Texas woman goes to luxury outlet mall. Then she sees what replaced Neiman Marcus: ‘I was not ready for that jump scare’
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Luxury shopping runs on atmosphere: polished windows, hushed floors, and a very particular brand of calm. Nobody expects the neighborhood to include a seasonal costume shop.
One content creator said her trip to a high-end outdoor mall ended with a surprise that wasn't on the directory.
‘One of These Things is Not Like the Other'
Content creator Carrie Burnett (@carrieburnett44) shares a video from the parking lot of the Premium Outlets mall in San Marcos, Texas. Her video has since accumulated more than 411,000 views.
Burnett stands in the parking lot of the mall and pans her camera first to a Burberry, then to a Tory Burch, and then to a Dolce & Gabbana. Then, she whips her camera around to what used to be an enormous Neiman Marcus—now a Spirit Halloween.
“One of these things is not like the other,” Burnett writes in the caption. “I'll tell you what, they had customers though!”
‘I Was Not Ready'
Burnett's viewers seemed somewhat tickled by the development in her comment section, with one person calling the reveal “amazing.”
“I was not ready for that jump scare,” they wrote. Another joked, “It's like Michael Myers standing across the street just watching.”
Many viewers felt like the Spirit Halloween was not so out of place at the mall, however. Some cited steep prices, while others vouched for the popularity and profitability of the chain.
“First of all that Halloween store is expensive as [expletive],” one viewer wrote. Another said, “Spirit halloween is better than all 3.”
“I dont know what the first 3 sell,” commented one shopper. “The 4th one i do.”
“Spirit will make in three months 10 times what those stores make all year,” another viewer pointed out.
Why Do Spirit Halloween Stores Pop Up in Random Places Every Year?
Spirit Halloweens tend to take empty stores on short leases.
CNBC reported in 2024 that every year, the company “[occupies] more than 1,500 storefronts and [hires] around 50,000 seasonal workers across North America.”
The company's CEO confirmed stores are only physically present for about three months per year.
CNBC also reported the chain is a safe bet for most landlords. In New York City, a “pop-up store typically pays a 20% to 30% premium” for short-term space, and Spirit Halloween's track record largely removes landlords' worries about holdovers and property damage.
Modern Retail discussed “how Spirit Halloween transcends the so-called retail apocalypse” in 2024.
The company has year-round regional real estate teams that each talk to roughly 450 landlords a year. Its pop-up contracts are generally one to two pages, compared with about 40 for long-term leases. T
hey include a “kick-out clause” that lets a landlord end the deal if it finds a long-term tenant by June.
“Spirit's business model of seasonal pop-ups has helped it stay nimble in a tough environment,” Modern Retail wrote. “With short-term stores, Spirit gets to keep its overhead costs down so it can snap up prime real estate and yet benefit from flexibility if, say, a location last season wasn't as lucrative as previously hoped.”
@carrieburnett44
Subplot News reached out to Burnett via TikTok comment and Spirit Halloween via email.
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