Content area
Full Text
Spirit Halloween, the nation's biggest temporary Halloween store, is opening more locations than ever, topping 1,000 for the first time with 16 already up and running on Long Island.
The firm, which started in 1983 in the San Francisco Bay area, has grown to 1,050 stores in the United States and Canada, up from 997 last year.
Although the retail expansion is based in part on high hopes for the holiday, the recession left more empty storefronts, translating into opportunity for the pop-up retailer.
And while some other industries migrated to the web, Egg Harbor, N.J.-based Spirit Halloween built what may be the world's biggest short-term retail empire - stores that are here today and gone by early November.
The company ramps up to more than 20,000 employees at its peak, a leviathan task that equals the growth spurt of nearly any seasonal business.
"We do...