Spencer's

### Parent

MCA Inc. (1967–1996), Seagram (1996–2001), Vivendi Universal (2001–2003), ACON Investments (2007–2015)

**Spencer Gifts LLC**, doing business as **Spencer's**, is a North American mall retailer with over 600 stores in the United States and Canada. Their stores specialize in novelty and gag gifts, and also sell clothing, band merchandise, sex toys, room decor, collectible figures, fashion and body jewelry, fantasy, and horror items. The company also owns and operates a pop-up seasonal retailer, Spirit Halloween.

## History

Spencer Gifts was founded in 1947 in Easton, Pennsylvania by Max Spencer Adler as a mail-order catalog that sold an assortment of novelty merchandise. In 1960, Max's brother Harry Adler, who had been with the company since 1947, sold his shares and left.

In 1963, Spencer Gifts opened its first retail store in the Cherry Hill Mall in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, where it operates to this day.

After opening approximately 450 stores under the name Spencer Gifts, Adler sold Spencer Gifts to entertainment conglomerate MCA in 1967. In 2003, Spencer's Gifts was completely rebranded after being put under new management, and with the change become known as just Spencer's.

In 1990, Spencer Gifts closed its mail-order catalog division.

In 1993 and 1996, respectively, Spencer Gifts acquired the DAPY line of stores and opened its first GLOW! store. The DAPY and GLOW! trademarks were retired sometime before 2007.

In 1995, MCA was acquired by Seagram Company Ltd. and was renamed Universal Studios. Spencer Gifts began to operate Universal Studios stores as a subsidiary of its parent company.

In 1997, Spencer Gifts opened its first store in Canada.

In 1999, Spencer's acquired Spirit Halloween, a seasonal retailer that was founded by Joseph Marver in 1983. At that time, the business had 60 temporary locations. Spirit's stores are only open for the two months leading up to Halloween, though it maintains a website year-round. The stores are generally operated out of the spaces of recently vacated businesses. As of 2013, Spirit had over 1,000 locations, which comprised about half of Spencer's annual revenue of $250 million.

In 2000, Spencer's expanded into the United Kingdom. The chain opened up to 14 stores in the United Kingdom before closing them sometime in the mid-2000s.
Typical merchandise at a Spencer's Gift shop
In 2001, Vivendi acquired Universal Studios and rebranded the entire organization as Vivendi Universal Entertainment. Less than two years later, in 2003, GB Palladin, a joint venture between Gordon Brothers Group and Palladin Capital Group, acquired Spencer Gifts from Vivendi, around the same time that Vivendi was preparing to sell majority of the shares of Universal Studios to General Electric's NBC division. As a result of the sale, Steven Silverstein became Spencer Gifts' CEO and also the CEO and president of Spirit Halloween.

In the fall of 2004, Spencer's began redesigning its stores.

In 2006, Spencer's began its "Spirit of Children" program, which raises donations through its Spirit Halloween stores for, and hosts Halloween parties in, children's hospitals in Canada and the United States. Since 2007, the program has raised over $16 million for over 130 children's hospitals.

## See also

* Specner's/Locations
* Spirit Halloween