Spirit Halloween in an Abandoned Chuck E. Cheese! | Retail Archaeology

[@RetailArchaeology]

I forgot to mention where this location is, it's in Mesa, AZ near Superstition Springs Center. Sorry about that!

[@kylemag1139]

lol I thought I recognized the location 😂

[@alejandroespinoza7323]

It’s not ok

[@chandelure102]

there is a spirit has a store that opens in a pizza place called monkey joes in north charleston

[@AZtacos]

​@@kylemag1139was so nervous it was my location idk why 😂😂 fear the mouse

[@MercenaryBlackWaterz]

The chuck e cheese animatronic was actually scarier than the grim reaper replacing it.

[@horseathalt7308]

🤣😂😁😊

[@nampyeon635]

Being able to remain in the room when the singing animatronics started up was a right of passage as a small kid.

[@supaiki]

oook then look at the older spirit props they were even scarier

[@supaiki]

ALSO the black heart is overrated

[@alejandroespinoza7323]

How and why

[@VoidedMirror]

It’s so fitting for Spirit Halloween to crawl into the hollowed husk of dead retail spaces and then retreat into the night after a few months. Happy Halloween!

[@beebfajeejy]

spirit halloween is kind of like a necromorph

[@dsouth7754]

I hope that one thing never changes about Halloween decorations: the super-compressed low-fidelity funhouse sounds. It's such an iconic staple of the holiday at this point.

[@edwardsr70]

I love how dark this Spirit Halloween is it really gives off a good spooky vibe.

[@andie-retro]

You could see where the dining and prize tables used to be when it was a Chuck E. Cheese. There were some interesting wear patterns in the carpet.

[@lepopcornnaisseur546]

I love how you called it "vaporwave tarantula"! Also, that last shot with the streetlight peering through the entrance doors was perfectly spooky.

[@JohnKelly2]

You don't remember a Spirit Halloween as a kid because it was just a section of the Spencer's store. Later they grew to use vacant stores in the mall. Eventually they became what they are today.

[@melissam8041]

Were Spencer's locations also massive in the past? My local mall in NY didn't get one until the late 2000's, but I remember going to one in PA and one in Ohio in the late 90's/early 2000's; they were brightly lit with carpeting and defined departments. I don't know whether they were older locations (Maybe it was regional, but there was a much heavier emphasis on trippy decor/prank and magic props than items that were edgier or more risqué.), or those malls just happened to offer larger-than-average rental spaces, but I feel like they had to have pulled a reverse Hot Topic at some point.

[@princessmarlena1359]

An event!

[@MDestron2282]

Yeah, I think I remember seeing my first Spirit pretty close to the Spencer's store in Metro Center. I know that at least a couple of the managers were managers from Spencer's because I knew a girl that liked a friend of mine. Which sounds so dumb but this had to be like around the late 90s when we were still in High School.

[@thecottage4493]

The great thing about Spirit Halloween is they set up in old retail spaces. They set up in the old Sears of both my local malls. I went this weekend and snuck behind their temporary curtains and partition s and took pictures of the escalators. I love that I can go back into old stores and see them again

[@pillarnexustheancientgladiator]

For the past few years, our Spirit has been at either the closed Sears or the closed K-mart. For the first time, though, they opened a second Spirit in this town at a closed Family Dollar, and it's way bright in there. I feel like a Chuck E. Cheese location getting the Spirit treatment is more fitting, though.

[@phedingsfield]

The one by me is in a closed Bealls outlet it's not that great

[@jasburger]

​@@phedingsfield Same and they BLASTED the most obnoxious music they could find

[@AnotherTruth]

This is actually a gorgeous spirit Halloween. We have a spirit Halloween in my community which is housed in an old bed Bath and beyond shop if you can believe it and it’s not as nice. I think the fact that they put it in a Chuck E. Cheese space where you are makes it all the more interesting. They had another Halloween shop many many years ago that occupy the old circuit city but that old circuit city and that Home Depot are slated for demolition for new development. I just think it’s so interesting that spirit Halloween took over a bed bath and beyond where I live. By the way, did you end up getting that vaporwave spider? I know sometimes on your journeys to these places when you do your content, you pick up either a treat or a shelf for your bathroom or something. I think that’s cool.

[@gordonb8739]

There is a Spirit Halloween right across from my apartment complex that took up an old store that I sadly don't know what it was originally for. The funniest part is that right when you walk in there is a stage. Like a stage that was built into the store and can't be removed. The funny part is though that the stage doesn't have any animatronics or big decor to buy. Instead they put a folding chair, a few small decorations like pumpkins and dressed-up a skeleton (the one you can hang up somewhere or pose) sitting in the chair. I have a picture of it cause it was so funny.

[@christophero1969]

You do AWESOME videos, at the right times of the year.

[@RetailArchaeology]

Glad you like them! Thank you!

[@alyxgraff9121]

I've never been in a Spirit Halloween but for some reason it being in an abandoned CEC during the same month of the FNAF movie suits it so well.

[@princessmarlena1359]

Someone planned that on purpose. Good for them! 👍

[@jasburger]

​@@princessmarlena1359 No, it occupied the former CEC last year too

[@uhsaywhatnow]

Forget Ouiji being evil. The true demon is Scrappy Doo. 😆

[@jasburger]

Facts

[@McIrish_Lad]

The one closest to me this year is in an old Bed Bath and Beyond store. Which is cool because the BBB floor plan is still there, so instead of it being on big open space it’s already got the zones divided up. It’s very well organized.

[@razvandobos9759]

Now that is a interesting but not really surprising setting for a Spirit Halloween! Inside Chuck E Cheese! Actually they fit right in together.

[@darktetsuya]

these videos have started turning into a yearly tradition, no complaints here! i know my dad is always big on the halloween decor every year I see new plastic skeleton creatures added to the collection, gonna have to forward him this video maybe one of these years trek up to the local one for even more spooky stuff! I'll agree the vaporwave tarantulas was quite cool though.

[@GumCow]

Are you in TX? My neighbor adds multiple new skeletons to is yard every year.

[@darktetsuya]

@@GumCow oh no my wife just used to live there briefly, that's all.

[@Xenovicious]

My local Spirit Halloween took over a Tuesday Morning location this year in Cary NC

[@adamharris7775]

Dozer's Grill is now on 7012 E. Hampton Ave., Mesa, AZ.

[@MishenNikara]

When our Sears closed it had immediately became a Spirit Halloween, which was as fitting as it got....and then it fell further somehow. Instead of using that huge space to try and revive our horrifically dead mall they turned the parking space around it into fenced off refinery parking. This year it seems that same mall has one anyways (it has plenty of options honestly), and the old Dress Barn near where I work a city over became one.

[@ErinPlays]

I love that the carpet is still there!

[@RetailArchaeology]

The carpet and the stage were my favorite parts 🙂

[@Robertm922]

The best I ever saw was a few years ago on Wall Street in NYC. The store was in the basement of an old bank, complete with vault and everything. Wish I had gotten some pictures of that, because they never went back into that space.

[@mikelx79]

The Spirit near me is in a recently closed Bed Bath and Beyond that used to be a Toys r Us and also had Spirit in it after TRU had shut down.

[@LatitudeSky]

My local Spirit is in an old no-brand clothing store sandwiched by a Dollar General on one side and a Dollar Tree on other. Both of those stores need the empty clothing store space but won't pay what the landlord wants. So the landlord lets Spirit come in and annoy both of them for a month.

[@saturnotaku]

The grim reaper giving his speech over the background of Joe Walsh's "Life's Been Good" was unintentionally brilliant.

[@kolonarulez5222]

1:15 That store is so dark it took the sound effects for me to realize that was an awesome Mars Attacks! Martian.

[@squarefever4076]

This is so cool looking I wonder how many other spirits are in an old chuck e cheese its really really nice looking with the darker section there and how easily they fit into the corpse of the store great video man!

[@ScottyPhoton]

3:40 That is super cool they are using the stage! I've got one around here right now at a local mall in the top half of what was Bergner's.

[@grandmasteraj855]

Bahaha the bobs burgers/archer deep cut was chefs kiss good.

[@ednarupp1631]

We have a Spirit Halloween inside an old CVS. Looks about the same inside as yours, though we have more of a Barbie selection.

[@thenotoriousgryyn342]

Thank You for saying that the darkness adds to the ambiance, I've worked multiple Halloween Stores in the past, and I hated how Bright and Cheery they were! I told my bosses they should be Dark and Sinister, especially where the props and adult costumes were located. I think there should also be scents added to specific areas: Candy Scent for the children's costume area, Cotton Candy and Popcorn Scent for the Clown Section, Earth and Wet Moss Scent to the yard decor section, etc,. A Halloween Store should assault the senses of the customers, really put them in the Halloween Spirit (no pun intended). And the music, no more teeny pop, instead scary music should be played. I convinced one of my managers to play a Dark Ambient Playlist I had, and the customers were buying up merchandise like crazy! Even the kids liked it!

[@wildboar67]

I would appreciate a pleasant scent especially in the mask section - halloween stores always smell awful

[@thenotoriousgryyn342]

@@wildboar67 It’s the old building smell, I found it rather pleasant. 🎃

[@ThatLoudCockatoo]

Theres something very meta about there being a FNAF section in a Spirit Halloween in the corpse of a Chuck E. Cheese

[@Lach90]

Love watching these videos every year

[@royquitter]

I went to a Spirit Halloween yesterday that's on the second floor of a former standalone Sears. The floor was just as dingy as one would expect from a former Sears.

[@ashleylucero6814]

my spirit halloween is in the abandoned toys r us!! it super nostalgic to walk thru again

[@mathewmclean9128]

With that Spirit Halloween location being in an old Chuck-E-Cheese, too bad they didn't have a zombie Chuck-E-Cheese rat mascot costume LOL.

[@PinkAgaricus]

Also the Five Nights At Freddy's costumes being relatively close to the stage area was very appropriate. (even though the section is small)

[@fratercontenduntocculta8161]

Spirit Halloween stores popping up were just as unpredictable as a real mob of zombies. I'm consistently impressed how they just appear and disappear seemingly without a trace.

[@MrMingles]

Hi retail archaeology. Can you please visit the sears store in Burbank, CA? They just recently reopened and it would be really cool if you documented it.

[@_peachbeach]

grew up going to that one. and the spirit halloween near me was in an old Best Buy, but like still very obviously a Best Buy at marina Pacifica. thx for the vid

[@joniwilliams9148]

Love going to spirit Halloween every year!

[@gregg5958]

For many years there was the best Spirit Store I have ever seen in a former Office supply store. Not sure if it was an Office Max or Staples. But the large open footprint and high ceilings allowed them to build very elaborate set pieces even more grand then the ones you showed. But unfortunately it was pretty lit up, not nice and dark like yours at all. Definitely the best atmosphere I have seen in a Spirit because of that one factor. This year our local Spirit is in a former Big Lots/former Supermarket and has all the ambiance of one. Even brighter than the office store. 😱

[@dunbrine47]

If I remember right, there was a Spirit Halloween near Times Square that was in an old theater. There was merchandise in the corridor leading to the auditorium and where the seats used to be.

[@adamharris7775]

Spirit Halloween on 7012 E Hampton Ave, Mesa, Arizona.

[@nobeac]

Wow that white thing on the celling you saw in the first 2 mins that had animations on it was awesome. I wouldn't even know where to begin to try and look for one of those things myself.

[@benb8407]

Spirit Halloween used the old Sears at Crossroads Mall in Kazoo last year, this year is in an old Supermarket Save-A-Lot in a strip mall that use to have a K-Mart in it now @ Home.

[@princessmarlena1359]

I’ve seen Spirit Halloween shops that used to be Circuit City, Chuck E. Cheese’s, Border’s Bookstore, Sears, JC Penny’s, Pier One, heck one of them was even in an old car dealership.

[@zamboozle3741]

the worst spirit halloween i've been in had really bright department store lighting. i was a kid, and it was an old/abandoned dillard's building and they were using like, half of the first floor of the place. the mall was sadly demolished a long time ago, but i remember that experience pretty clearly, and of course, the separate spencer's store was right next to the entrance.

[@PacificPlazaRec]

We got one that took over an old CVS pharmacy. It’s such a small building. I was surprised to see spirit move in, but the parking lot is overflowing on weekends.

[@rolfathan]

I'm shocked how big the dead baby section has gotten! I work near a neighborhood that seriously goes ALL OUT for halloween. They have top shut down some roads to vehicles on halloween levels of intense (Bressi Ranch, Carlsbad CA) and I've yet to see a single house with one of the creepy babies. Also, last year we had one of our spirit locations in a chuck e cheese, and it was honestly very good too. Just seems like they make for a good layout. This year I've only been able to find ONE spirit in my area, vs the four we had last year. And it's small too. I'm pretty bummed about that development.

[@Markimark151]

Spirit Halloween selling FNAF costumes in a former Chuck E Cheese’s is very appropriate! Also we barely have much stuff in our local Spirit Halloween store, since our strip mall has downsized their vacant stores for office space or new housing redevelopment!

[@davinp]

This year mine is in a former Tuesday Morning. Last year it was in Office Depot and in 2018-2021. It was in Babies R Us. The Office Depot remains vacant, but the Babies R Us finally got a new tenant this year

[@PepperTreeVilla]

Erik, when I lived in Orange County in the mid 90s, I remember Spirit Halloween pop ups all over Southern California.

[@dusthymn]

my local one this year was in a Gander Mountain which was super cool

[@UndeadEggmiester]

I miss read this title I thought that spirit Halloween was selling old Chucky cheese merch. Man 40 years in Tucson I don't think I started seeing them until around after the year 2000.

[@chibicheeks78]

A Walgreens down the street just closed a couple weeks ago and was immediately taken over by a Spirit Halloween store. Funny thing is that it’s the only Spirit Halloween store near me

[@DarkMetalSpider]

I really want one of those vaporware spiders; Spirit Halloween has an online store, and you can get one there🕷️🕷️🕷️ love the video, was super cool!

[@daniethegirl029]

Your commentary was great.

[@PhoenixAngel429]

There's one in Harrisburg PA that was in an old Christmas Tree Shoppes store.

[@cornjobb]

so disappointed that the mars attacks martian doesn't go "ACK-ACK-ACK" major ball drop.

[@ShadowVoltzzz]

In my town Sprit of Halloween took over a recently closed Bed, Bath and Beyond. Haven't been in there but I can't imagine they will be utilizing all that space. Bed, Bath and Beyond had a lot of real estate space.

[@eejjkk]

Excellent video. It's not often you get to say "Dead Babies" without someone throwing a fit in the comments. I also fully agree with the limited availability high quality fake blood in acceptable quantities in the early '90s. My friends and I could have certainly put liters of passable fake blood and better faux-weapons/torture implements to good use back then.

[@collegetoycollector]

It’s been so long that a spirit has been lit like this. It looks great, reminds me of being traumatized by spirit Halloween in the early 2000s

[@Talendale]

Like some kind of creepy parasite, Spirits creep their way into almost any decent sized retail space on the cheap. That one's a really well done store, though!

[@andrewtaylor940]

Scoob 2 was supposed to come out, but it was cancelled deep in production by David Zazlav when he took over WB.

[@tristanwoodmansee477]

Where are those hallogram skulls that were at the beginning of your video where they are looking down? Those were really cool!!

[@SuperEvilC]

It's like "Blockbuster" of the haunt/Halloween industry. 😢

[@GregNorton]

L. Ron Hubbard. Visit Downtown Clearwater FL around lunchtime and you'll see a lot of church staffers running around dressed like that.

[@mifffalden9225]

I went to a Spirit Halloween in the center of an old Sears, and looking through the holes in the wall thingies with the hooks was like a camera clipping out of bounds into the Backrooms.

[@victoria.wolfie]

My local Spirit occupied our long vacant Sears building this year. Unfortunately they only opened a small part of the store, but they did turn on the neon arch lights outside the building because there is someone occupying the space. If only it could stay like that forever

[@SpiritHollows]

That’s insane!

[@thedixonboy]

This is such a great location, thanks for the video!

[@aMuncieChannel]

This is the only other Spirit Halloween I’ve seen in a Chuck-E-Cheese, I’m sure there’s been others probably, besides the one in Mansfield, OH in the Richland Mall. Cool how some sections are dark inside. I remember visiting a CEC in or around Mesa in 1993 but don’t remember if it was this location or not since this one looked like it was in a newer building.

[@jake78441]

Ngl i find them Spirit Halloweens a joke of a store! But never the less great video as always!

[@masaharumorimoto4761]

Been working so hard at the new 2nd job that I didn't see you upload the latest 3 videos!!!! Gotta work hard to pay the bills up in Canada these days, but it's nice to finally have a lil financial breathing room eh :)

[@cuddlesthetiger-mallsnmore]

To be honest, I always thought Spirit Halloween stores should be darker. This looks way better. Now if only we could get them to actually play some spooky music

[@briangleeson1528]

I also feel like I didn't see any Spirit Halloween stores in my area until about 20 years ago. I'm surprised how many costumes there are for old IPs like Clueless and Napoleon Dynamite.

[@R32R38]

Just yesterday I saw a Spirit Halloween in a recently closed Steinway Piano showroom. Talk about a step down the world ...

[@bethpeters3477]

I visited a spirit Halloween store in Nampa Idaho. It used to be a former Kmart. It had a real musky smell in it, so it kind of made it weird.

[@julinofooly]

10:26 lol vapor wave tarantula

[@user-bigpandarocks2007]

I actually filmed CEC Here in March of this year and also This Chuck E. Cheese also use to Operate Studio C beta just like Arrowhead although it closed 2020 and this location closed 2018 And I remember it was here.

[@davebruins8623]

I live in new hampshire.....our spirit halloween is in an old kitchen ect......last year was great....it was in the old sears store....thats been closed for 7 years---was really creepy

[@PC_TV_73]

In New York there’s a bunch of these stores one actually opened up just a few blocks from me and a pet store that went out of business. I didn’t find anything that I really liked in it. You did my son, but it was cool. It was so close to my house. Then again, there’s probably10 of them all within 15 minutes or less from my house but this one that’s a few blocks away. It’s the first year it was here.

[@Camquarters]

There was a Spirit in my city last year that was inside of an old Sears. The entry doors still had overly large gold handles that said Sears on them and inside you could see the escalator going to the second floor that was closed off etc. Total time capsule

[@leejtam0914]

I dont remember there being any stores before the past two years or so. I was really surprised to learn theyve been around so long

[@JazzyBabe56]

that was pretty cool...I don't go in for Halloween very much but I do love watching your vids....so Spirit Halloween it is! ♥

[@doctorwhofan6340]

Mine was unique because both this year and last year my local sprit was in an old new york & co store in the dead Georgia square mall in athens

[@joewilson3393]

As for interesting places for a Spirit Halloween, the Tuesday Morning near me closed so they put in a Spirit Halloween. Which is funny, because Halloween is Tuesday night this year.

[@chrislaymon284]

in my area we dient even have party city or hallpween store tillearly 2000s ,spencers had a lot in my area they were the top, they didnt put halloween stores in my area till2002

[@blackroseknight77]

A spirit Halloween moved into my cities old Tuesday morning

[@kevlarandchrome]

8:08 He fucking deserved it. Thanks for the tour, happy spooky month!

[@clawmachinez26]

I find some wholesome irony with the Spirit animatronics being placed where the old Chuck E Cheese ones used to play

[@jackietatum2245]

thank you!!

[@LeninWasRight96]

A huge spirit halloween just opened in the fresh corpse of a bed bath and beyond in the new orleans area.

[@trevorbills1950]

I'm from the northwest side of Houston and they put a Spirit Halloween in an abandoned Staples here

[@bmarie216]

I always enjoy your videos. You do a great job! 😀👍🏻

[@Cyberstar_Entertainment]

My two fav things combined

[@THNKKY]

There’s another former Chuck E. Cheese on alma school and 8th street in Mesa. It’s a Pratts pets now.

[@JennNofficial]

spooky vibes love it!!

[@aerynmusick4548]

“I sound like Archer”. I lol’d 😂