Spirit Halloween open for holiday season

JACKSON, Tenn. — A cool and gloomy start to the week gave us an early taste of fall.  Although Halloween is still more than a month away, stores like Spirit Halloween have gotten an early start.

“We have all the different interactive special effects, and people bring their kids here just to see them and just have fun,” consignment operator Glenn Gardner said.

Gardner says their most popular costumes are based on movies or pop culture.

“The big ones are The Incredibles, Michael Myers,” Gardner said. “The most popular this year will definitely be Fortnite. We have it for the whole, pretty much, age range. It is the exclusive to Spirit Halloween. Michael Myers is exclusive to Spirit Halloween.”

Whether you decide you want to be a wolf, your favorite comic book character or a classic scarecrow, there are plenty of options.

“I did the Scream, so can’t do the same thing twice, so I’ll probably do a bloody mask or Jason or someone,” customer Damion Transau said.

“My birthday is around Halloween, and I think that’s fun because I get to have like a Halloween party and then a birthday party,” said Cali Arnold, whose birthday is on Oct. 30.

A portion of the store’s proceeds go toward a great cause.

“We donate to Le Bonheur Hospital in Memphis,” Gardner said. “We have a thing called ‘Spirit of Children’ and 100 percent, every dime, goes to the hospital’s children life-wing, which we so far have gotten about $115,000 or so over the last few years.”

They’ve been open so far for 12 days, and there’s plenty of time to get your hands on some Halloween merchandise.

“Overall it looks like everything’s upward trend, you know, it looks very positive,” Gardner said.

Gardner says they are open 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays. Stores stay open through Nov. 2.