Move over Dunkin' − these Halloween stores in Warwick are nearly within sight of each other

WARWICK − Move over, Dunkin' and Starbucks, there's a new contender for stores opening so close together that you can see one from the other.

In Warwick, it's not coffee that's being served at multiple stores, two of them within a sightline of each other. It's Halloween costumes and decor.

In three half-mile stretches on Bald Hill Road there are three Halloween pop-up stores – two Spirit Halloween stores and one Spooky Town Halloween Superstore. All three are occupying previously closed retail spots.

On a recent Thursday, Paul Levasque, of Johnston, was walking out of the Spirit Halloween in the former Bed Bath & Beyond at 1500 Bald Hill Road.

"Halloween's my thing," Levasque said as he rolled up a sleeve to show off his horror-themed tattoos.

He collects pins and patches from the stores, and when traveling he stops if he sees one in hopes of collecting a pin or patch he hasn't yet found. The variety in the new Halloween stores is also a thing of wonder. Before their rise, Levasque was resigned to searching for mediocre costumes at big box stores like Target and Walmart.

While Spirit Halloween stores have been growing in number, Levasque said he has also seen the spirit of Halloween grow, and in his estimation, it has begun to nip at the heels of Christmas.

Why are there so many Halloween stores?

Spirit seeks to put its stores in locations where there are more than roughly 35,000 people within a 3-to-5-mile radius and is flexible on the size of the store.

Warwick's commercial strip of big box stores on Bald Hall Road seems like a perfect fit, with Halloween stores filling otherwise vacant storefronts in three of the six shopping centers.

In the Marketplace Center at 1500 Bald Hill Road, Spirit Halloween has taken up residence next to a Bob's Discount Furniture and Mattress Store and a Joann Fabric and Crafts, in the husk of the former Bed Bath & Beyond. Leaning into its Beyond roots, the orange "Spirit Halloween" sign is pasted over the much larger sign for the former store.

Inside the sprawling former home goods retailer, only the front third of the space is used for customers, with shelves blocking off the back and sides of the store, while bloodied, crazed clowns jeer from a center display.

Half a mile down the road, at the top of the hill in Summit Square, (1276 Bald Hill Road) next to a PetSmart and a Staples, is the second Spirit Halloween in a much smaller space; about two-thirds of the store is open for shopping.

Another half-mile down the road, next to Trader Joe's at 1000 Bald Hill Road, is Spooky Town Halloween Superstore.

Unlike the two Spirit Halloween with a coordinated black and orange color palette, the inside of Spooky Town is mostly white, with racks and racks of costumes and a single inflatable lawn ornament.

Halloween has become big business, a $10-billion a year industry, according to the National Retail Federation.

Home improvement stores are broadly much more in the business of outdoor Halloween decorations than the costume stores. Home Depot is known for its 12-foot skeletons that often stay out year round, affectionately named "Skelly," while their line of inflatables hit store floors in July.

Bones and all: How to snag Home Depot's 12-foot skeleton after 'Skelly' sells out

Where are all the Halloween stores in or near Rhode Island?

• Spirit Halloween, 1450 Park Ave., Woonsocket

• Spirit Halloween, Providence Place (mall), Providence

• Spirit Halloween, 1275 Fall River Ave., Seekonk

• Spirit Halloween, 1360 South Washington St., North Attleboro

• Spooky Town Halloween Superstore, 1000 Bald Hill Road, Warwick

• Spirit Halloween, 1500 Bald Rill Road (Marketplace Center), Warwick

• Spirit Halloween, 1276 Bald Rill Road (Summit Square), Warwick

Spirit Halloween now owned by Spencer Gifts

Spirit Halloween opened its first pop-up store in 1983 at the Castro Valley Mall in California. Joe Marver, the company's founder, opened the location after experimenting with the Halloween business in his women's apparel shop, according to a 2000 Los Angeles Times article.

In 1999, Spencer Gifts purchased Spirit from Marver.

"We want to bring Halloween to as many communities as possible," Drew Griffiths, divisional vice president, marketing and social media for Spirit said to USA Today. "While our ideal locations feature 5,000 to 50,000 square feet of sales floor space with awesome visibility, no store is too large – or too small."

The ubiquity of locations in the casualties of the retail apocalypse, the shells of out-of-business retailers, has turned the company into somewhat of a meme.

Spirit Halloween: How the retailer shows up each fall in vacant storefronts nationwide

What are the Spooky Town Halloween Superstores?

Spooky Town Halloween Superstores bill themselves as a "family owned and operated" chain in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

Neither Spirit Halloween nor Spooky Town Halloween Superstore representatives responded to interview requests.

According to its website, Spooky Town has a total of five stores: one in Rhode Island, one in New York and three in Connecticut.

Unlike the two Spirit Halloween stores in Warwick, which have some decorations, most of the merchandise in the Spooky Town store is costumes.

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Reporting from USA Today was used in this story. Reach reporter Wheeler Cowperthwaite at wcowperthwaite@providencejournal.com or follow him on Twitter @WheelerReporter.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Why Spirit Halloween stores opened so close together in Warwick