{"id":3462,"date":"2026-08-01T21:40:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T21:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/corporate-movers-usa.com\/?p=3462"},"modified":"2026-08-01T21:40:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T21:40:25","slug":"the-spirit-halloween-opening-brought-thousands-to-egg-harbor-for-animatronics-costumes-and-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/corporate-movers-usa.com\/?p=3462","title":{"rendered":"The Spirit Halloween opening brought thousands to Egg Harbor for animatronics, costumes, and community"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<div><audio><\/audio><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Clowns, grim reapers, witches, and vampires ventured down the Shore on Saturday morning to welcome spooky season a little early.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/corporate-movers-usa.com\/?p=3460\">New Barber\u2019s Hall, a cornerstone of Philadelphia\u2019s Black heritage, celebrates its historic run before saying goodbye<\/a><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Spirit Halloween, the retailer best known for its costumes, animatronics, and creepy dolls, hosted the annual grand opening of its 20,000-square-foot flagship store in Egg Harbor Township, N.J. Preregistration for the event was capped at 2,000 people, but a company spokesperson estimated that an additional 1,000 showed up for general admission.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>By 9 a.m., the line snaked around Harbor Square Mall despite the heat. Seagulls circled. Food trucks, music, face-painting, outdoor games, and freebies awaited those who made it through. Children and adults alike varied in dress, from shorts and T-shirts to bloody character costumes.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Cesar and Adrianna Balmaceda, with son Cesar, were among the attendees who made it through. They gathered near the entrance as Jack the Reaper, Spirit\u2019s mascot, parachuted out of a blimp overhead.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>When Cesar Balmaceda, 31, asked the first person in line when they arrived and where they came from, he was not too surprised by the answer: 5 a.m., from Ohio.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s as bad as previously,\u201d Cesar Balmaceda said. \u201cPeople used to camp out for days.\u201d<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>That obstacle had kept the Balmacedas, Atlantic City locals, from braving the line previously, even though 8-year-old Cesar makes YouTube videos featuring vintage Spirit animatronics. His favorite is Hugz the Clown, a discontinued 6-foot, purple-haired robot.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>But this year, Spirit banned camping out and used the preregistration system instead, which allowed the Balmacedas to get free tickets after the deadline from a kind Facebook user. Young Cesar won a swag bag and quickly changed into themed Spirit gear.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Naoki Sanchez, 15, stood with her family nearby. They live in Atlantic City, too, and came to meet people with similar interests, since Sanchez also makes animatronic YouTube videos. On Saturday, she wore a zombie baby toy in a chest harness.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s part of the Spirit Halloween community,\u201d Sanchez said of gathering for the store opening. \u201cWe live here, basically.\u201d<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<h3>Jump scares and costumes galore<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>From bedazzled Michael Myers masks to dog costumes to a pop-up trash raccoon animatronic, visitors to the flagship store had no shortage of options.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>When the doors opened at 10 a.m., employees called out numbers to welcome in small groups of customers one at a time. A life-sized Freddy Fazbear animatronic, new to Spirit and sold only in person, sold out in 10 minutes.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>But attendees outside awaited that news anxiously. Employees chatted that the first one was nabbed by a family from Canada, and they weren\u2019t sure how they would get the 6-foot-6, $499.99 robot back home.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/corporate-movers-usa.com\/?p=3458\">\u2018They don\u2019t pay you to be hurt\u2019: Landon Dickerson says he\u2019s learned his lesson about rushing back from injury<\/a><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cAre there Freddys still?\u201d a child shouted through the open doors.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Lori Tesoro, a Spirit spokesperson, said several other animatronics sold out, including a life-size Jason of <i>Friday the 13th<\/i> and Michael Myers of <i>Halloween<\/i> fame, along with a line of horror-themed teddy bears.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Nineteen staffers, including four from other stores, managed the frenzy.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>A limit of one animatronic per person, from Art the Clown of <i>Terrifier <\/i>to Harmonica Hank (a skeleton scarecrow who can play your music via Bluetooth), kept things from getting too chaotic, as customers leaned on boxes to claim them. Staff wore \u201cCamp Harbor Lake\u201d T-shirts, the 2026 store theme, inspired by campground horror movies. One employee said the company spent about a year planning the celebration.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>The chain, which operates more than 1,500 stores across the U.S. and Canada from August through early November, is headquartered in Egg Harbor in the same office as its parent company, Spencer\u2019s.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>The flagship location, which looks much like every other Spirit store, is owned by the chain year-round but is used for research and development during the offseason, Tesoro said.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>About 400 Spirit stores opened on Aug. 1, while the rest will open in the coming weeks. Still, a company spokesperson said people came from hours away, including from California and the South, to get the earliest possible glimpse at Halloween.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<h3>\u2018Life\u2019s too short\u2019<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Back in line, Anthony and Jessica Trabolse and their four kids, all under 8 years old, waited in the sun. They came to Jersey from Staten Island, N.Y., and already have their Halloween costumes planned out, which will likely include wardrobe changes.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>During the Halloween season, Anthony Trabolse said, he works at Spirit to support his son Lucas and his horror obsession. They host an annual Summerween party, featuring years\u2019 worth of Spirit animatronics. This year, Lucas, 7, said he hopes to expand his haunted collection with a 4-foot-10 evil clown, Wind-Up Wally, and meet his favorite Halloween YouTubers.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>\u201c\u2018Cause I really like Halloween,\u201d Lucas said, sporting a Mohawk and a camera around his neck.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Ashley Giordano, 23, and Aliah Roseman, 36, both work as special effects makeup artists for Reaper\u2019s Revenge Haunted Hayride in Scranton. They drove more than four hours for the Egg Harbor event with Giordano\u2019s son, Nico, to celebrate his birthday.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s only 3, and he can name Spirit animatronics back to 2008,\u201d Giordano said, fake blood spattered on her face. \u201cThat\u2019s our Miss Rachel.\u201d<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Roseman said Saturday was their first time coming to Spirit\u2019s annual flagship opening. After recent health issues and a cancer battle, Roseman said people should not deny themselves a good time, including a long Spirit Halloween road trip.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/corporate-movers-usa.com\/?p=3456\">Inside the Eagles\u2019 intense safety competition, where \u2018we\u2019re all pushing each other\u2019 but not everyone can win<\/a><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cLife\u2019s too short to not do fun things,\u201d Roseman said.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>About 3,000 people attended the Saturday morning grand opening of Spirit Halloween&#8217;s flagship location at Harbor Square Mall. Some life-size animatronics sold out in minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-jersey","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Spirit Halloween opening brought thousands to Egg Harbor for animatronics, costumes, and community - Corporate Movers USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/corporate-movers-usa.com\/?p=3462\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Spirit Halloween opening brought thousands to Egg Harbor for animatronics, costumes, and community - Corporate Movers USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"About 3,000 people attended the Saturday morning grand opening of Spirit Halloween&#039;s flagship location at Harbor Square Mall. 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