October 21, 2025 • 29 mins
In this episode of 'Garage Sales Unhinged,' hosts Julie and Jake talk about Halloween costumes; past and present. Jake highlights Spirit Halloween stores, their overstock issues, popular and predicted costumes, and fun personal costume memories from their past. Additionally, they highlight the benefits of secondhand shopping for potential Halloween costumes, emphasizing creativity and budget-friendliness.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
Welcome to garage sales Unhinged.
Where the characters are as quirky as the vines.
I'm Julie. And I'm Jake.
Join us as we dive into the wildworld of garage sales, yard
sales, estate sales, and anywhere second hand sales are
happening from. Bizarre bargains to hilarious
haggles. You won't believe the stories
we've got lined up. Let's get unhinged.
(00:24):
How you doing, Jake? Yeah, I'm all right.
All right. Mm.
Hmm. Yeah.
Hey, how are you? I'm good.
It is currently in the evening here in Texas at 5:00 PM and
it's only 82°. I know, man.
Yes, Yeah. Can we have the old person
moment? Yes.
(00:45):
It was like, OK, acknowledging the weather has changed.
This has been the old person moment.
Yay for cooler weather. I'm I'm a big fan.
We are actually heading up norththis weekend to go visit some
friends. The the wife of the couple, she
just recently retired, so we're going up to for her retirement
(01:07):
party and they live in Ohio. So I'm very excited to have a
fall season over the world. Cool, like actual fall type
weather? Yeah, yeah.
And then next weekend, we're in New York for an event.
So I'm like, I'm going to get some full time over the next
several weeks because I have a bunch of trips lined up in areas
(01:29):
that typically get cooler than we do here in Texas.
A few weeks back you had mentioned some event in the
Cleveland area. Are you planning on going to
that? What was that a a hearse show
and swap meet? It was a haunted garage sale and
hearse hearse, a Thon Hearst drive.
(01:50):
I don't know. No, I'm not going to go to that
because it already happened. It happened.
Yeah, I think it happened in August.
But. But it's annual, so could go
next year. OK, very cool.
We know what. Speaking of Halloween, Yeah,
we're we're there. We made it.
(02:12):
Aza. Yes.
So along with Halloween, one of the like the things you see now
is kind of the ubiquitous SpiritHalloween store.
Julia, are you familiar with Spirit Halloween?
Yes, but I'm not familiar with the term ubiquitous.
(02:33):
It's everywhere. Determines, apparently.
Not. Yes, I'm familiar with the
ubiquitous Spirit Halloween store.
Very good. So Spirit Halloween has about
1500 stores nationwide. That's a lot.
(02:56):
It is a lot. And like they go away just as
quickly as they show up. The seasonal thing, they usually
pop in at some sort of like defunct retail space that is no
more. You're kind of like, I mean.
You're kind of describe, you're kind of describing my ex
boyfriends. Yeah.
But as you were. Yeah, they just, they, they pop
(03:19):
in unexpected, filled with cheapthings.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I, I'm, I'm
familiar. Yeah, they like one way or
another, they're just going to hang around what used to be ATJ
Maxx. There's really no heart or soul
to it. Yeah, I get it.
(03:41):
Yeah. So like, in the spirit of what
we talk about, I was thinking about second hand Halloween
stuff. OK.
Now Spirit Halloween operating 1500 stores, that's a bunch.
And if you've gone inside one ofthings, they got a lot of stuff
and it's, you know, it's Halloween stuff.
So there's a whole lot of tiny things, a lot of little stuff, a
(04:06):
lot of impulse buys. The costumes all kind of fold up
and stack neatly. So they've got a lot of
inventory and you'll multiply that across 1500 stores.
It's a lot, a lot of. Inventory.
Listen, I do math in my sleep. I don't want to do it when.
I'm I'm not impressed. I get it.
I reserved this spirit Halloween.
(04:29):
I did. I'm the owner of the amusement
park. My name is PJ Halloween, so it
got me wondering about Spirits Overstock.
OK, so every year they do their thing and people buy like crazy
(04:51):
and just go in to kind of see what crazy decoration setups
they've got. They've got more and more.
It's like an arms race with, of all people, Home Depot and
Lowe's for the animatronic displays.
You walk by when the giant spider jumps out and the the
creepy clown makes a noise and oh wow, that's.
(05:12):
Yeah, I don't need that in my life.
I don't need those animatronics.They no thank you.
No, it doesn't work for you well.
OK, so Jacob will be the one of the first people to tell the
world how much I don't like dinosaurs because the movie
Jurassic Park scares me and I, and I want to emphasize that to
our listeners. I didn't say scared in the past
tense. It still scares me to this day.
(05:33):
I don't like Jurassic Park because the science just made
sense. Yeah, you didn't really
categorize it in like adventure movie for you, it's an actual
horror movie. I remember growing up, whenever
we would have like family movie night and mom and dad would be
yelling for me for my bedroom tocome join the family in the
living room to watch Jurassic Park.
(05:55):
And I was like, no, I'm going tobe in my room reading a book.
And they're like, why are you such a loser?
Come watch TV. Practicing piano in your free
time? Reading books?
Come be traumatized. It's family time.
Yeah, exactly. So every year there's a lot of
stuff that spirit doesn't sell, and there's a few reasons that
(06:18):
they have a lot of stuff, like alot of companies have a lot of
stuff leftover. They overestimate demand.
They might think, oh, people arereally going to win a whole
bunch of these fog machines. And no, they don't.
They might, you know, get some of the trend predictions wrong.
Right. Yeah.
(06:39):
Like, I think at one point therewas the, what is it?
The progressive Lady Flo? Really.
Yeah. They had her costume up.
And I'm like, how many people still want to dress up like Flo?
And how many people ever wanted to dress up like Flo with
progressive? Quite a few apparently.
Yeah, she she was interviewed, like the actress that plays her
(07:01):
was interviewed and she was like, yeah, I don't know why
people want to dress up, but like, she's like, I find it very
endearing. I appreciate that the character
that she brought to life, peoplekind of like resonate with it.
And anyway, so yeah, there therehave been Flo costumes out there
that you. Well, but apparently it didn't.
It didn't fly off the shelves oranything.
It didn't flow off the shelves. Yeah.
(07:25):
And also, you know, their stuff is seasonal.
That's just how it is. Things are going to sell during
this moment in time and not after that, because what spirit
just goes away? Yeah.
But the point can be made that Halloween, you know, as a
holiday, is doing kind of a creep across the calendar.
(07:46):
Yes, it is. You see the decorations come out
sooner. You see retail actually pivoting
to Halloween earlier in the year.
Yeah, I hate it. There's actually a phenomenon of
what is it like Halloween in June or something where you'll
start to just see home decor that is Halloween in nature,
(08:07):
ghosts, skeletons, you know, cats with an arched back or
something like that. And they're not in Halloween
colors. They might be, you know, done up
to look like whatever you. Know like a 4th of July Jack O
Lantern. Oh my.
So in a way like, and that's there's a business reason for
(08:27):
that because people love to spend on Halloween.
So they figured, well, can we get some of that action for
Valentine's Day, stuff like that.
I can just see like a skeleton cat with like a sparkly heart
dangling in the middle of it. Yeah.
Like, oh, I love you through my bones.
(08:49):
That would make a pretty good kind of thing is like the the,
the, the stuffed chocolates, youknow, filled with nasty stuff.
Gross. No, we don't know.
No, that would that would turn like the Forrest Gump like never
know what life's going to give you like.
Well, it gave me vomiting. Yeah, I got macaroni and cheese.
(09:11):
I got creamed. Corn, yeah.
Chocolate green corn. No, don't do that, children.
Are you planning a garage sale, yard sale, or estate sale and
need some help? Look no further than Garage Sale
Supply. They provide top notch resources
and expert advice to help you host the perfect sale.
From pricing tips to promotionalstrategies, they've got you
(09:33):
covered. Visit garagesalesupply.com and
make your next sell at success. So I was wondering like part of
the part of the overstock situation for Spirit Halloween
involved them kind of getting some of the trends wrong.
You mentioned flow as a really good example and I'm trying to
(09:54):
think of some others. So I was wondering, what do you
think might be a popular Halloween costume this year?
Well, you know, I think anythingfrom what is that the K Pop
(10:16):
Demon Hunter? That's a huge movie right now.
And so like, I would imagine there's going to be a lot of
costumes for that. Pause for a minute, pause for a
minute because Julie, you just won our grand prize.
I looked it up and Spirit Halloween has projections as to
who like what the big trends might be.
And Julie, you already hit #1 survey says you're a winner.
(10:42):
Can I keep going one even more there's.
Yes, there's more there's. Give me see if you can hit the
other 3. OK, I'm going to say like a
combo of Taylor Swift and TravisKelsey.
Oh, Twelsey. Yeah, I'm guessing that's not 2
and 3. No, it's not.
I'm not as impressed by you right now, but that would make a
(11:04):
really interesting kind of hemisphere costume.
Like on the left I'm I'm T Swiftand on the right I'm, you know,
OK as a tied in now, now that I'm happy.
You mean Mr. Swift? Let's see.
And another one I think could bea popular Halloween costume this
(11:28):
year. Are we?
Is it for adults? Is it for kids?
It doesn't matter. It didn't really say, but I will
say a couple of these are tied into other intellectual property
and that's usually involving movies.
OK, well in that case I don't know because I haven't watched a
lot of movies lately. That's OK.
So one like Perennial 1 is goingto be or Evergreen costume is
(11:49):
going to be superheroes. OK, Yeah.
And they're trend prediction says, hey, Fantastic Four,
because that's the Marvel movie available right now.
You and I, look, you're not the demographic for that.
I'm not the demographic for that.
I mean hey, I am a huge Pedro Pascal fan.
(12:11):
I I think he does great work. He has such an amazing range.
I still haven't watched the Fantastic Four movie.
So it's nothing against the movie, but like, if I'm going to
dress up as Pedro Pascal, it's probably not from Fantastic
Four. It's probably going to be from
The Last of Us. And sorry, spoiler, turn off the
podcast now if you haven't seen it, but like, it's going to have
a Golf Club coming out of my neck or something.
(12:32):
Oh wow, that's that part OK. Oh sorry, I tried to turn off
the podcast. I always try to when we record
these things and it never worked.
So yeah, like I think there's other.
Yeah, OK, well, they're wrong, but cool.
I I agree. I think that's when we're,
they're going to have some leftover, you know, Mr.
(12:56):
Fantastic. Yeah.
Sorry, you said Mr. Fantastic and I was like, no, Jacob, it's
called Fabuloso. It's not Mr. Fabuloso.
But now I want someone to dress up as Mr. Fabuloso.
Mr. Fabuloso yeah, that's probably how it translates when
it goes into international market.
Yeah, I love it. I I would hope that the Pedro
(13:17):
Pascal Fantastic Four costume comes with a mustache.
Oh, it should. You know what?
I think I still have a mustache.Not a real one.
I bought it off at Amazon. Yeah.
So, kids, you can. You know what?
I also bought Bangs off of Amazon one time because I went
as a Tina Belcher to Comic Con in San Diego one time.
(13:41):
Oh fantastic. Yeah, And I was like, I don't
really want to get bangs. And the lady that was doing my
hair at the time, she's like, you know, you can just buy them
off at Amazon. My life changed in that moment.
Wow, so if you wear both the bangs and the mustache kids,
what you're saying, Julie, is that they can actually go and
buy their own beard? Yeah, I can do that all the
(14:02):
time. So the other couple of
categories here that they that are predicted to be the big
trends in Halloween costumes this year that we had K pop
demon hunters, Yep, totally makes sense.
Probably going to have FantasticFour Men, which is, which is
kind of like, that's kind of a Gimme.
(14:24):
Is that really much of A guess? But they're saying this is
another IP thing. It's tied to the Wicked movies.
OK, also politically correct moment.
They're called Wiccans, not witches.
OK. And a category called Inkoween,
(14:44):
where just you're traditional Halloween garb and decor is all
pink and glitterfied. Oh, OK, So glitter is Satan's
dust. You cannot get rid of it.
So do not bring that on my doorstep.
Do not bring it in my house. No, thank you.
Yeah. So I'm wondering whether you can
(15:08):
think of other big misses in Halloween costume trends.
You mentioned flow. I think it's a really good one.
I mean, it's kind of weird to methat, I don't know, that kind of
makes sense. I mean, those those commercials
are entertaining. And so like, that company did a
good job in kind of crossing theRubicon between being like, oh,
(15:31):
here's a character, here's a piece of entertainment versus a
piece of advertising. Right now, if someone could
actually tie the GEICO Gecko andProgressive flow together, that
is a nice Halloween costume, youknow, And I'm trying to think
of, like, big movies that have come out, TV shows that have
(15:52):
been popular this year. I will say, like a lot of the TV
shows that my husband and I watch, they look like normal
people. So I'm like, I can show up and
be like, I'm in costume. I don't care.
Yeah. I'm from Severance.
Like, yeah, you look like you'reready for work.
I don't know what. I always so I will say this, I
(16:13):
don't think it's a trending costume.
I have wanted to dress up as Miss Daisy from Driving Miss
Daisy and walk around with like a My First Reader book and keep
asking people for rides. If they would drive me
somewhere, I'll teach them how to read.
I like the idea of dressing up from what is honestly.
(16:33):
I mean, it's it's not a huge popmovie and so a lot of people are
ready to see a driving Miss Daisy costume.
So no one's going to get it. And I love that as an actual gag
to do intentionally. I was talking about something
the other day with some friends,and we had a younger person at
the table and we were all laughing about some like, you
(16:54):
know, 1990s reference. And I was like, wait, wait,
wait, wait, wait. And I looked at the young
person. I'm like, do you know what we're
talking about? Because she's laughing along
with us. And she's like, no.
It was like, Oh my God. I know I kind of like the ideas
like oh, I'm, I'm dressed up as the main character from The
Killing of a Sacred Deer. Have you not seen it?
No. So.
(17:22):
Sorry, now I'm laughing to myself.
I'm like, you know, as much as Idon't like Jurassic Park, I
would laugh hysterically if someone dressed up as a
dinosaur, like an old dinosaur. So combining Miss Daisy and a
dinosaur like make it look like an old one and be like they just
won't let me die because I keep making all the Jurassic Park
movies. Honestly, yeah, I'm not sure how
(17:44):
much more blood there is to get out of that stone, man.
So I looked up trends for the year in which we came up.
I mean, you know, Halloween, I guess always has appeal.
Clearly it's it's big business and makes sense.
Like a yeah, it it's exciting for kids because you get to
dress up and that's fine. And there's candy and it's
(18:05):
deciding for adults because everyone gets to wear something
that's low cut. And I really did.
I'm glad I didn't use my work computer prepping for this
because I just typed in costume trend and whole bunch of boons
immediately. Yeah.
But I looked up costume trends for the time in which we came up
(18:28):
where we would have been like the target demographic for
Halloween, and that was the 80s.Yeah.
So some of the popular costumes,see if you recognize any of
these clearly anything from likeit's going to be again an
Evergreen category, popular intellectual property that is
around movies. I mean, I can tell you one that
(18:50):
comes to mind because I can picture the Halloween photo in
my brain and it's The Smurfs. Oh wow, yeah.
I remember like it was either you or Richie or one of our
cousins dress up as a Smurf and it was back whenever we had like
the plastic mask and, and yeah, that was our cost.
(19:10):
Like that was the whole costume.You kind of built the rest of
the costume based off of the mask because our parents went by
like the full thing. You had to just get like a a
blue T-shirt and find the closest to white shorts you have
and they're just kind of like tan.
Yeah. And you have this hard plastic
(19:32):
mask with the mouth hole, the mouth slit cut into it and it's
cutting into your lips. And you can't talk while you're
wearing the thing. And by the 3rd house, forget
this. Yeah.
I'm in a blue shirt. That's my costume.
Star Wars. Yeah.
(19:54):
OK, so here's like just like a broad category celebrities,
right? So in the 80s.
I think the notable ones were, you know, people like Michael
Jackson, Prince, Madonna. According to what I looked at,
Olivia Newton John's, Sandy. I have no idea what that means.
That is from the movie Grease. Oh.
(20:15):
OK, never seen it. Sandy.
Sorry I I have not seen that movie.
What? Yeah.
Oh my God you're fired as Co host.
So who are the celebrities today?
Timothy Chalamet. OK.
(20:36):
Well, I think you named a coupleof them, like Travis, Kelsey,
Taylor Swift. Well, it's also Olivia Rodrigo
like I think of. So I will say I'm laughing to
myself because I think of like, well, back in the day I had like
the teen magazine teen Bop and Teen Tiger and like, oh, I had
(20:57):
all these magazines with all these like paparazzi pictures
of, of the actors of that I liked back then.
I don't those magazines don't get created anymore because kids
just have social media telling cats.
I would also think of like anything from like the Wednesday
movies off of Netflix, but you know, the younger art.
(21:21):
I did see something of like up and coming actors and actresses
and I looked at like all these pictures, they all look the same
and I don't. Know.
Yeah, I know. What the hell are these names?
Even These aren't real names. Chung.
Breezy. Namagla.
What? Well, some of them just have
(21:42):
punctuation in their names. I'm like, I don't even know how
to pronounce that. But you know, I said Timothy
Chalamet and there's so many young men today that look like
him that I'm like art and character bra.
Awesome. Go get some candy.
I'm trying to figure out where they're all getting perms.
I don't understand it. What are their moms?
Because their moms are from the 80s and 90s and they're doing it
(22:03):
for them. Yeah, you don't have room to
talk. I can remember the smell.
You you mean your barbershop won't do a perm for you?
I I've tried what were two ruralso real quick on on the topic of
second hand and garage sale because that's why the people
are here. Do you have any like costume
(22:26):
memories that hopefully pertain to second hand?
Yeah, I mean, OK, so like if youif I think about hand me downs,
I clearly remember there was oneHalloween and this is also a
Halloween costume. I think everyone from the 80s
and 90s at some point in their life dressed up as was a hobo.
I don't really hear families today going, yeah, we're going
(22:48):
to dress up old Jimmy as a hobo,like.
Why was that ever a thing? Why was that ever?
I don't know, but I remember like there was the stick, there
was a little bag tied to it and a lot of the clothes because
then you like stuffed your like you did this one, you stuffed
your shirt with pillows and all this stuff.
You were using our dad's like dress shirt to do it.
(23:10):
We also grew up in the country, so we weren't going trick or
treating. We were just like walking around
the house and knocking on the door.
Yeah, which ruled man. It's Granny.
But it was also like, I've seen this candy in the pantry all
week. Like can I get something new?
I know you got more than pretzels, lady.
(23:31):
I, I will say that I have gottenthis weekend, I actually got
something for a costume. It's not for Halloween.
Oh my gosh, I got two things. I just remembered this.
So I go to Mardi Gras in New Orleans every year.
And if you're not familiar with the city of New Orleans, it can
(23:52):
get very humid and, and it's a, you know, Mardi Gras is a huge
party atmosphere. I hate doing my hair.
So I take wigs with me to Mardi Gras.
And I have one I wore last year.People loved it.
It was hilarious. Well, I was out thrift shopping
with some friends this weekend and I'd already start looking at
new wigs that I want to take with me to Mardi Gras.
(24:14):
But I'm like, I have to buy it off at Amazon.
I have to pay shipping and yada,yada, yada.
I found at the thrift store an unused wig for $4.
I was so excited. It's hot pee gets short.
It's it's very cute. And so hey, cool.
I got my my wig for Mardi Gras. So it's kind of the costume
thing that I, I take with me. And then I also bought a T-shirt
(24:36):
that like a graphic T-shirt thathas like a couple smiles on it
and that smiles have like grillson their teeth.
Granted, I didn't. So I bought the shirt second
hand. It was a dollar $2.00, something
like that. I came home and got on Amazon
and I did buy me a set of grillsfor my teeth, plastic grills for
(24:59):
my teeth that I can possibly wear with my new pink wig at
Mardi Gras. So, yeah, so.
So it's possible you can put it together for on the cheap.
Very much so on the cheap. I mean, I think that's the thing
if I don't want to spend a lot of money for a Halloween
costume. And so, yeah, I and also all the
(25:20):
thrift stores, a lot of the Goodwills right now, they are
broadcasting their Halloween costumes because people don't
want to spend top dollar becausepeople are going to only wear it
for one night or maybe a couple of events.
But yeah, goldmine right now at thrift stores.
And that's the thing, because ofwhat you just said, Halloween
costumes are a pretty good placeto look for second hand stuff.
(25:43):
Because people use it once, they're probably not going to
want to dress the same way againnext year.
Great. Now for me, I keep my wigs, I
wash them and I reuse them againbecause I am a cheapskate.
So for me, a memory that comes to mind, Solon Elementary School
I think, and there was going to be a costume contest at the
(26:03):
school. The school was having some kind
of Halloween function in the evening and wear your costume to
to school. OK.
And like you said, man, we were pinching pennies as a family.
You know, Dad just wouldn't workand if.
Her dad ever listens to this. He's.
A gambling problem you remember.You still remember a.
(26:27):
Gambling problem also called hunting season.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I'm not sure if I don't know
that it's so much because of money as much as it was
probably, it was probably just amatter of timing.
I probably let our parents know pretty late.
Oh yeah, there's a thing tonightand I need to have a costume.
(26:50):
And mom actually made my costume.
Oh no, What'd she make? She made me into a haunted
house. OK.
Right. And which kind of hat tip to our
mother for being creative? Yeah, it was a cardboard box
that she took the top off and fashioned into kind of like a
(27:12):
A-frame top, and then just kind of with different paint and
markers and stuff like that, decorated the outside.
And it was ghosts in the windowsand this and that.
A black cat over here. And I was a haunted house.
Like, really? Have you ever seen anybody dress
up like a haunted house? No, I've seen ladies that are
(27:33):
brick houses but never someone. Dressed up, right, But she used
what we had available. Here's a cardboard box.
It's square. What can we do with that haunted
house? And put me in it, threw me in
the car. We drive to school, go to the
(27:54):
school function thing, and there's a costume contest and I
won. And what was so great was that I
felt like, I guess I didn't really feel like it at the time.
At the time, I mean, I honestly don't really remember much about
the experience of, of being in the costume contest or winning
(28:15):
it, but I remember winning and looking back on it, I mean, that
felt great. It was fun, It was exciting.
I was proud of my costume. Looking back on it now, I feel
like mom just did my homework and I have to get the credit for
(28:36):
it. I got away with it.
Oh my word. So it cardboard box markers and
some paint and the the the nightis yours.
I love it. I love this.
So happy Halloween everybody go find something in the dumpster
(28:59):
and put that on your body and don't you it the the state of
things just don't even check thecandy just enjoy it just.
Check the candy appearance. Trust.
Trust no one. To you.
Trust no one. Double trust the people that
avoid eye contact. Don't go trick or treating at
(29:20):
Jacob's house. All right, see you next time.
Bye bye.
Welcome to garage sales Unhinged.
Where the characters are as quirky as the vines.
I'm Julie. And I'm Jake.
Join us as we dive into the wildworld of garage sales, yard
sales, estate sales, and anywhere second hand sales are
happening from. Bizarre bargains to hilarious
haggles. You won't believe the stories
we've got lined up. Let's get unhinged.
(00:24):
How you doing, Jake? Yeah, I'm all right.
All right. Mm.
Hmm. Yeah.
Hey, how are you? I'm good.
It is currently in the evening here in Texas at 5:00 PM and
it's only 82°. I know, man.
Yes, Yeah. Can we have the old person
moment? Yes.
(00:45):
It was like, OK, acknowledging the weather has changed.
This has been the old person moment.
Yay for cooler weather. I'm I'm a big fan.
We are actually heading up norththis weekend to go visit some
friends. The the wife of the couple, she
just recently retired, so we're going up to for her retirement
(01:07):
party and they live in Ohio. So I'm very excited to have a
fall season over the world. Cool, like actual fall type
weather? Yeah, yeah.
And then next weekend, we're in New York for an event.
So I'm like, I'm going to get some full time over the next
several weeks because I have a bunch of trips lined up in areas
(01:29):
that typically get cooler than we do here in Texas.
A few weeks back you had mentioned some event in the
Cleveland area. Are you planning on going to
that? What was that a a hearse show
and swap meet? It was a haunted garage sale and
hearse hearse, a Thon Hearst drive.
(01:50):
I don't know. No, I'm not going to go to that
because it already happened. It happened.
Yeah, I think it happened in August.
But. But it's annual, so could go
next year. OK, very cool.
We know what. Speaking of Halloween, Yeah,
we're we're there. We made it.
(02:12):
Aza. Yes.
So along with Halloween, one of the like the things you see now
is kind of the ubiquitous SpiritHalloween store.
Julia, are you familiar with Spirit Halloween?
Yes, but I'm not familiar with the term ubiquitous.
(02:33):
It's everywhere. Determines, apparently.
Not. Yes, I'm familiar with the
ubiquitous Spirit Halloween store.
Very good. So Spirit Halloween has about
1500 stores nationwide. That's a lot.
(02:56):
It is a lot. And like they go away just as
quickly as they show up. The seasonal thing, they usually
pop in at some sort of like defunct retail space that is no
more. You're kind of like, I mean.
You're kind of describe, you're kind of describing my ex
boyfriends. Yeah.
But as you were. Yeah, they just, they, they pop
(03:19):
in unexpected, filled with cheapthings.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I, I'm, I'm
familiar. Yeah, they like one way or
another, they're just going to hang around what used to be ATJ
Maxx. There's really no heart or soul
to it. Yeah, I get it.
(03:41):
Yeah. So like, in the spirit of what
we talk about, I was thinking about second hand Halloween
stuff. OK.
Now Spirit Halloween operating 1500 stores, that's a bunch.
And if you've gone inside one ofthings, they got a lot of stuff
and it's, you know, it's Halloween stuff.
So there's a whole lot of tiny things, a lot of little stuff, a
(04:06):
lot of impulse buys. The costumes all kind of fold up
and stack neatly. So they've got a lot of
inventory and you'll multiply that across 1500 stores.
It's a lot, a lot of. Inventory.
Listen, I do math in my sleep. I don't want to do it when.
I'm I'm not impressed. I get it.
I reserved this spirit Halloween.
(04:29):
I did. I'm the owner of the amusement
park. My name is PJ Halloween, so it
got me wondering about Spirits Overstock.
OK, so every year they do their thing and people buy like crazy
(04:51):
and just go in to kind of see what crazy decoration setups
they've got. They've got more and more.
It's like an arms race with, of all people, Home Depot and
Lowe's for the animatronic displays.
You walk by when the giant spider jumps out and the the
creepy clown makes a noise and oh wow, that's.
(05:12):
Yeah, I don't need that in my life.
I don't need those animatronics.They no thank you.
No, it doesn't work for you well.
OK, so Jacob will be the one of the first people to tell the
world how much I don't like dinosaurs because the movie
Jurassic Park scares me and I, and I want to emphasize that to
our listeners. I didn't say scared in the past
tense. It still scares me to this day.
(05:33):
I don't like Jurassic Park because the science just made
sense. Yeah, you didn't really
categorize it in like adventure movie for you, it's an actual
horror movie. I remember growing up, whenever
we would have like family movie night and mom and dad would be
yelling for me for my bedroom tocome join the family in the
living room to watch Jurassic Park.
(05:55):
And I was like, no, I'm going tobe in my room reading a book.
And they're like, why are you such a loser?
Come watch TV. Practicing piano in your free
time? Reading books?
Come be traumatized. It's family time.
Yeah, exactly. So every year there's a lot of
stuff that spirit doesn't sell, and there's a few reasons that
(06:18):
they have a lot of stuff, like alot of companies have a lot of
stuff leftover. They overestimate demand.
They might think, oh, people arereally going to win a whole
bunch of these fog machines. And no, they don't.
They might, you know, get some of the trend predictions wrong.
Right. Yeah.
(06:39):
Like, I think at one point therewas the, what is it?
The progressive Lady Flo? Really.
Yeah. They had her costume up.
And I'm like, how many people still want to dress up like Flo?
And how many people ever wanted to dress up like Flo with
progressive? Quite a few apparently.
Yeah, she she was interviewed, like the actress that plays her
(07:01):
was interviewed and she was like, yeah, I don't know why
people want to dress up, but like, she's like, I find it very
endearing. I appreciate that the character
that she brought to life, peoplekind of like resonate with it.
And anyway, so yeah, there therehave been Flo costumes out there
that you. Well, but apparently it didn't.
It didn't fly off the shelves oranything.
It didn't flow off the shelves. Yeah.
(07:25):
And also, you know, their stuff is seasonal.
That's just how it is. Things are going to sell during
this moment in time and not after that, because what spirit
just goes away? Yeah.
But the point can be made that Halloween, you know, as a
holiday, is doing kind of a creep across the calendar.
(07:46):
Yes, it is. You see the decorations come out
sooner. You see retail actually pivoting
to Halloween earlier in the year.
Yeah, I hate it. There's actually a phenomenon of
what is it like Halloween in June or something where you'll
start to just see home decor that is Halloween in nature,
(08:07):
ghosts, skeletons, you know, cats with an arched back or
something like that. And they're not in Halloween
colors. They might be, you know, done up
to look like whatever you. Know like a 4th of July Jack O
Lantern. Oh my.
So in a way like, and that's there's a business reason for
(08:27):
that because people love to spend on Halloween.
So they figured, well, can we get some of that action for
Valentine's Day, stuff like that.
I can just see like a skeleton cat with like a sparkly heart
dangling in the middle of it. Yeah.
Like, oh, I love you through my bones.
(08:49):
That would make a pretty good kind of thing is like the the,
the, the stuffed chocolates, youknow, filled with nasty stuff.
Gross. No, we don't know.
No, that would that would turn like the Forrest Gump like never
know what life's going to give you like.
Well, it gave me vomiting. Yeah, I got macaroni and cheese.
(09:11):
I got creamed. Corn, yeah.
Chocolate green corn. No, don't do that, children.
Are you planning a garage sale, yard sale, or estate sale and
need some help? Look no further than Garage Sale
Supply. They provide top notch resources
and expert advice to help you host the perfect sale.
From pricing tips to promotionalstrategies, they've got you
(09:33):
covered. Visit garagesalesupply.com and
make your next sell at success. So I was wondering like part of
the part of the overstock situation for Spirit Halloween
involved them kind of getting some of the trends wrong.
You mentioned flow as a really good example and I'm trying to
(09:54):
think of some others. So I was wondering, what do you
think might be a popular Halloween costume this year?
Well, you know, I think anythingfrom what is that the K Pop
(10:16):
Demon Hunter? That's a huge movie right now.
And so like, I would imagine there's going to be a lot of
costumes for that. Pause for a minute, pause for a
minute because Julie, you just won our grand prize.
I looked it up and Spirit Halloween has projections as to
who like what the big trends might be.
And Julie, you already hit #1 survey says you're a winner.
(10:42):
Can I keep going one even more there's.
Yes, there's more there's. Give me see if you can hit the
other 3. OK, I'm going to say like a
combo of Taylor Swift and TravisKelsey.
Oh, Twelsey. Yeah, I'm guessing that's not 2
and 3. No, it's not.
I'm not as impressed by you right now, but that would make a
(11:04):
really interesting kind of hemisphere costume.
Like on the left I'm I'm T Swiftand on the right I'm, you know,
OK as a tied in now, now that I'm happy.
You mean Mr. Swift? Let's see.
And another one I think could bea popular Halloween costume this
(11:28):
year. Are we?
Is it for adults? Is it for kids?
It doesn't matter. It didn't really say, but I will
say a couple of these are tied into other intellectual property
and that's usually involving movies.
OK, well in that case I don't know because I haven't watched a
lot of movies lately. That's OK.
So one like Perennial 1 is goingto be or Evergreen costume is
(11:49):
going to be superheroes. OK, Yeah.
And they're trend prediction says, hey, Fantastic Four,
because that's the Marvel movie available right now.
You and I, look, you're not the demographic for that.
I'm not the demographic for that.
I mean hey, I am a huge Pedro Pascal fan.
(12:11):
I I think he does great work. He has such an amazing range.
I still haven't watched the Fantastic Four movie.
So it's nothing against the movie, but like, if I'm going to
dress up as Pedro Pascal, it's probably not from Fantastic
Four. It's probably going to be from
The Last of Us. And sorry, spoiler, turn off the
podcast now if you haven't seen it, but like, it's going to have
a Golf Club coming out of my neck or something.
(12:32):
Oh wow, that's that part OK. Oh sorry, I tried to turn off
the podcast. I always try to when we record
these things and it never worked.
So yeah, like I think there's other.
Yeah, OK, well, they're wrong, but cool.
I I agree. I think that's when we're,
they're going to have some leftover, you know, Mr.
(12:56):
Fantastic. Yeah.
Sorry, you said Mr. Fantastic and I was like, no, Jacob, it's
called Fabuloso. It's not Mr. Fabuloso.
But now I want someone to dress up as Mr. Fabuloso.
Mr. Fabuloso yeah, that's probably how it translates when
it goes into international market.
Yeah, I love it. I I would hope that the Pedro
(13:17):
Pascal Fantastic Four costume comes with a mustache.
Oh, it should. You know what?
I think I still have a mustache.Not a real one.
I bought it off at Amazon. Yeah.
So, kids, you can. You know what?
I also bought Bangs off of Amazon one time because I went
as a Tina Belcher to Comic Con in San Diego one time.
(13:41):
Oh fantastic. Yeah, And I was like, I don't
really want to get bangs. And the lady that was doing my
hair at the time, she's like, you know, you can just buy them
off at Amazon. My life changed in that moment.
Wow, so if you wear both the bangs and the mustache kids,
what you're saying, Julie, is that they can actually go and
buy their own beard? Yeah, I can do that all the
(14:02):
time. So the other couple of
categories here that they that are predicted to be the big
trends in Halloween costumes this year that we had K pop
demon hunters, Yep, totally makes sense.
Probably going to have FantasticFour Men, which is, which is
kind of like, that's kind of a Gimme.
(14:24):
Is that really much of A guess? But they're saying this is
another IP thing. It's tied to the Wicked movies.
OK, also politically correct moment.
They're called Wiccans, not witches.
OK. And a category called Inkoween,
(14:44):
where just you're traditional Halloween garb and decor is all
pink and glitterfied. Oh, OK, So glitter is Satan's
dust. You cannot get rid of it.
So do not bring that on my doorstep.
Do not bring it in my house. No, thank you.
Yeah. So I'm wondering whether you can
(15:08):
think of other big misses in Halloween costume trends.
You mentioned flow. I think it's a really good one.
I mean, it's kind of weird to methat, I don't know, that kind of
makes sense. I mean, those those commercials
are entertaining. And so like, that company did a
good job in kind of crossing theRubicon between being like, oh,
(15:31):
here's a character, here's a piece of entertainment versus a
piece of advertising. Right now, if someone could
actually tie the GEICO Gecko andProgressive flow together, that
is a nice Halloween costume, youknow, And I'm trying to think
of, like, big movies that have come out, TV shows that have
(15:52):
been popular this year. I will say, like a lot of the TV
shows that my husband and I watch, they look like normal
people. So I'm like, I can show up and
be like, I'm in costume. I don't care.
Yeah. I'm from Severance.
Like, yeah, you look like you'reready for work.
I don't know what. I always so I will say this, I
(16:13):
don't think it's a trending costume.
I have wanted to dress up as Miss Daisy from Driving Miss
Daisy and walk around with like a My First Reader book and keep
asking people for rides. If they would drive me
somewhere, I'll teach them how to read.
I like the idea of dressing up from what is honestly.
(16:33):
I mean, it's it's not a huge popmovie and so a lot of people are
ready to see a driving Miss Daisy costume.
So no one's going to get it. And I love that as an actual gag
to do intentionally. I was talking about something
the other day with some friends,and we had a younger person at
the table and we were all laughing about some like, you
(16:54):
know, 1990s reference. And I was like, wait, wait,
wait, wait, wait. And I looked at the young
person. I'm like, do you know what we're
talking about? Because she's laughing along
with us. And she's like, no.
It was like, Oh my God. I know I kind of like the ideas
like oh, I'm, I'm dressed up as the main character from The
Killing of a Sacred Deer. Have you not seen it?
No. So.
(17:22):
Sorry, now I'm laughing to myself.
I'm like, you know, as much as Idon't like Jurassic Park, I
would laugh hysterically if someone dressed up as a
dinosaur, like an old dinosaur. So combining Miss Daisy and a
dinosaur like make it look like an old one and be like they just
won't let me die because I keep making all the Jurassic Park
movies. Honestly, yeah, I'm not sure how
(17:44):
much more blood there is to get out of that stone, man.
So I looked up trends for the year in which we came up.
I mean, you know, Halloween, I guess always has appeal.
Clearly it's it's big business and makes sense.
Like a yeah, it it's exciting for kids because you get to
dress up and that's fine. And there's candy and it's
(18:05):
deciding for adults because everyone gets to wear something
that's low cut. And I really did.
I'm glad I didn't use my work computer prepping for this
because I just typed in costume trend and whole bunch of boons
immediately. Yeah.
But I looked up costume trends for the time in which we came up
(18:28):
where we would have been like the target demographic for
Halloween, and that was the 80s.Yeah.
So some of the popular costumes,see if you recognize any of
these clearly anything from likeit's going to be again an
Evergreen category, popular intellectual property that is
around movies. I mean, I can tell you one that
(18:50):
comes to mind because I can picture the Halloween photo in
my brain and it's The Smurfs. Oh wow, yeah.
I remember like it was either you or Richie or one of our
cousins dress up as a Smurf and it was back whenever we had like
the plastic mask and, and yeah, that was our cost.
(19:10):
Like that was the whole costume.You kind of built the rest of
the costume based off of the mask because our parents went by
like the full thing. You had to just get like a a
blue T-shirt and find the closest to white shorts you have
and they're just kind of like tan.
Yeah. And you have this hard plastic
(19:32):
mask with the mouth hole, the mouth slit cut into it and it's
cutting into your lips. And you can't talk while you're
wearing the thing. And by the 3rd house, forget
this. Yeah.
I'm in a blue shirt. That's my costume.
Star Wars. Yeah.
(19:54):
OK, so here's like just like a broad category celebrities,
right? So in the 80s.
I think the notable ones were, you know, people like Michael
Jackson, Prince, Madonna. According to what I looked at,
Olivia Newton John's, Sandy. I have no idea what that means.
That is from the movie Grease. Oh.
(20:15):
OK, never seen it. Sandy.
Sorry I I have not seen that movie.
What? Yeah.
Oh my God you're fired as Co host.
So who are the celebrities today?
Timothy Chalamet. OK.
(20:36):
Well, I think you named a coupleof them, like Travis, Kelsey,
Taylor Swift. Well, it's also Olivia Rodrigo
like I think of. So I will say I'm laughing to
myself because I think of like, well, back in the day I had like
the teen magazine teen Bop and Teen Tiger and like, oh, I had
(20:57):
all these magazines with all these like paparazzi pictures
of, of the actors of that I liked back then.
I don't those magazines don't get created anymore because kids
just have social media telling cats.
I would also think of like anything from like the Wednesday
movies off of Netflix, but you know, the younger art.
(21:21):
I did see something of like up and coming actors and actresses
and I looked at like all these pictures, they all look the same
and I don't. Know.
Yeah, I know. What the hell are these names?
Even These aren't real names. Chung.
Breezy. Namagla.
What? Well, some of them just have
(21:42):
punctuation in their names. I'm like, I don't even know how
to pronounce that. But you know, I said Timothy
Chalamet and there's so many young men today that look like
him that I'm like art and character bra.
Awesome. Go get some candy.
I'm trying to figure out where they're all getting perms.
I don't understand it. What are their moms?
Because their moms are from the 80s and 90s and they're doing it
(22:03):
for them. Yeah, you don't have room to
talk. I can remember the smell.
You you mean your barbershop won't do a perm for you?
I I've tried what were two ruralso real quick on on the topic of
second hand and garage sale because that's why the people
are here. Do you have any like costume
(22:26):
memories that hopefully pertain to second hand?
Yeah, I mean, OK, so like if youif I think about hand me downs,
I clearly remember there was oneHalloween and this is also a
Halloween costume. I think everyone from the 80s
and 90s at some point in their life dressed up as was a hobo.
I don't really hear families today going, yeah, we're going
(22:48):
to dress up old Jimmy as a hobo,like.
Why was that ever a thing? Why was that ever?
I don't know, but I remember like there was the stick, there
was a little bag tied to it and a lot of the clothes because
then you like stuffed your like you did this one, you stuffed
your shirt with pillows and all this stuff.
You were using our dad's like dress shirt to do it.
(23:10):
We also grew up in the country, so we weren't going trick or
treating. We were just like walking around
the house and knocking on the door.
Yeah, which ruled man. It's Granny.
But it was also like, I've seen this candy in the pantry all
week. Like can I get something new?
I know you got more than pretzels, lady.
(23:31):
I, I will say that I have gottenthis weekend, I actually got
something for a costume. It's not for Halloween.
Oh my gosh, I got two things. I just remembered this.
So I go to Mardi Gras in New Orleans every year.
And if you're not familiar with the city of New Orleans, it can
(23:52):
get very humid and, and it's a, you know, Mardi Gras is a huge
party atmosphere. I hate doing my hair.
So I take wigs with me to Mardi Gras.
And I have one I wore last year.People loved it.
It was hilarious. Well, I was out thrift shopping
with some friends this weekend and I'd already start looking at
new wigs that I want to take with me to Mardi Gras.
(24:14):
But I'm like, I have to buy it off at Amazon.
I have to pay shipping and yada,yada, yada.
I found at the thrift store an unused wig for $4.
I was so excited. It's hot pee gets short.
It's it's very cute. And so hey, cool.
I got my my wig for Mardi Gras. So it's kind of the costume
thing that I, I take with me. And then I also bought a T-shirt
(24:36):
that like a graphic T-shirt thathas like a couple smiles on it
and that smiles have like grillson their teeth.
Granted, I didn't. So I bought the shirt second
hand. It was a dollar $2.00, something
like that. I came home and got on Amazon
and I did buy me a set of grillsfor my teeth, plastic grills for
(24:59):
my teeth that I can possibly wear with my new pink wig at
Mardi Gras. So, yeah, so.
So it's possible you can put it together for on the cheap.
Very much so on the cheap. I mean, I think that's the thing
if I don't want to spend a lot of money for a Halloween
costume. And so, yeah, I and also all the
(25:20):
thrift stores, a lot of the Goodwills right now, they are
broadcasting their Halloween costumes because people don't
want to spend top dollar becausepeople are going to only wear it
for one night or maybe a couple of events.
But yeah, goldmine right now at thrift stores.
And that's the thing, because ofwhat you just said, Halloween
costumes are a pretty good placeto look for second hand stuff.
(25:43):
Because people use it once, they're probably not going to
want to dress the same way againnext year.
Great. Now for me, I keep my wigs, I
wash them and I reuse them againbecause I am a cheapskate.
So for me, a memory that comes to mind, Solon Elementary School
I think, and there was going to be a costume contest at the
(26:03):
school. The school was having some kind
of Halloween function in the evening and wear your costume to
to school. OK.
And like you said, man, we were pinching pennies as a family.
You know, Dad just wouldn't workand if.
Her dad ever listens to this. He's.
A gambling problem you remember.You still remember a.
(26:27):
Gambling problem also called hunting season.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I'm not sure if I don't know
that it's so much because of money as much as it was
probably, it was probably just amatter of timing.
I probably let our parents know pretty late.
Oh yeah, there's a thing tonightand I need to have a costume.
(26:50):
And mom actually made my costume.
Oh no, What'd she make? She made me into a haunted
house. OK.
Right. And which kind of hat tip to our
mother for being creative? Yeah, it was a cardboard box
that she took the top off and fashioned into kind of like a
(27:12):
A-frame top, and then just kind of with different paint and
markers and stuff like that, decorated the outside.
And it was ghosts in the windowsand this and that.
A black cat over here. And I was a haunted house.
Like, really? Have you ever seen anybody dress
up like a haunted house? No, I've seen ladies that are
(27:33):
brick houses but never someone. Dressed up, right, But she used
what we had available. Here's a cardboard box.
It's square. What can we do with that haunted
house? And put me in it, threw me in
the car. We drive to school, go to the
(27:54):
school function thing, and there's a costume contest and I
won. And what was so great was that I
felt like, I guess I didn't really feel like it at the time.
At the time, I mean, I honestly don't really remember much about
the experience of, of being in the costume contest or winning
(28:15):
it, but I remember winning and looking back on it, I mean, that
felt great. It was fun, It was exciting.
I was proud of my costume. Looking back on it now, I feel
like mom just did my homework and I have to get the credit for
(28:36):
it. I got away with it.
Oh my word. So it cardboard box markers and
some paint and the the the nightis yours.
I love it. I love this.
So happy Halloween everybody go find something in the dumpster
(28:59):
and put that on your body and don't you it the the state of
things just don't even check thecandy just enjoy it just.
Check the candy appearance. Trust.
Trust no one. To you.
Trust no one. Double trust the people that
avoid eye contact. Don't go trick or treating at
(29:20):
Jacob's house. All right, see you next time.
Bye bye.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.