Spirit Halloween did not raise its prices to cover the 2025 tariffs on goods from China, Steven Silverstein, CEO of Spirit’s parent company, Spencer Spirit Holdings, told Fortune in an interview published October 29. He said the tariffs were “going to put us out of business,” and that Spirit still had its best year ever.
Spirit Halloween and the 2025 Tariffs
Within days of the April 2, 2025, tariff announcement, the U.S. tariff on Chinese goods rose to 145%, just as Spirit’s merchandise began shipping from Asia. About 75% to 80% of what Spirit sells is designed and sourced by the company, mostly in Asia, and it moves through distribution centers and 63 third-party logistics sites before reaching more than 1,550 stores.
“It skyrocketed right in the middle of our shipping season,” Silverstein said. “Every day is critical to us.”
Spirit stopped its ships, and a group of executives set up what Silverstein called a war room. The company suspended all capital spending and cut costs across its teams. On May 12, 2025, the U.S. and China agreed to cut the tariff to 30%. Spirit restarted shipping six weeks behind, restored everything it had cut, and hired more workers, not fewer, to make up the lost time. Its stores opened about two weeks to two and a half weeks late that fall.
“I thought it would be irresponsible, if nothing else,” Silverstein said of raising prices to cover the tariffs. “All we do is Halloween. Without knowing what the outcome would be, that could be really dangerous. And so we ate the tariffs.”
Silverstein said the tariffs were worse for Spirit than COVID, when every Spencer’s store closed in March 2020 just as Spirit was choosing locations and signing leases for the fall. Spirit still opened all of its stores that September, and he said the business has more than doubled since 2019.
Spirit Halloween’s Stores in 2026
Spirit Halloween’s locator lists 1,587 stores for 2026, 1,497 across all 50 U.S. states and 90 across 10 Canadian provinces. Spirit opened 85 of them in buildings that used to be Party City, the party-goods chain that liquidated last year. Most close for the season on Monday, November 2, the date Spirit’s locator lists for 1,547 stores, and another 39 close on Halloween.
My Spirit Halloween locations guide lists every store by state and province, and my report on the former Party City stores covers the 85.
Spirit of Children’s 20th Year
Silverstein said critics see a chain that rents empty stores for a few weeks as opportunists. “They’re carpetbaggers,” he said, describing that view. “They just come in, they occupy and then they go away, and they take their circus on the road. We don’t think of ourselves that way at all.”
Spirit of Children began in 2006, three years after Silverstein became CEO, when Spirit threw a Halloween party with costumes, music and art supplies for children in eight New Jersey hospitals. Shoppers can now round up their purchase or add a fixed donation at the register, and all of the money goes to the child life department at a local hospital, where it pays for staff, playrooms and therapy beyond medical care. In 2026, its 20th year, the program supports 167 pediatric hospitals across the United States and Canada.
Spirit of Children has raised more than $164 million, at an average of about $1.25 per donation, Silverstein said. Spirit aims to raise $20 million this year. “Every year it grows,” Silverstein said. “I think we’re going to get there.”
Spirit’s 10-for-10 coupon, which takes 10% off and donates a matching 10% to Spirit of Children, is valid through October 31, 2026. My 10-for-10 coupon page explains how to use it.
Spencer Spirit Holdings and Hot Topic
On September 2, 2026, Spencer Spirit Holdings completed its purchase of Hot Topic, Inc., adding Hot Topic, BoxLunch and Her Universe and putting six retail names under one owner. My Hot Topic article has the six brands and their store counts. Spirit Halloween’s store locator is at spirithalloween.com.
Top image: The Spirit Halloween logo. Image: Spirit Halloween.
