Scaring up store space

By Jack Hagel
The News & Observer 09/25/2006

Eight years ago, Jon Biggs asked Crabtree Valley Mall for a two-month lease so he could peddle Halloween costumes, decorations and pumpkin-carving tools. He was greeted with open ears, but not a red carpet. The mall offered his venture, The Halloween Zone, a spot in a service center hundreds of asphalt yards away from the main shops. "We weren't Macy's," he said. But The Halloween Zone and other companies like it are getting closer after years of being stuck in low-profile parts of shopping centers and malls. Landlords -- who for years have worried that slipshod, fly-by-night appearances would scare shoppers away from long-term stores -- are now more inclined to place seasonal retailers in more luxurious digs that become available.

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