Since Halloween is over, seasonal costume retailers like Spirit Halloween are trying to get rid of their merchandise before shutting their doors for yet another year.
Spirit announced on X, formerly Twitter, that it was having a 50% off sale on all costumes and encouraged consumers to plan ahead and buy their costumes for next year now. According to CNBC, Spirit had the sale on Nov. 1 before closing the following day. At least in one location, some costumes that apparently remained unsold even after the sale got tossed in the dumpster.
But one retailer’s trash is another TikToker’s treasure.
TikTok user Amanda (@torppsbride) and a friend filmed themselves at a Spirit Halloween location that was plastered with yellow sale signs. “Got excited because it said that Spirit Halloween was open,” Amanda starts. She says she realized the store “was definitely not open” after looking inside, through the glass.
“I’m gonna check the back to see if there’s anything in the dumpsters,” she says.
The clip cuts to Amanda and her friend by the dumpster. “Spirit Halloween haul,” Amanda says while holding up an Ernie mask from Sesame Street.
Afterward, she jumps into the dumpster, searching for more stuff. The first thing she finds is a Naruto wig. Next, she discovers an inflatable Looney Tunes Tasmanian Devil costume.
She also finds a Scooby-Doo costume; a pair of Art the Clown hands from Terrifier; a Harley Quinn bat; a brown wig, which she tries on; and a lot of empty packages. She speculates workers “break” some goods on purpose because “they don’t want you to have it.”
After finding all this merchandise, she condemns Spirit Halloween for being “wasteful.” The video concludes with the dumpster diver revealing the fake blood on her hand, which she calls her “battle scars.”
@torppsbride #spirithalloweenhaul #spirithalloween #dumpsterdive #dumpsterdiving #dumpsterbabe #halloween ♬ Redbone (feat. The Notorious B.I.G. & 2Pac) – $TURCK
The video garnered 256,000 views, and viewers shared what they would’ve taken.
“I would of took it all,” one viewer wrote. “I sell online and all I see is money.”
“I’d still take the mugs and make some handles lol,” a second commented.
In addition, former costume store workers revealed what their stores did with leftover merchandise.
“I worked at party city for a few years and we would dive our own dumpsters at work bc they’d make us throw so much stuff out, perfectly fine,” one user shared.
“At my store we only threw out the ones that were damaged and costumes that we’re partly stolen to the trash. but very good finds haha,” a second stated.
“Omg when I worked there we had to destory literally everything. it hurt ripping all the costumes to shreds just bc of a small hole or missing piece,” a third said.
CNBC reported that “costumes that were not sold and remain in good condition are stored for the next spooky season.” So it’s possible the items found in the dumpster were determined to be in poor condition by workers and that’s why they were tossed.
The Daily Dot reached out to Spirit Halloween via press email and Amanda via Instagram direct message.
