Former Sears building in Cape Girardeau gets temporary tenant

Spirit Halloween, with an estimated 1,450 pop-up locations in North America, temporarily has set up shop in the former Sears Grand building at 330 Siemers Drive in Cape Girardeau.

"We've been here since the end of August and will remain until the first week of November," said Spirit Halloween-Cape Girardeau's store manager Tanya Poppen, who added that the local pop-up location last year was in the former Macy's department store in West Park Mall.

Spirit Halloween, based in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, is said to be America's largest Halloween retailer and sells season-appropriate decorations, costumes, props and accessories.

Best selling masks so far this Halloween, Poppen said, are from the "Hocus Pocus" and "Beetlejuice" films, and Jason, from "Friday the 13th" movie franchise fame.

"We do amazing sales in Cape," said Poppen, whose pop-up operation takes up only a small portion of Sears' mammoth 150,000-square-foot venue.

Cape Girardeau's Sears Grand store was one of 26 "large format" Sears and Kmart outlets shuttered in 2019 after their parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

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