Okey Dokey

Iroh alone in his cell:

Synchronized butt wiggles

Prince Phillip kickin' it

That shit in the Capitol that just like never got mentioned again?

Wandavision finale

The big-ass blizzard that hit Texas

Kardashian-West divorce

Grimes-Musk breakup

Trump got his dumb ass banned from every imaginable social media out there

Apparently there was a Super Bowl this year???

Rush Limbaugh kicked the bucket and the world collectively celebrated with dancing crabs

Harry and Meghan dishing the shit on the royal family

The Boat In The Suez Canal

Republicans refusing to take the vaccine but eating horse meds for some fucking reason

The Bernie Sanders In A Chair meme

Sea shanties took over TikTok

It’s so temporary that the halloween stores don’t even have a real sign, they just hang up a banner outside:

Yes, occasionally Spirit Halloween ends up in small empty spaces in a downtown if the stars align just right. But overwhelmingly the end up in strip malls or freestanding big box stores. You HAVE to drive to them. Nobody lives within walking distance.

Freestanding big box stores are built entirely to order and are meant to be replaced semi-frequently. It’s cheaper to just build a newer, bigger one at another location while promising the local government “so much economic growth!!!” that they cut them a deal on the property taxes for X number of years… and the megachain meanwhile knows exactly when that term is up and  is already hunting for a new location  to start the process anew.

It gets worse.

These buildings are so shoddily constructed and so purpose built they’re almost unusable by anyone except the original builder. To the point where some big box retailers have challenged the assessment of the building while its in use and generating $30 million in profit to have it valued based on resale value as if it was empty and abandoned.. AND HAVE WON.

It gets worse.

HOW CAN IT GET WORSE?!?! Many of these properties also have deed restriction on them. That specifies if sold, they can’t be to a competing retailer.  So if it was a big box department store, it may specify that it can’t be sold to anyone that sells competing merchandise… so basically everything from lawnmowers to food to clothing. what the hell can you put in there?

So the resale value of the building is zero, Which when you go to make the assessment… well I guess no taxes are owed.

And these deed restriction generally last decades.  There ARE good reasons for deed restrictions like that. They’re usually used for agricultural land so it specifies it has to stay agricultural OR for industrial land with contamination issues. You don’t want someone to sell a lead smelter to a  shell company and then have them sell it to someone to turn into residential housing. It’s just taken a very, very specific form here.

So you have thousands of these abandoned structures all around the US that are just slowly rotting and are unsaleable.  They might also be being used to show financial “losses” to reduce taxable income more. 

Spirit sweeps in and is “hey, wanna extract a bit more money without in any way disrupting this cycle?”  and rents the building for two months and does not give a damn about what terrible repair it is in. They won’t be using it next year. There will be a thousand newly abandoned store to inhabit next year!

and this isn't Scary Godmother: Halloween Spooktacular uploaded by Neo Scary Godmother. nuh uh.

this is not Scary Godmother: Revenge of Jimmy uploaded by Neo Scary Godmother. absolutely not.

this isn't Casper's Scare School The Movie uploaded by Casper the Ghost.

this isn't Casper's Scare School the show uploaded by Cori

this isn't ParaNorman uploaded by Film Animation.

this isn't Coraline uploaded by The Best Movies And Animation

this isn't Monster House uploaded by Angel90900

this isn't Scooby Doo And The Scare School uploaded by Everything Doo