store manager

sales associate

assistant store manager

district sales manager

customer service representative

Spirit Halloween

For a seasonal job, Spirit Halloween is a great job for those who are passionate about Halloween or costuming. With the right team, the right manager, and a proper staff schedule/amount it can be very fun; I unfortunately didn’t have this experience too much as it is a seasonal store and finding a full-time team that’s consistent and works well is a bit hard. My teams while I was there were mostly younger folk either in uni or just out of high school, but you would see the same people multiple years in a row if the owners decided to hire you back.

The job is fairly easy, consisting of either working cash, floor, or change rooms, with the challenge being how busy it is and the merchandising. The customers can be rude and impatient (as most retail customers can be). I had an unfortunate career here as the owners of my location cared more for their bottom line than their team, often taking the side of irate customers over their staff who are in the right. My manager would guilt trip people if they called in sick, would give managerial responsibility to regular sales associates without promotions or increased pay, and “fired” staff by essentially just not scheduling them any more. I worked for the company for several years where this was the norm until I decided not to go back.

Pros:
Fun
Discounts
Chance to return for future years
Great for people who are social and like costuming/makeup

Cons:
Stressful
Tiring
Unorganized
Iffy management (depending on location)

Aside from getting to work in a fun setting and helping excited customers find their dream costumes, my experience here was awful. Essentially no training was given, and I was immediately put on the floor and expected to assist customers despite having little more knowledge than them. Was largely confined to one section and not allowed to go outside of it, which made it incredibly difficult to answer customer's questions about products located in the rest of the store. There was a larger focus on stopping theft than providing a pleasant experience for customers, and we'd be regularly told to follow people around the store who fit the "profile" of shoplifters and interrogate them about their intentions until they left. This understandably made both the customers and the staff very uncomfortable! Management often took their stress out on the workers, and would snap at you for doing something wrong/asking questions, even though, again, you were never trained how to do anything properly. I cried in the bathroom/had panic attacks on the floor nearly every day due to how the management--not the customers!--treated us. Expected to have 4 sets of eyes to monitor every single customer at once while completing multiple tasks. If you were helping a customer with a costume, the management would berate you for not keeping a close enough eye on potential shoplifters in your section.

My time at Spirit Halloween has been quite a hectic and eventful one. My first year, I started off as a sales associate and although it got very hectic, I was motivated to apply again for the next year as the benefits and work environment were great.

The tasks are very easy and simple to get accustomed to - whether it be changeroom procedures or cashier functions. It is a very easy and simply learning environment, although tiring at times, but I never failed to give it my 100%. 

My second year, I was promoted to assistant manager. There is so much room to advance throughout the years as my previous managers the year before were also promoted to a higher position. 

However, the downfall, I believe came from upper management in which I felt they were being unrealistic with their sales budgets and giving us less hours on the BUSIEST week - the week of Halloween. Many customers had filed in the last two weeks of October and we had an insufficient amount of employees to work, leaving a lot of us stressed and dealing with very unhappy customers and overworked employees.

I love Spirit but if making budget and cutting hours were not a problem, I would enjoyed the last two weeks there a lot more.

The co-workers and customers here were fun to interact with and the product is cool. Unfortunately, management made this job a bit hellish. You are expected to blatantly follow customers around to make sure they don't steal, and confront anybody with an untied tote bag or bigger bag. The focus was on treating every customer as a potential thief, not helping them find what they need and have a good experience. Employees were reprimanded for spending too much time with individual customers, as they could not be monitoring for theft during that time. Management would watch customers AND staff through security cameras they could access on their phones live as we were working. On the floor, you are unable to leave your defined "section," which makes it very difficult to help customers who are looking for something outside of your section. You are told to tell them to go find a different employee closer to what they need. Employees had to undergo bag checks before leaving for breaks or going home at the end of the day. We were incentivized to be misleading with the wording around collecting donations for the Spirit of Children fundraiser in order to collect more money.

The workload was pretty close to what I expected, but in the process of setting up the store, the safety standards were… not great. No footwear requirement for transporting heavy boxes, the loading bay was broken so that there was a 10 cm gap between the truck and the concrete with a 4 or 5 foot drop below, there are no shelves for extra stock and the stacks of cardboard boxes that are used instead are dangerously precarious.
The management team was friendly, occasionally provided free pizza or snacks, and very open to schedule changes. However, schedules were written on a sheet of paper and a picture of the sheet was then sent to the store WhatsApp group, which I was not aware of until I asked about scheduling, because management had forgotten to add me. They were also posted quite last-minute.
There was also an interesting problem in that the location seemed to have a curse put on it which incentivized people to smear feces on the sales floor and kind of just all over the bathroom. Sometimes it was used menstrual products or urine. There was usually one biohazard incident every day.
Coworkers were friendly though. Good vibes from most.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Working with a very close team, being as we set up and took down the store together we were all very comfortable around each other. The boss was very understanding with scheduling, and treated his employees with respect.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The most stressful thing whould have been setting up the store before September, and making sure we had enough merchandise throughout. Also the store had to be taken down and cleaned within about 4 days.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Everyone is very familiar with each other, and it was a very open work environment. Everyone was friends with everyone and the customers were all very pleasant, and fun to help.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Clock in when the store opens and I would switch between merchandising and cashier. My days were a pretty even split because I would go to cash when it was busy, then merchandise and help customers when cash is all caught up. On weekdays it was mainly floor work.

I found myself often wandering, sometimes running, around the stores avoiding my manager because she would tell me off for how lazy I was for being empty handed (after I had literally just put a bunch of stuff away). I was terrified of her and never took any breaks for fear of her seeing me not working. I am traumatized. Work goes underappreciated, effort goes unnoticed, I got brutally cussed out over incidents that happened due to my lack of training. Not a word of praise or encouragement muttered from her. Destroyed my confidence, motivation, and self respect. Customers were fine for the most part, the manager is mainly what gave me agony. She must've hated her life or something, I felt targeted and disrespected because I never saw another employee treated the way I was. Schedule was never organized, if I was working late it always meant I was staying overtime because when I tried to head out at the end of my shift I would get asked to stay for like 4 extra hours.  Don't even know if they pay overtime. Don't ever work here I swear to god.

Working here was a blast the second you walked through the spooky front door of the custom store! I got this job from a friend of mine starting off to be the person who holds the sign outside waving to cars to come inside and check us out but when I got moved to change rooms and started working with the customers and inside more and working on the floor stocking shelves and directing customers to where they are looking to be was probably the best job I had so far, you enjoy working at a halloween store because you know the people who are hired there are just ask excited and out going as you are and you get along with every staff worker! 
all I can say it by time the place is closed at the end of the month you have already build a relationship with your co-workers!! 
I  think this year i'm going to put my resume in and see if I get a job here! That would be awesome! come check us out!

I filled out the online application and got an interview within days. Out of all the jobs I've ever had, this one had the best co-workers. I plan on keeping in contact with most of them after the season ends. The initial build is hard, but it helps you understand where everything in the store is. Because our store is based in Canada and Spirit is an American company, we have to manually re-price EVERY. SINGLE. PRODUCT. with the Canadian price. This meant our backroom got filled quickly and we couldn't get all the products on the floor right away. We hire throughout the season, so you can apply as early as pre-build or as late as October. Like any retail job, you do get the occasional grumpy customer. Scheduling is very flexible, so you can work while you go to school (secondary or post-secondary). Not only do you get a 30% off employee discount for Spirit, but you get one for Spencer's as well. Overall, it's a good job that I'd recommend to many people!

I was hired by Spirit Halloween on Sept 4, 2020. Started at the Kitchener location as a manager in training on Sept 8th. I had little to no training. Called in on my day off to cover a sick staff member on Sunday the 13th. Given the keys to the store the Monday the 14th. Worked my first open the next day with very little training other than a text conversation with my manager the night prior. The day went well. Opened again the next day. Received a call from my children’s school that I had to pick them up as they were sick. I left the store at 1230, with the assistant manager on her way in at 130. Support staff all well trained and in place. Received a call at 330 the same day that ‘while they sympathized with my situation, due to my availability, it wasn’t going to work out’. 

Spirit Halloween does NOT support families and I do NOT recommend anyone working here. 

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Store manager 46 salaries reported	$23.34 per hour
Sales associate 38 salaries reported	$17.66 per hour
Assistant store manager 25 salaries reported	$19.63 per hour
District sales manager 18 salaries reported	$1,117 per week
Customer service representative 3 salaries reported	$17.61 per hour

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