Creepy reason an American clothing store is defying the retail apocalypse

It's been a challenging year for American retailers as the so-called “retail apocalypse” continues and closures hit the entire country.

But a retailer with an unconventional business model is bucking the trend of brick-and-mortar stores struggling.

Spirit Halloween, a specialty seasonal clothing store, has achieved this by opening pop-up shops for a short period of time each year.

The costume chain avoids rental costs all year round because it does not operate permanent branches. Instead, Spirit opens 1,500 temporary locations each fall, serving millions of Americans preparing for Halloween.

Typically, the liquor stores disappear after Halloween — but this year, for the first time, the company will open 10 pop-up stores to extend its seasonal presence through the holiday.

Spirit Halloween does not have permanent stores, instead setting up hundreds of temporary locations

Saturday Night Live recently poked fun at the pop-up retailer in a skit

“Spirit Halloween is a very savvy and experienced operator, helping them move forward at lightning speed with the opening of their temporary stores,” retail expert Neil Saunders of Global Data told DailyMail.com.

“The locations are usually secured early on through a network of brokers and real estate professionals who are constantly looking for suitable properties.”

“The approach to stores is unique in that they all look the same, have similar ranges and similar operating models. This keeps things simple and the emphasis is on speed.”

Spirit CEO Steven Silverstein said the headquarters' core staff works year-round.

“We are just physically there for three months. “There's a tremendous amount of planning, preparation and background work that goes on in the other nine months,” Silverstein told CBS.

However, the temporary nature of the Spirit model has attracted some criticism as it does not provide stable employment and makes only a limited economic contribution.

The company even became the butt of jokes in a “Saturday Night Live” skit in which it poked fun at its brief presence in communities.

“Since 1983, Spirit Halloween has helped our struggling communities by setting up shop in every vacant building in the country for six weeks and then getting back on their feet,” said a Spirit employee, played by Heidi Gardner, in the act.

Saunders also disagrees with much of the criticism, arguing that “the company is taking up retail space that would otherwise remain empty, paying rent to landlords for a while, creating a number of jobs and putting money in people's pockets.”

“Sure, it's a temporary retailer – but Halloween is a temporary season.” “They can hardly operate the store year-round because it doesn't make any money.”

“Spirit Halloween is a very specific model, suited to a high-spending and high-impact season.” “It's not necessarily the future model for all retail, but it fits into the growing trend of pop-up shops.”

The seasonal shops offer a wide selection of costume and decoration items

Despite the ridicule, Spirit is moving forward with its Christmas expansion.

The new Spirit Christmas pop-ups are launching in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

“Spirit Christmas is a new concept for us and we hope it resonates with our customers.” “Our goal is to create a festive shopping experience that captures the spirit of the season, similar to what we do at Halloween,” Spirit said in a statement.

The stores “extend their purpose to another seasonal moment,” Chen told CBS.