Halloween is the time of year at which the long departed return to life. As it is with people, so too with shops. One of the regular features of the California retail scene at this time of year is the annual reappearance of the Spirit Halloween Superstores.
Spirit is a specialist retailer. The company sells Halloween merchandise; just about nothing but Halloween merchandise. Consequently there is no point in their being open for most of the year. The stores begin rising from the graves towards the end of summer. They open wide their dark cloaks to their victims customers through the autumn, and by winter they are once more lost beneath the cold earth.
As a commercial venture, Spirit probably takes quite a bit of organising. The shops are by no means small, and there are many of them, so they need to find large numbers of unused retail spaces that can be rented for a relatively short period of time. Our nearest store is at the Santa Clara Fairgrounds in San José, an area that is used to being used on a temporary basis. There is therefore a good chance that Spirit will be there year after year. Other stores, however, just appear one year where a convenient location can be found, and may never use that site again. Truly, this is a shopping venture in keeping with the spirit of the season.
The majority of the merchandise at Spirit relates to dressing up, although there are ample supplies of rubber rats and spiders for the use of children who like to make sure that their trick-or-treat victims get a good fright. There are costumes for all ages and most tastes. Halloween in America is an excuse for dressing up, and is not necessarily limited to the supernatural theme. To take the San José store's collection as an example, I can just about make a case for Batman as a Halloween character, but quite what Sailor Moon and French maids have to do with the holiday is another matter. Still, Halloween is an excuse for letting your hair (or your wig) down, and I gather that it is a big favourite with transvestites.
My favourite part of the shop is the area dealing with wigs and make-up. I was seriously tempted by the wig that glowed green under black light, and there was a fabulous selection of face paints in a range of glitter and metallic shades. It looked an awful lot of fun. Indeed, I found myself wondering why people would only use this sort of stuff at Halloween. But then maybe I'm weird.