manager of a sex worker them on the show.

665
01:03:28,036 --> 01:03:35,480
Kayla: There's no legitimate manager of sex workers except for them. Sex workers themselves. That's actually why Fosta Sesta is really bad.

666
01:03:36,060 --> 01:03:37,076
Chris: Fosta sesta.

667
01:03:37,148 --> 01:03:51,020
Kayla: Fosta sesta the like. You can't have any website that has any sort of sex work on it. Is gonna get in real big trouble. Literally everyone has to go back on the streets now. Pimps are a thing again. People are getting hurt. It's terrible. Call your senators.

668
01:03:51,320 --> 01:03:54,872
Chris: Anyway, this has been culture. Just weird.

669
01:03:55,016 --> 01:03:58,140
Kayla: That person not saying it. No.

670
01:03:58,720 --> 01:03:59,360
Chris: I don't know.

671
01:03:59,400 --> 01:04:01,500
Kayla: I'll do Foster Sesta at some point.

672
01:04:02,160 --> 01:04:09,034
Chris: All right, sign us off. What's. Make a. Make a joke or something? Yes. That's Chris and that's Kayla.

673
01:04:09,122 --> 01:04:12,146
Kayla: And this has been cult. No, I wanna say the cult part.

674
01:04:12,178 --> 01:04:22,610
Chris: Oh, sorry. This has been cult or just weird Halloween edition? It's always horrible.