Spencer Gifts

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Spencer Gifts LLC

File:Spencers Logo.svg Logo
File:Spencer's Northridge.jpg Spencer's retail location at the Northridge Fashion Center in Los Angeles, California
Trade name	Spencer's
Company type	Private company
Industry	Retail
Founded	June 19, 1947 (1947-06-19)
Founder	Max Spencer Adler
Headquarters	Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, U.S.
Number of locations	More than 670
Key people	Steven Silverstein, CEO
Owners	MCA Inc. (1967–1996) Seagram (1996–2001) Vivendi Universal (2001–2003) ACON Investments (2007–2015)
Parent	Universal Studios (1996-2003)
Subsidiaries	Spirit Halloween
Website	spencersonline.com

Spencer Gifts LLC, operating under the trade name Spencer's, is a prominent mall-based retailer across North America with over 600 outlets throughout the United States and Canada. The stores focus on selling novelty items and gag gifts, alongside apparel, licensed merchandise, sex toys, home decorations, collectible figures, fashion and body jewelry, plus fantasy and horror-themed products. Additionally, the company owns and manages the seasonal pop-up retail brand, Spirit Halloween.

History

The origins of Spencer Gifts date back to 1947 when Max Spencer Adler (1897–1979) established it in Easton, Pennsylvania as a mail-order catalog business offering a variety of novelty goods. All mail-order and fulfillment functions were later centralized in Atlantic City, New Jersey. In 1960, Max’s brother Harry—who had been involved since the company's inception—divested his shares and departed from the business.

The company's first brick-and-mortar retail outlet was launched in the Cherry Hill Mall located in Cherry Hill, New Jersey in 1963 and remains operational there.

Following the establishment of around 450 stores under the Spencer Gifts brand, Max Adler sold the company to entertainment giant MCA in 1967. In a significant transformation during 2003 under new leadership, the company underwent a full rebranding and adopted the simplified name Spencer's.

The mail-order catalog division was discontinued in 1990.

In the years following—1993 and then in 1996—Spencer Gifts expanded its portfolio by acquiring the DAPY chain and launching its first GLOW! store respectively. Both trademarks were phased out before the year 2007. Around the year 2021 these brands were revived under private ownership until July 2024 when both GLOW! and DAPY announced their closure.

In the mid-1990s corporate landscape shift occurred when MCA was acquired by Seagram Company Ltd. in 1995 and subsequently renamed Universal Studios. During this period Spencer Gifts operated Universal Studios’ retail outlets as a subsidiary.

Spencer’s ventured into Canada by establishing its inaugural store there in 1997.

The acquisition of Spirit Halloween, a seasonal retailer founded by Joseph Marver in1983 with approximately sixty temporary outlets at that time occurred in1999. Spirit Halloween locations operate seasonally during the two months preceding Halloween but maintain an online presence year-round. These outlets often occupy spaces vacated recently by other retailers. By2013 Spirit had expanded to over1000 stores contributing roughly half of Spencer’s annual revenue totaling $250 million.

Expansion into the United Kingdom market took place in2000 with up to14 stores launched before ceasing operations during the mid-2000s.

File:2004-02-01 Spencer's merchandise.jpg

Representative products displayed at a Spencer's Gift store

In2001 ownership transferred when Vivendi acquired Universal Studios and rebranded it as Vivendi Universal Entertainment. Within two years GB Palladin—a partnership between Gordon Brothers Group and Palladin Capital Group—purchased Spencer Gifts from Vivendi amid Vivendi’s divestiture of most Universal Studios shares to General Electric's NBC division. Following this transaction Steven Silverstein assumed leadership roles as CEO of both Spencer Gifts and Spirit Halloween.

Starting in fall of2004 Spencer's initiated a store redesign effort.

In2006 Spencer’s launched its "Spirit of Children" initiative which generates charitable donations through Spirit Halloween locations while organizing Halloween events for pediatric hospitals across Canada and the United States. Since its inception in2007 this program has raised more than $110 million benefiting upwards of130 children’s hospitals.

Ownership transitioned once more when ACON Investments purchased the company in2007 before selling it back to Spencer’s management team in2015.

Legal matters

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has conducted investigations into the company's promotional methods.

In 1962, the FTC determined that Spencer Gifts breached the Federal Trade Commission Act by disseminating deceptive advertising claims regarding its "Reduce-Eze" girdles, and mandated that the company stop making such assertions. The girdles were promoted with phrases like "Slim 4 Inches Without Diet" and "Trims 4 Inches Off Your Figure".

By 1969, Spencer Gifts was again found by the FTC to have misrepresented its jewelry products through the use of terms such as "stone," "birthstone," and "gold." Since the jewelry did not include any actual precious or semiprecious stones nor was it made of 24 karat gold, the company was ordered to halt the use of misleading descriptions in its jewelry marketing.

In 1970, the FTC concluded that Spencer Gifts had provided inaccurate information about the effectiveness of its "non-prescription magnifying spectacles," failing to clarify that these lenses only aid older individuals without eye diseases like astigmatism who require simple magnifying or reducing lenses. Consequently, the retailer was instructed to discontinue advertisements that misrepresented the capabilities of its optical products.

Controversies

Spencer Gifts has faced criticism over merchandise deemed sexually explicit or racially insensitive.

In 1989, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) distributed thousands of flyers nationwide targeting Spencer's 'sheik' and 'Arafat' Halloween masks from its "Fright Stuff" collection. The pamphlet highlighted that these masks were the sole ethnic-themed items among traditional monster masks, reinforcing negative stereotypes about Arab people. Following a "three-day protest and telephone campaign" by the ADC, Spencer Gifts removed both masks in October but reinstated them later that month. This reversal led to boycotts and picketing by the ADC. In correspondence with ADC representative Faris Bouhafa, Spencer's general counsel Ronald Mangel explained that after re-evaluating the masks’ appearance with others, company president John Hacala decided to reintroduce them but confirmed they would not be reordered for the following year.

The retailer has also been scrutinized for permitting minors access to adult-oriented products. Although such items are supposed to be restricted in designated areas inaccessible to children, multiple incidents have demonstrated lapses in enforcement. In one case, law enforcement confiscated adult merchandise from a Spencer Gifts location in Rapid City, South Dakota as potential evidence related to the company's failure to register as an adult business.

In February 2014, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, recognized as the largest Irish organization in the U.S., urged Spencer's to remove products they believed perpetuated negative Irish-American stereotypes. These included a T-shirt bearing the phrase "F*** me I'm Irish" and a hat labeled "Irish Girl Wasted." Neil Cosgrove, AOH National Anti-Defamation Chairman, criticized Spencer's for repeatedly disparaging Irish heritage and noted that their St. Patrick’s Day merchandise appeared to reach new levels of offensiveness each year.

External links

• Official website