Thanks for the new locations! Spirit Halloween Meme
Dialogue
Text content
The text explaining the failing retail company and the Spirit Halloween brand logo text
Overview
This is a two-panel edited meme referencing the well-known business practice of Spirit Halloween, a United States seasonal costume retail chain. The top panel features the Overwatch character Mei looking resigned and apathetic, with text overlay reading "A company going bankrupt with stores closing nationwide". The bottom panel features Overwatch character Soldier: 76 pointing a shotgun directly at the viewer, with the official Spirit Halloween logo edited over his face. The joke rests on the widely known fact that Spirit Halloween exclusively operates temporary pop-up stores in recently vacated commercial retail spaces, so whenever a national chain declares bankruptcy and closes all its physical locations, Spirit Halloween immediately benefits from the newly available storefronts to host their seasonal Halloween sales.
Origin notes
This meme originates from Reddit, posted in meme-focused subreddits with the original title "Thanks for the new locations!". It adapts the popular two-panel Overwatch "child threatened at gunpoint" meme template, a widely repurposed reaction format used for jokes about a party actively benefiting from another party's misfortune.