I went to the Spirit Halloween location in London, Ontario (in Westmount Mall). The layout of the store was done quite nicely, with different genres of outfits separated into different sections. Some of the prices were quite high, for full costumes and large decorations in particular, but the things that I ended up buying were fairly priced.
I was looking to buy a brown wig to dress up as Sarah Manning from Orphan Black. Her hairstyle isn't exactly weird or uncommon, yet I couldn't find a single wig that looked like her hair. I did find one that looked like Rachel Duncan's hair (also from the same show), but it ended up not looking at all as pictured (I will review that separately).
I ended up wanting to buy an eye patch. I figured it would either be in the accessories section or with the pirate costumes, but not having been there before, I had no idea where to look. I have a bad hip and I didn't want to wander all over the very large store trying to find one, so I asked an employee. She had no idea where the eye patches were located, but said she would ask. Five minutes later, I see her coming back to me with another employee who is looking up and down the aisles, completely lost. Finally, one of them finds an eye patch in the pirate costumes (surprise!), and points me in the right direction. The store had been open for months -- how did they not know where their own stuff was?
Eventually I get to the checkout. I have a total of three items, which I pay for, and I take my bag and go home. When I get home, I was charged for the three items, but only two are in the bag. I had to go all the way back to the store with my bill and explain to them the situation, where the cashier tells me she "dropped it" in amongst the other bags. ??? My bag was up on the counter, how the heck did my item not make it into my bag? It was RIGHT THERE. And for those wondering why I wasn't watching them put the items into the bag to have avoided this mess, I had donated money to their Sick Kids fund and was busy signing my name on a card for them. I naturally just assumed all items were in the bag.
The staff just didn't seem to be on the ball at all. I was very unimpressed with the three different individuals I interacted with. The store itself was okay, but other things detracted from the experience, and I can't see myselfgoing there again.
Additionally, when I posted a question to their Facebook page online about the wig -- I commented on the fact that it looked nothing like as presented on the package, and if they had any suggestions for making it look a bit smoother -- I got no response. I wasn't at all rude, but it seems they only reply to those who are 100% sunshine and rainbows about their products.
These reviews are the subjective opinions of ChickAdvisor members and not of ChickAdvisor Inc.