Welcome to ThisIsRetail, your weekly look at some of the more diverse and unexpected stuff influencing the way we buy, sell, and consume in the 21st century.

So it's Halloween again and Americans are set to spend some $9 billion on Halloween merch this year, a significant portion of which goes to just one company, Rubies Costume Co., the world's largest manufacturer and designer of costumes, purveyors of Princess Elsa dresses, Batman cloaks, and, weirdly, Sexy Bert & Ernie (of Sesame Street fame) outfits among many, many more.

To bandwagon all this seasonal spookiness, we'll be exploring the reanimation of dead brands of yesteryear, the increasingly desolate alternate dimension that is the shopping mall, and daring to peek at how Goth lumbers on, zombie-like in its relentless opposition to whatever counts as mainstream (you and me, most likely).

Good Lord, deliver us!

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