Spirit Halloween returning to Cheyenne 2024 (rewritten)

At this time, Spirit Halloween will NOT be occupying Cheyenne's Big Lots in 2024. - Optopolis

Spirit Halloween will be coming back to Cheyenne for 2024, but they will be occupying a different space in the Cheyenne Plaza--the former Absolute Flooring, next door to Party America.

(The previous version of this article was retracted due to inaccurate details on the location of the Spirit Halloween in 2024. At this time, Spirit Halloween will NOT occupy the former Big Lots in the Cheyenne Plaza, and it will NOT occupy the soon-to-be-former Big Lots in the Parkway Plaza. Spirit Halloween WILL be occupying the former Absolute Flooring at 3573 East Lincolnway, next door to the current Party America location in the Cheyenne Plaza.)

A glimpse at Spirit's history in Cheyenne...

Spirit Halloween has occupied numerous different spaces throughout Cheyenne in recent years including the old Big Lots in Cheyenne Plaza, Hollywood Video near Cole Shopping Center, and both Sears and Sports Authority in the Frontier Mall.

Spirit Halloween occupied two Cheyenne locations in 2023, including this former Bed Bath and Beyond which is now slated to become a Sprouts. - Optopolis

In 2023, they occupied two store fronts: the former Bed Bath and Beyond on Rue Terre and the former Big Lots in Cheyenne Plaza. As of 2024, however, the Bed Bath and Beyond space is being replaced by a Sprouts Farmers Market that is currently anticipated to open later this year. At this time, it's not clear if a new tenant is in the works for the old Big Lots space in Cheyenne Plaza.

Locator is LIVE, Cheyenne location announced.

As of July 29th, 2024, a visitor to the Spirit Halloween website could officially see an early list of Spirit Halloween stores that are expected to open for the 2024 Halloween Season. For the state of Wyoming, three Spirit locations are listed: Casper (Eastridge Mall at former Macy's), Cheyenne (Cheyenne Plaza "Next to Big Lots"), and Rock Springs (former Advance Auto Parts).

The tagline, "Next to Big Lots," may have left some people confused (including Optopolis). There are two Big Lots in this vicinity: one former store (in the Cheyenne Plaza, previous Spirit Halloween location), and another in the process of closing (in Parkway Plaza, set to close later this year). In this case, the tag line is referring to the former Big Lots in Cheyenne Plaza, which as of July 29th, leftover temporary walls for Spirit Halloween were still present in the former Big Lots space.

The interior of the former Absolute Flooring space was empty as of July 29th, 2024. - Optopolis

Instead, the address for the 2024 Cheyenne Spirit Halloween location is 3573 East Lincolnway, the space previously occupied by Absolute Flooring. This space is located between Party America and Sherwin-Williams.

Absolute Flooring has closed in Cheyenne

On July 29th, 2024 when gathering photos of the former Big Lots location in Cheyenne Plaza, it was randomly discovered here at Optopolis that Absolute Flooring had closed. Further details into the closure will come in a future article (not yet published as of the time of this article update), but the bottom line is that Absolute Flooring closed sometime over the last twelve months. At this time, it's not currently clear to Optopolis exactly when Absolute Flooring closed.

The last time Absolute Flooring was photographed by Optopolis in mid-October 2023, the store was still operating normally, seen pictured here. - Optopolis

Spirit: What will it look like, when will it open?

According to a Cheyenne citizen who helped move the temporary Spirit Halloween walls to the new space, this Spirit Halloween will not get a full ISE display this year. An ISE is an In-Store Experience, or in layman's terms, it's those animatronic displays that are set up with structures made primarily of cardboard.

This year's Spirit Halloween theme is the "Spirit Carnevil," as was officially revealed on Spirit Halloween's social media in early June 2024. For Cheyenne's Spirit Halloween, however, this doesn't mean much; stores that don't feature a full ISE may have a few animatronics, but they usually lack the aspects that make up the themed-displays seen at other stores with a larger store floor.

Spirit Halloween sign seen leaning against a temporary wall in the former Absolute Flooring space - Optopolis

Video footage already captured of the now-open Casper store confirms that, once again, Casper's Spirit has the full ISE display. Other locations like the Spirit in Fort Collins' former Macy's may also receive the full ISE display since stores like Macy's tend to be significantly larger than Cheyenne's former Absolute Flooring.

For each of the last two years, Spirit Halloween was able to open their East Lincolnway store in August. Currently, the Cheyenne Spirit Halloween locator only says that the Cheyenne store is "coming soon." While it's not yet absolute what exact day the Cheyenne store will open, Spirit stores typically tend to take more than a week to be fully functional. As of August 4th, only the walls have been mostly set up in the space.

View of the left half of the soon-to-be Spirit Halloween - Optopolis

View of the right half of the soon-to-be Spirit Halloween - Optopolis

At this time, there are many other vacant spaces in Cheyenne that a Spirit Halloween may be able to occupy, but many (if not most) of these vacant spaces are made up of smaller square footage compared to the former Big Lots space in Cheyenne Plaza. It's also not currently known at Optopolis what (if anything) will be taking over the old Big Lots store in Cheyenne Plaza.

[UPDATE 08/05: Spirit Halloween does not have plans of a second store for the 2024 Halloween season.] 

[UPDATE 08/06: Spirit Halloween is now officially set to open the Cheyenne store in August, although the exact date it will open isn't yet known.]

Update 08/20/2024 - Store is now open!

The store was set to open on August 16th, but it ended up opening one day earlier on August 15th. You can now visit Cheyenne's Spirit Halloween. Typically, Spirit Halloween stores operate until just after Halloween.

Update 09/05/2024 - (Probably) Why it relocated and the extra part

It turns out that a new lease had recently been signed for an upcoming pickle ball chain, The Picklr, to expand to Cheyenne. After publishing the new version of this article on August 4th, former Spirit Halloween store manager Jennifer Turpin told Optopolis on a public Facebook post that Spirit Halloween wanted to open in the nearby former Family Dollar, but Spirit Halloween was unable to obtain the keys to the building.

Are you excited for Spirit Halloween to make a comeback to Cheyenne? Do you think they should try to open a second store for the 2024 season? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Published: 07/31/2024 at 12:20 PM MT

Updated: 08/04/2024 at...

• 8:41 PM MT to retract the article until an updated version of the article can be written; Spirit Halloween will be inside of the former Absolute Flooring next to Party America and not in the former Big Lots. See the original version (striked out) on Wayback Machine.
• 10:38 PM MT to rewrite the article. The most notable change is fixing the location that Spirit Halloween will occupy, but this also drastically changed the rest of the article. The Search description was also updated. Any further updates to this article will be added as necessary.
• 11:56 PM to add photos of the soon-to-be Spirit Halloween and add a line about the current status of the soon-to-be Spirit Halloween.

Updated: 08/05/2024 at 6:49 PM MT to add detail about a second store; there is currently NO PLAN for a second Cheyenne location this year. 

Updated: 08/06/2024 at 1:35 PM MT to add information about opening date.

Updated: 08/20/2024 at 11:40 PM MT to add information about the first day.

Updated: 09/05/2024 at 10:03 PM MT to add new information. Also embedded a video tour.