Spencer Gifts

Last updated

Spencer Gifts LLC
Spencer's
Company typePrivate company
IndustryRetail
FoundedJune 19, 1947;76 years ago (1947-06-19)
FounderMax Spencer Adler
Headquarters Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, U.S.
Number of locations
650 [1]
Key people
Steven Silverstein, CEO
Owners
Parent
Subsidiaries Spirit Halloween
Website spencersonline.com

Spencer Gifts LLC, doing business as Spencer's, is a North American mall retailer with over 600 stores in the United States and Canada. Its 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. [2] The company also owns and operates a pop-up seasonal retailer, Spirit Halloween.

Contents

History

Spencer Gifts was founded in 1947 in Easton, Pennsylvania by Max Spencer Adler as a mail-order catalog which sold an assortment of novelty merchandise. [3] [4] The company moved all mail order and fulfillment operations to Atlantic City, NJ. In 1960, Max's brother Harry Adler, who had been with the company since 1947, sold his shares to his brother and left the company. [5]

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. [6]

After opening approximately 450 stores under the name Spencer Gifts, Adler sold Spencer Gifts to entertainment conglomerate MCA in 1967. [7] In 2003, Spencer's Gifts was completely rebranded after being put under new management, and with the change become known only as just Spencer's. [8]

In 1990, Spencer Gifts closed its mail-order catalog division. [9]

In 1993 and 1996, respectively, Spencer Gifts acquired the DAPY line of stores and opened its first GLOW! store. [10] The DAPY and GLOW! trademarks were retired sometime before 2007. [11] As of 2021, both GLOW! And DAPY have returned to business under a private entity.

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. [10]

In 1997, Spencer Gifts opened its first store in Canada. [10]

In 1999, Spencer's acquired Spirit Halloween, a seasonal retailer founded by Joseph Marver in 1983. At that time, the business had 60 temporary locations. [12] 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. [13]

In 2000, Spencer's expanded into the United Kingdom. [14] The chain opened up to 14 stores in the United Kingdom before closing them sometime in the mid-2000s. [15]

Typical merchandise at a Spencer's Gift shop 2004-02-01 Spencer's merchandise.jpg
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 Vivendi was preparing to sell the majority of its 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. [16]

In the fall of 2004, Spencer's began redesigning its stores. [17]

In 2006, Spencer's began its "Spirit of Children" program, which raises donations through its Spirit Halloween stores and hosts Halloween parties in children's hospitals in Canada and the United States. Since 2007, the program has raised over $110 million for over 130 children's hospitals. [18]

ACON Investments acquired the company in 2007 and sold it to Spencer's management in 2015. [11] [19] [20]

The company has been investigated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for its advertising practices.

In 1962, Spencer Gifts was found by the Federal Trade Commission to have violated the Federal Trade Commission Act by making misleading statements in advertising its "Reduce-Eze" girdles and ordered to cease making false claims. The girdles were advertised with statements such as "Slim 4 Inches Without Diet" and "Trims 4 Inches Off Your Figure". [5]

In 1969, Spencer Gifts was found by the FTC to, through the use of words like "stone", "birthstone", and "gold", have misrepresented its jewelry products. As its jewelry did not contain any "genuine precious or semiprecious stones", nor was its metal 24 karat gold, Spencer Gifts was ordered to stop use of deceptive statements in the promotion of its jewelry. [21]

In 1970, Spencer Gifts was found by the FTC to have misled its customers as to the efficacy of its "non-prescription magnifying spectacles" by failing to disclose that correction of vision defects is limited to older persons who do not have any eye diseases, like astigmatism, but only need "simple magnifying or reducing lenses". The FTC ordered the retailer to cease the use of advertisements that misrepresented the quality of its optical products. [22]

Controversies

Spencer Gifts has come under fire for its merchandise, which has been considered to be sexually explicit and racist.

In 1989, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) mailed thousands of pamphlets to Arab-Americans across the United States to campaign against Spencer's 'sheik' and 'Arafat' Halloween masks, which were marketed as part of its "Fright Stuff" line of products. The pamphlet featured a picture of the 'sheik' mask and claimed that it "was the only ethnic one in the product line and being marketed alongside traditional monster masks reinforced the notion Arab people are scary." [23] Spencer Gifts pulled the two masks from its stores in October following a "three-day protest and telephone campaign" by the ADC, but decided later that month to place the masks back on sale, prompting the ADC to boycott and picket Spencer's stores. In a letter to ADC spokesperson Faris Bouhafa, Spencer's general counsel Ronald Mangel said that "after re-reviewing the 'Sheik' and 'Arafat' masks and discussing the look of the masks with others", Spencer's president John Hacala decided to reverse the earlier decision and place the masks back in stores. "We will not reorder the masks for next year," the letter added. [24]

Spencer Gifts has been criticized for allowing children access to adult toys and other explicit products. While adults-only products are ostensibly kept in areas off-limits to children, there have been several instances where that is not the case. [25] [26] [27] In one instance, police seized adult materials from the Spencer Gifts in Rapid City, South Dakota as "possible evidence for the national retailer's failure to register as an adult-oriented business". [28]

In February 2014, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the largest Irish organization in the United States, called on Spencer's to cease the sale of merchandise it felt propagated stereotypes about Irish Americans, such as a T-shirt with the slogan "F*** me I'm Irish" and a hat sporting the phrase "Irish Girl Wasted". AOH National Anti-Defamation Chairman Neil Cosgrove protested, "We note that Spencer's Gifts is a recidivist when it comes to denigrating the heritage and culture of Irish Americans. Spencer's St. Pat's merchandise seems to plumb new lows with each year." [29]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zellers</span> Canadian retail company

Zellers was a Canadian discount store chain founded by Walter P. Zeller in 1931. It was acquired by the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) in 1978, and after a series of acquisitions and expansions, peaked with 350 locations in 1999. However, fierce competition and an inability to adapt during the retail apocalypse resulted in Zellers losing significant ground in the 2000s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hot Topic</span> American retail chain

Hot Topic, Inc. is an American fast-fashion company specializing in counterculture-related clothing and accessories, as well as licensed music. The stores are aimed towards an audience interested in rock music and video gaming, and most of their audience ranges from teens to young adults. Approximately 40% of Hot Topic's revenue comes from sales of licensed band T-shirts. The majority of the stores are located in regional shopping malls.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Office Depot</span> American office supply holding company

Office Depot, Inc. is an American office supply retailer headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida. The company operates 1,400 retail stores in the United States under the Office Depot and OfficeMax brands, as well as e-commerce sites and a business-to-business sales organization. The company has combined annual sales of approximately $11 billion, and employs about 38,000 people in the United States.

The True Value Company is an American wholesaler with over 4,500 independent retail locations worldwide.

Claire's is an American retailer of accessories, jewelry, and toys primarily aimed toward tween and teen girls. It was founded in 1961 and is based in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. The company is primarily owned by Elliott Management and Monarch Alternative Capital, but, in 2022, announced plans to go public with an initial public offering.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Merchandising</span> Promotion of product sales

Merchandising is any practice which contributes to the sale of products to a retail consumer. At a retail in-store level, merchandising refers to displaying products that are for sale in a creative way that entices customers to purchase more items or products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dollar Tree</span> American discount variety store chain

Dollar Tree, Inc. is an American multi-price-point chain of discount variety stores. Headquartered in Chesapeake, Virginia, it is a Fortune 500 company and operates 15,115 stores throughout the 48 contiguous U.S. states and Canada. Its stores are supported by a nationwide logistics network of 24 distribution centers. Additionally, the company operates stores under the name of Dollar Bills, as well as a multi-price-point variety chain under the Family Dollar banner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Party City</span> American party supply store chain

Party City Holdco Inc, commonly referred to as Party City is an American publicly traded retail chain of party stores founded in 1986 by Steve Mandell in East Hanover, New Jersey. The companies headquarters are in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey. The company is the largest retailer of party goods in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The company operates over 850 company-owned and franchise outlets in over 70 countries around the world under the Party City, Halloween City, Toy City, Factory Card and Party Outlet brands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caldor</span> Defunct chain of US discount department stores

Caldor, Inc. was a discount department store chain founded in 1951 by husband and wife Carl and Dorothy Bennett. Referred to by many as "the Bloomingdale's of discounting," Caldor grew from a second story "Walk-Up-&-Save" operation in Port Chester, New York, into a regional retailing giant. Its stores were earning over $1 billion in sales by the time Carl Bennett retired in 1985, by which time Caldor was a subsidiary of Associated Dry Goods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Argos (retailer)</span> British catalogue retailer

Argos Limited is a British catalogue retailer operating in the United Kingdom and formerly in Ireland, acquired by Sainsbury's supermarket chain in 2016. It was established in November 1972 and is named after the Greek city of Argos. The company trades both through physical shops and online, with 29 million yearly shop customers, and nearly a billion online visitors per annum. It has also franchised overseas to countries such as China.

Service Merchandise was a retail chain of catalog showrooms carrying jewelry, toys, sporting goods and electronics. The company, which first began in 1934 as a five-and-dime store, was in existence for 68 years before ceasing operations in 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hastings Entertainment</span> Defunct American retailer

Hastings Entertainment was an American retail chain that sold books, movies, music, and video games and functioned as a video rental shop. As of 2016 it had 126 superstores, which were mainly located in the South Central United States, Rocky Mountain States, and in parts of the Great Plains and Midwestern states. Hastings Entertainment stores were also located in many college towns in the U.S. Hastings Entertainment was headquartered in Amarillo, Texas.

Disney Consumer Products, Inc. is the retailing and licensing subsidiary of the Disney Experiences segment of The Walt Disney Company. Previously, Consumer Products was a segment of Disney until 2016, then a unit of Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media (2016–2018).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Target Corporation</span> American retail corporation

Target Corporation is an American retail corporation that operates a chain of discount department stores and hypermarkets, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the seventh-largest retailer in the United States, and a component of the S&P 500 Index. The company is one of the largest American-owned private employers in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Five Below</span> American specialty discount store chain

Five Below Inc. is an American chain of specialty discount stores that prices most of its products at $5 or less, plus a smaller assortment of products priced up to $25. Founded by Tom Vellios and David Schlessinger and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the chain is aimed at tweens and teens. There are over 1,400 stores located across the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spirit Halloween</span> American retailer

Spirit Halloween, LLC is an American seasonal retailer that supplies Halloween decorations, costumes, props and accessories. It is the USA's largest Halloween retailer. It is currently owned by Spencer Gifts. It was founded in 1983 and began in the Castro Valley "Village Shopping Center" in the San Francisco East Bay Area, California, and has headquarters in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey. In 1999, the store had 60 seasonal locations. Today, the pop-up retailer opens over a thousand locations across the United States and Canada each Halloween season.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LaVerdiere's</span> Defunct American pharmacy chain serving Northern New England

LaVerdiere's Super Drug Stores was a pharmacy chain based in Waterville, Maine. At its peak, the company operated more than 70 stores in small towns throughout Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. Aside from the pharmacy, the stores sold general items, as well as toys and Halloween and Christmas decorations. In the 1980s, some LaVerdiere's locations featured an arcade, called Action Family Arcade. LaVerdiere's operated 42 Action Family Arcades in the 1980s.

Bargain Hunt, formerly Essex Bargain Hunt, is an American discount store chain. Founded in 2004, Bargain Hunt is headquartered in La Vergne, Tennessee with retail locations in Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas.

The retail format influences the consumer's store choice and addresses the consumer's expectations. At its most basic level, a retail format is a simple marketplace, that is; a location where goods and services are exchanged. In some parts of the world, the retail sector is still dominated by small family-run stores, but large retail chains are increasingly dominating the sector, because they can exert considerable buying power and pass on the savings in the form of lower prices. Many of these large retail chains also produce their own private labels which compete alongside manufacturer brands. Considerable consolidation of retail stores has changed the retail landscape, transferring power away from wholesalers and into the hands of the large retail chains.

References

  1. ↑ "Company Information: About Spencer's". Spencer's. Archived from the original on March 5, 2017. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
  2. ↑ "About Spencer's". Spencer's. Archived from the original on March 17, 2015. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  3. ↑ Robertson, Seth (Fall 2008). "From Broadway to Wall Street". Vanderbilt Business Magazine. Nashville, Tennessee. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 15, 2015.
  4. ↑ Kuperinsky, Amy (October 28, 2007). "A store that 'gets' pop culture" (PDF). The Press of Atlantic City . Pleasantville, New Jersey. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 16, 2015– via Rochester Institute of Technology.
  5. 1 2 Federal Trade Commission (November 13, 1962). In the Matter of Spencer Gifts, Inc., et al (PDF) (Report). pp. 1161–1166. 8281. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 25, 2015. Retrieved March 16, 2015.
  6. ↑ "About Spencer's". Spencer Gifts. Archived from the original on March 17, 2015. Retrieved March 15, 2015.
  7. ↑ Zhito, Lee, ed. (December 23, 1967). "MCA Enters Merger With Spencer Gifts". Billboard . Vol. 79, no. 51. p. 6. ISSN   0006-2510 . Retrieved March 15, 2015– via Google Books.
  8. ↑ "Company Information > About – Spencer's". www.spencersonline.com. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved November 27, 2017.
  9. ↑ Cornish, Neil (June 14, 1990). "Spencer Gifts To Close Jcc Catalog Division". Daily Press. Newport News, Virginia. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 16, 2015.
  10. 1 2 3 "Corporate Information". spencergifts.com. Archived from the original on February 4, 2002. Retrieved March 16, 2015.
  11. 1 2 Adler, Neil (August 23, 2007). "Acon Investments plans to grow Spencer Gifts". Washington Business Journal. Washington, D.C. Archived from the original on October 30, 2016. Retrieved March 15, 2015.
  12. ↑ Trevison, Catherine (October 22, 2000). "Temporary retailers fight over space as holidays approach". The Seattle Times . Seattle, Washington. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved March 16, 2015.
  13. ↑ O'Connor, Clare (October 11, 2013). "No Trick, Just Treat: Halloween Pop-Ups Now Account For Half Spencer Gifts' Annual Sales". Forbes . New York City. Archived from the original on May 8, 2015. Retrieved March 16, 2015.
  14. ↑ "Spencer Gifts Goes Global with First Retail Store in the United Kingdom". spencergifts.co.uk. March 2000. Archived from the original on April 5, 2001.
  15. ↑ "Store Locations". spencergifts.co.uk. Archived from the original on February 11, 2003. Retrieved March 16, 2015.
  16. ↑ "Gordon Brothers and Palladin acquire Spencer Gifts". Boston Business Journal . Boston, Massachusetts. June 2, 2003. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 16, 2015.
  17. ↑ "Spencer's Marks 60th Anniversary". PR Newswire . December 21, 2008. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 16, 2015.
  18. ↑ "About Spirit of Children". Spirit Halloween. 2013. Archived from the original on December 7, 2023. Retrieved December 7, 2023.
  19. ↑ "ACON Investments PORTFOLIO". Archived from the original on November 21, 2018. Retrieved October 31, 2018.
  20. ↑ "Moody's affirms Spencer's ratings following debt-financed purchase of ACON Investments' equity stake". Moody's. June 10, 2015. Retrieved June 14, 2020. Moody's Investors Service affirmed SSH Holdings, Inc.'s ("Spencer") B2 Corporate Family Rating ("CFR") and B2-PD Probability of Default Rating ("PDR") following the company's announcement of a debt-financed purchase of ACON's equity stake and dividend distribution.
  21. ↑ Federal Trade Commission (April 29, 1969). In the Matter of Spencer Gifts, Inc (PDF) (Report). pp. 769–772. C-1527. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  22. ↑ Federal Trade Commission (February 24, 1970). In the Matter of Spencer Gifts, Inc (PDF) (Report). pp. 165–168. C-1694. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  23. ↑ Reitz, Stephanie K. (October 25, 1989). "Ethnic Complaints Prompt Spencer Gifts To Pull 'Sheik' Masks". The Morning Call . Allentown, Pennsylvania. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved March 15, 2015.
  24. ↑ "Arab-American Group to Protest 'Offensive' Masks". Los Angeles Times . Associated Press. October 28, 1989. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 15, 2015.
  25. ↑ "Undercover Video Shows Kids Getting Access To Adult Toys". newsnet5. Cleveland, Ohio. Archived from the original on February 4, 2008. Retrieved March 16, 2015– via Wayback Machine.
  26. ↑ Vedder, Tracy (April 28, 2011). "Local stores found selling sex toys, porn to children". KOMO-TV . Seattle, Washington. Archived from the original on May 2, 2011. Retrieved March 16, 2015.
  27. ↑ Richards, Brandon (March 2, 2011). "Sex toys on display at Spencer's?". KPLC . Lake Charles, Louisiana. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 16, 2015.
  28. ↑ Rusch, Emilie (November 9, 2010). "Police seize mall store's sex toys". Rapid City Journal . Rapid City, South Dakota. Archived from the original on August 31, 2015. Retrieved March 16, 2015.
  29. ↑ O'Shea, James (February 22, 2014). "Massive Irish American effort to end insulting St. Patrick's Day gifts". IrishCentral. Archived from the original on April 27, 2016. Retrieved March 15, 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.