Retail Report: Halloween HQ
Party P p-Ups T
he seasonal nature of Halloween lends itself perfectly to pop-up shops; those retail outlets or mall units which appear in busy high streets or shopping centres to make the most of a key event in the retail calendar. The flexibility and responsiveness of these temporary outlets means they are able to generate significant consumer interest, making them an important part of the mainstream retail mix. Initially an Irish brand which started with just one store in 2012, Halloween HQ will be opening over 70 temporary stores across the UK and Ireland this autumn. The significant boost in numbers follows last year’s merger with UK retail experts Calendar Club, when the new partnership opened around 60 pop-up stores for the Halloween season.
The Wow Factor “The consumer response has been really positive, with the impact of the stores creating a real ‘wow’ factor as people walk through the doors. Because they are built specifically for this purpose we are able to use the animated props and other decorations to create a great atmosphere for the shoppers and make Halloween HQ shops really exciting places to visit.” Now operating as a subsidiary company, Halloween HQ (also trading as Party HQ), is able to take advantage of Calendar Club’s 20 years of experience in the seasonal retail model. For the uninitiated, Calendar Club currently operates more than 270 temporary stores over the Christmas period, making it the longest-running and biggest seasonal retailer in the UK and Ireland. The outlets can be found in high street, shopping centre and out-oftown locations, with retail merchandising units (RMUs) doing particularly well at picking up the passing Christmas trade. “Lots of other companies have tried to do what we do,” says group director David Pike, “but the task of finding, staffing and running so many stores in such a short time
Left: David Pike, group director of Calendar Club and Halloween HQ. Above: The first Halloween HQ of the 2017 season opened in September in Dundrum, Ireland.
is nothing short of a logistical triumph!” After years of fine-tuning the process, the Calendar Club operation is now so streamlined that a unit can be up and running just two days after signing the lease. The average outlet carries over 1,000 SKUs – and David proudly explains that no other retailer can even get close to that. “We describe ourselves as ‘category killers’ for the calendar market. We know that no-one else can touch us within our core category, in terms of the product we offer.” The Calendar Club first began to explore the Halloween market back in 2014, with five stores operating across the UK. A positive initial response saw the company increase numbers for 2015, taking a slightly different approach for the Halloween market. “Those first two years were a steep learning curve,” David explains. “While head office processes remain similar to the tried-andtested Calendar Club set-up, it quickly became clear that what worked well for the calendar trade didn’t necessarily apply for Halloween shoppers, so we had to adapt the model accordingly.” The Calendar Club responded quickly to these differences, taking on retail units rather than RMUs and even creating installations within shopping centres to act as Halloween ‘grottos’ with the product on sale inside. “We trialled this approach in Bristol in 2015, before taking it to a wider audience last year after we’d teamed up with Halloween HQ,” says David. “Commercially these huge installations can be a challenge,
They’ve been making an appearance in shopping centres and on high streets for the last few years, but in 2017 we’ll be seeing more temporary Halloween stores across the UK and Ireland than ever before. PPE speaks to Halloween HQ’s David Pike to find out more about the popup phenomenon. but they are an incredible experience and resonate extremely well with the shoppers, so they are worth every penny!” “The Halloween stores are also far noisier, more chaotic and more exciting, so we need more staff, especially in the last week or so,” he continues. “And the product! Staff need to have far greater product knowledge as there’s so much more available. They need to know about special effects make-up, costume sizes, which products work together to create a certain look – it’s a very specialised area for them to learn about in a very short time.” One of the main challenges faced by seasonal retailers is the response they have from dedicated, year-round retailers. “Some suppliers have had negative feedback after working with Halloween HQ,” explains David, “which is a shame, of course. But I think that, by-and-large, most other retailers are taking the view that this is an inevitable and natural progression of the industry.” David acknowledges that Halloween HQ is new competition for the traditional
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