As All Hallows’ Eve approaches, more than 1,300 Spirit Halloween stores have temporarily opened their doors across the United States and Canada, bringing seasonal life back to empty big-box locations abandoned in the retail apocalypse.

By moving into the former locations of brands like Bed Bath & Beyond, Rite Aid, Sears, JoAnn Fabrics, Forever 21, and Big Lots — once-ubiquitous retail powerhouses sent to an early grave after being bankrupted by private equity — Spirit Halloween has made itself a rare beneficiary of Wall Street bloodsuckers’ hollowing out of America.

This year, retailers will shutter 15,000 stores in the United States, more than doubling last year’s brick-and-mortar closures and officially surpassing the record set during the pandemic in 2020. Private equity’s buy, gut, and burn strategy of leveraged buyouts and debt transfers has played a significant part in this wave of retail death: In 2024, private funds were behind half of all large US bankruptcies, and last quarter, six of the fourteen largest bankruptcies were for private equity–backed firms.