Sears Holdings has something new in store for Halloween. The owner of Sears and Kmart is testing a new seasonal store concept called Totally Ghoul in 10 locations in the Chicagoland market.
One location is housed in a former Tweeter location in Crystal Lake. It holds between 3,000 and 5,000 Halloween items, according to store manager Joe Subleski.
"The No. 1 holiday for purchases of displays - obviously - is Christmas," Mr. Subleski, who normally works at the company headquarters, told the Northwest Herald newspaper. "The next biggest holiday is Halloween. It's a multi-million-dollar industry. We thought we would go ahead and expand our inventory to include items not normally carried within our stores."
Totally Ghoul will be open for business through October 31 and perhaps into November to try and pick up shoppers looking for sale merchandise, according to Mr. Subleski. The concept will stay away from some of the more racy merchandise sold in other outlets. If the concept works, it is possible that Sears Holdings will look to open additional seasonal theme stores.
Discussion Questions: Is Totally Ghoul a concept that has legs? Do you expect Sears to expand beyond 10 stores and open stores for other holiday seasons? Will we see other major chains testing similar concepts?