CityNerd's 'How Spirit Halloween Transforms Strip Malls Into Vibrant Wonderlands,' a tale of the Retail Apocalypse

I included a program note in Big Lots! files for bankruptcy, a tale of the Retail Apocalypse for Friday the 13th.

As for what will fill the spaces left by the closed stores, there's always Spirit Halloween. I have a CityNerd video about the seasonal store chain to share for Spooky Season.

I repeated my promise in 'SNL' returns with Maya Rudolph as Kamala Harris after winning six Emmy Awards, writing "Watching this reminds me that CityNerd has a fun video about Spirit Halloween that will make a good tale of the Retail Apocalypse, so stay tuned for that." Here it is, How Spirit Halloween Transforms Strip Malls Into Vibrant Wonderlands.

Spirit Halloween comes in for a lot of criticism for leasing vacant and often distressed strip mall space for a few months, and then packing up shop on November 1, leaving a moribund shopping center no better off than it was before. But is there more to the story? And is the success of Spirit's business model a symptom of much deeper problems in the way we've planned and designed our cities?

Another installment of the Investigating Heinous Land Uses series!

Ray "CityNerd" Delahanty remarked in one of his live streams (I think 2023 Year In Review + Q & A) that he found this video's viewership disappointing, but I enjoyed it enough to save it until today. Speaking of saving material for another year, both Company Man and CNBC have recent videos about Spirit Halloween, but I'm going to be a good environmentalist and conserve my resources.

I close with a video about a pair of characters I expect will be popular at Halloween this year, Secret of the Booze's Drinks For The Recently Deceased: Beetlejuice Inspired Cocktails • 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN.

Say it once, say it twice, third times the charm. Today's episode is a drink perfect for the recently deceased. This Beetlejuice and Lydia inspired cocktail is perfect this Halloween Each day we are creating a new drink for 31 days of Halloween inspired by iconic characters that go bump in the night.

RECIPE

BEETLEJUICE

INGREDIENTS
2 blackberries
1 oz. black sambuca
1 oz. Irish cream

INSTRUCTIONS
Add berries to a shot glass.
Pour black sambuca into shot glass.
Using a barspoon, layer the Irish cream on top.

LYDIA

INGREDIENTS
2 oz. lemon vodka
4 oz. blood orange soda
Lime juice
Drizzle of grenadine

INSTRUCTIONS
Add all ingredients over ice and stir.

Drink responsibly and stay tuned for more Halloween posts through the end of the month plus a bonus Day of the Dead entry. Trick or treat!