JACKSON, Wyo. — Locally owned pop-up Halloween Headquarters will not open this year, which would have been its 32nd season in business, due to the arrival of a Spirit Halloween chain store in town.
Spirit is opening a location in the former Dollar Tree space on Broadway, next to Staples. The seasonal retailer operates approximately 1,500 stores across the U.S. and Canada, and is known for expediently moving into buildings recently vacated by other businesses. Store operator Joe Gill, who oversees some of the chain’s 25 outposts in Utah, told Buckrail that the new location could open as soon as Tuesday. His team is constructing the store’s interior and staffing up.
Jenni Heggenstaller has owned and operated Halloween Headquarters in Jackson for 12 years. The seasonal shop full of wigs, masks and other spooky accessories was originally opened in 1994 by Libby Vallee, who ran the spot for 20 years.
Since learning of Spirit Halloween’s arrival, Heggenstaller has been running the numbers over and over. She finally made the difficult decision to close the doors of Halloween Headquarters before they even open for the year.
“There’s no way,” Heggenstaller told Buckrail. “We’ve run it so many different ways to see if it would be feasible. … To compete with a big box like that, there’s just no way.”
Heggenstaller lives in Star Valley, and each year she trucks her inventory to Jackson to the location of the store, which has changed many times over the years. In 2023, the shop found a stable, seasonal home in the Lewis and Clark River Expeditions building on Powderhorn Lane.
Over the years, Heggenstaller’s husband, son and other friends have pitched in with setting up the store, hoisting bales of straw and other decorations, creating scary displays and working in the shop for the six weeks leading up to Halloween. Her family assisted in digitizing the inventory since last year, and she already placed three big orders for the season.
Jill Hodges has worked at the shop since it was owned by Vallee, and Heggenstaller described her as “my right and left hand.” Since Hodges lives in Jackson, she has assisted in finding rental locations over the years, and she was the one who told Heggenstaller about Spirit Halloween’s signs.
“This is not the way I had planned on going out,” Heggenstaller said. “Jill and I had talked about — when we have our 15th anniversary — doing something for the community to show how much we appreciate them.”
Heggenstaller fondly remembers people who came into the store as children and now bring their own kids in to shop. She described the excitement of Halloween falling on a Friday this year and the joy in helping community members put together costumes for the holiday.
“It’s not a robotic thing,” she said. “We put a lot of customer service into it.”
