Even after the holiday ends and stores close, the spirit of Halloween continues to live on.

• Your local Spirit Halloween is preparing to close as Halloween has passed.
• This year, Spirit Halloween set a new record with the number of new locations it opened, despite an increase in retail store closures.
• The chain's retail locations and website are always secured year-round.

Your local Spirit Halloween store is now deserted, as Halloween has passed.

Clearance sales are open on Wednesday, but the work is not yet done. In fact, it continues all year.

Spirit Halloween stores costumes from previous seasons for future use, and merchandise is available for purchase year-round on their website.

This season, Spirit Halloween hired over 40,000 employees, and many of them were offered the opportunity to continue working with the company as employees of Spencer's Gifts, a mall retailer also owned by Spirit Spirit Holdings.

Spirit Halloween is nearly fully vertical, with the company handling all sourcing, design, and manufacturing itself, according to CEO Steven Silverstein. He stated on CNBC's "The Exchange" that Spirit Halloween has become such a phenomenon that no other market can keep up with it.

Abandoned store fronts are often "haunted" by Spirit Halloween stores during the Halloween season, only to mysteriously disappear after the holiday, resulting in a popular online meme.

This season, Spirit Halloween opened a record 1,506 stores, an increase of more than 50 stores from 2022. The company's locations have more than doubled since 2009.

Dead stores rise from the grave

Spirit Halloween's store openings are not typical because the company only operates its over 1,500 locations for a limited period each year. As a result, Spirit Halloween does not need to construct a new storefront or sign a long-term lease to operate its stores.

The operations team at Spirit Halloween works year-round to secure locations, sometimes committing to a storefront as early as spring and as late as the first week of October.

If even for a few months, leasing space for landlords means someone is renting their property. In recent years, store closures have increased, with retailers such as Bed Bath & Beyond, Rite Aid, and CVS Pharmacy shutting down large numbers of locations nationwide. This presents an opportunity for Spirit Halloween, which pays to use the vacant space during the Halloween season.

The website of Spirit Halloween lists the previous occupant of the retail space it now occupies.

Over the years, we have established strong partnerships with our real estate associates, resulting in mutually beneficial outcomes for all parties involved, as stated by a representative from Spirit Halloween to CNBC.

The company is open to various retail space options, including strip centers and shopping malls, with square footage ranging from 5,000 to 50,000.

The company informed CNBC that no store, regardless of its size, is beyond their reach.

"It's amazing how quickly Halloween stores appear and then vanish," said Maria, 16, on Saturday as she and her friend Jane, 17, waited in a long line outside a New York Spirit Halloween location.

The store on Manhattan's Upper West Side, which was previously Harmon Face Values, a health and beauty retailer owned by Bed Bath & Beyond, closed in February 2022.

Tricks, treats and travails

The opening process for a Spirit Halloween store takes between nine and 11 days, according to the company's statement to CNBC. This quick setup time gives the retailer a competitive advantage over traditional retail openings, as stated by GlobalData retail analyst Neil Saunders.

According to Saunders, Spirit Halloween doesn't need to focus much on flooring and construction when opening new stores, as these tasks are often time-consuming.

While opening in a temporary location can have its advantages, it also presents challenges. For instance, in a Spirit Halloween store in New York City, customers experience humid air and the sound of multiple plug-in fans.

One of the location's managers stated that the AC malfunctioned during their first week at the job. They declined to reveal their identity as they were not authorized to speak on the matter. In their view, since they were only staying for a short time, it was not worth fixing the issue.

Lana, who exited a crowded Spirit Halloween store in Brooklyn Heights on Friday, found it amusing that the stores change locations annually.

Lana, 35, said that it can be difficult to locate the costumes she had just bought for her two children, which were Spider-Man and marshmallow outfits.

Although I'm from Russia and Halloween isn't traditionally celebrated there, I still participate in the holiday as a casual celebrant.

This year, Americans are predicted to spend a record $12.2 billion on Halloween, surpassing the pre-pandemic spending levels.