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Vacant retail spaces throughout Maryland are being raised from the dead by temporary Halloween superstores.

Spirit Halloween, a division of Spencer Gifts of Egg Harbor Township, N.J., has opened at least 20 stores in the state, according to its Web site. Those include a location in the Milestone Center in Germantown vacated this year by World Market.

The store was one of 26 "underperforming" locations closed nationally in fiscal 2009, an executive with parent Cost Plus said in a news release. The Oakland, Calif., company saw net sales fall by 11 percent to $367.6 million in the six months that ended Aug. 1 from the same period in 2008. Its net loss widened to $62.3 million from a $58.6 million loss a year earlier.

Spirit Halloween also opened a site in a former Linens ‘n Things space in Friendship Heights, just across the state line in Washington. Linens ‘n Things filed for bankruptcy last year and closed all of its stores, retaining only its online business.

Spirit Halloween has added 100 stores since last year to total 725 locations across the U.S. and Canada. Many of the new stores are in former Circuit City locations.

Another seasonal company, Halloween Adventure of Garnet Valley, Pa., took over the former space of high-end furniture maker Maurice Villency on Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda and of G Street Fabrics at Mid Pike Plaza in Rockville. Maurice Villency closed many of its stores to focus more on corporate, rather than consumer, sales, while G Street moved a few blocks away.

The temporary stores usually open in early September and close in November and take spaces of about 8,000 to 10,000 square feet.

Sales at temporary Halloween stores in Rockville and Germantown are doing well, managers said. Halloween falling on a Saturday this year is boosting revenues, as people have more time for parties and trick-or-treat outings, they said. Halloween sales are as much as 30 percent higher when the holiday falls on a weekend versus a weekday, said Steven Silverstein, CEO of Spirit Halloween.

"We expect Saturday to be really busy," said Charles Walters, an assistant manager at the Halloween Adventure store in Rockville.

The temporary stores have had success in finding their niches, as some of these companies have operated for several decades, noted Kathy Grannis, a spokeswoman for the National Retail Federation. Halloween Adventure was founded in 1981 and Spirit Halloween in 1982.

"They have found the right consumer to market to," she said. "They tend to focus on costumes for young adults that people can't seem to find elsewhere."

At the Spirit Halloween store in Waldorf, assistant manager Kevin Mash said consumer interest is, if anything, up from 2008 and 2005, the other years he has worked at Spirit Halloween locations.

Sales are "pretty good, actually. Recessions increase business, surprisingly. I guess people are going through hard times, [and] they need a reason to play," Mash said.

The Spirit Halloween store in Solomons is also thriving, manager Jack Nicholson said.

"Our location is doing really well," Nicholson said. "I don't have anything to base it on [compared with] previous years but given the sales goals, we're doing a lot better than anybody anticipated," possibly because there's no Spirit Halloween store in nearby St. Mary's County this year.

Popular items this year for the younger set are Hannah Montana and "anything Disney" costumes for girls, and police and superheroes for boys, he said.

Spending expected

to be down this year

Still, Halloween consumers are expected to be more frugal this year than last, spending an average of $56.31 on costumes, candy and the like, down from $66.54, according to a survey released by the National Retail Federation. Total spending on the holiday is expected to reach $4.75 billion, which ranks only eighth among nine periods tracked by the federation, even below Father's Day and the Super Bowl.

As far as the upcoming end-of-year holiday season, the retail group expects consumer spending to decline modestly by 1 percent from last year, to $437.6 billion. That would be the lowest level since 2005. The decline is not expected to be as dramatic as last year's 3.4 percent drop from 2007.

"Consumers will find less expensive gifts this year," Grannis said. "They might make some themselves, or find something more practical."

Haunted houses

scaring up the bucks

So-called "haunted houses" also rake it in at this time of year, according to, yes, the Haunted House Association. The High Point, N.C., group estimates that ticket sales alone to such attractions nationally reach $500 million, while seasonal employment runs about 100,000.

Bennett's Curse in Baltimore ranked among the top 31 such attractions in the nation by Hauntworld Magazine this year. In recent years, Markoff's Haunted Forest in Dickerson has been rated among the nation's top 13 haunt-related attractions by AOL City Guide.

The Maryland Office of Tourism Web site lists many more haunted attractions, including ghost tours in Frederick, Annapolis, Baltimore and Ellicott City.

Staff Writer Erica Mitrano contributed to this report.

National retail spending for Halloween ranks eighth among nine seasons tracked by the National Retail Federation:

-Christmas and other year-end holidays: $437.6 billion

-Back to school: $47.5 billion

-Valentine's Day: $14.7 billion

-Mother's Day: $14.1 billion

-Easter: $12.7 billion

-Super Bowl: $9.6 billion

-Father's Day: $9.4 billion

-Halloween: $4.75 billion

-St. Patrick's Day: $3.6 billion