After Albertson’s closed down, the space was just an empty store lot with a vacant parking lot. On Sept. 5, Spirit Halloween opened their doors to eager Halloween-lovers for the fall season. While it is a nice change of scenery from the empty Albertson’s, towing signs have been installed in the parking lot, preventing students and CMU visitors from accessing a convenient parking space.

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Unauthorized cars parked in the lot will be towed, according to the signs posted, and the owner of the towed car will be fined $150.

Employee of Spirit Halloween, Samona Searcy said, “Since we are renting this space, we do like for that space to be free for our customers… so we just ask that people who do park here for any [other] reason, we ask that they find somewhere else to park, until we’re done and then they’re more than welcome to come back here.”

After Halloween, the store will close for the winter, so the parking lot will no longer be needed for Spirit customers. Although the store will return to Grand Junction next year, it is unknown whether or not they will return to this location. If they do, then next fall the same parking situation will arise. Because the building space is still owned by Albertson’s, Spirit cannot decide whether or not to return without discussing it with the owners of Albertson’s. The other Grand Junction Spirit store is located at the Mesa Mall and will remain there.  

For the time being, Halloween season is in full swing. The store will be open from 10 a.m.-9  p.m. Monday-Saturday, and from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. on Sundays.

“People didn’t know that we were open for a while, but now that October’s hit, I think it’ll pick up,” Searcy said.

Spirit Halloween collects donations for Spirit of Children, an organization through the Child Life department that supports 140 hospitals throughout the US and Canada. According to spirithalloween.com, their mission is to “make hospitals less scary for kids and their families.” Every customer is asked if he or she would like to donate to Spirit of Children, and all of the proceeds go towards art, music, aquatic therapy, pet therapy, educational items and toys “used for distraction during medical procedures.”

The store will only be open until Halloween, and then the colorful costumes and opportunities to donate to children’s hospitals will be packed up.

“After Halloween, we break down everything, anything that’s not sold, we usually break it down into boxes and we ship it back to the manufacturer, and then wait ’til next Halloween and it all gets shipped back to us,” Searcy said.

As the holiday approaches, having a Halloween store right across the street could help the campus seem more festive. Even though students and CMU visitors can’t park there for a while, go and browse the costumes and get excited for Halloween—but not too excited.

If students do decide to buy a clown mask and wear it around campus, at least do it before dark.