With tarot readings and a holiday visit from Krampus, new location for oddity shop Petunia & Loomis helps show ‘weird and fun’ side to downtown Spokane

Tucked between Boo Radley’s and Atticus Coffee & Gifts, oddity shop Petunia & Loomis’ new storefront will help shoppers find a bit of the macabre for the holidays.

Having opened in downtown Spokane in 2022, the store has moved just a few blocks away. It now sits at 224 North Howard Street – a half-block south of Riverfront Park.

Samantha and Jesse McCauley, the couple who own the strange shop, switched locations to get more space for all the weird stuff that can be found at their store.

Holiday shoppers can find taxidermy, spell books, antique dolls, tarot cards and other oddities. Samantha McCauley described the store’s inventory as “a lot of odd stuff you can’t find anywhere else.”

In many ways, that’s what makes shopping at local businesses a bit different.

And it seems to be working in Spokane, where, according to the Spokane Trends website, new businesses are booming. In 2014, some 2,882 people filed paperwork to start new businesses. By the end of 2023, that number had climbed to 8,297. Spokane Trends is produced by Eastern Washington University’s Institute for Public Policy and Economic Analysis.

That figure was 20.4% higher than the number of business licenses filed in Spokane County in 2022, when 6,889 business licenses were issued.

The new Petunia & Loomis opened to the public last week and is holding a grand reopening Saturday. The celebration will include hearses parked in front of the store and free pictures with an actor dressed as Krampus – a half-goat doppelganger of Santa Claus who punishes naughty children each year. On Sunday, the oddity shop will provide free tarot readings.

Asked why she opened the shop, McCauley said the couple had “gotten tired of doing things for other people that we didn’t want to do.”

“We wanted to do stuff we loved. I’ve always had a passion for this stuff, so we just decided to do it,” she said.

Business has been good in the new location’s first six days, she said. Petunia & Loomis as well as the shops on either side were packed on Black Friday with holiday shoppers looking for a kooky gift.

Boo Radley’s manager Claire Menzer said their shop is collaborating with Petunia & Loomis on a joint social media campaign. The two stores “complement each other,” she added.

“We just want for everyone to be able to get a gift for anyone in their life,” the toy shop manager said.

Atticus manager Kaylee Gaines-McGee said she hopes their new neighbor will help “bring more weirdos” into the coffee and gift shop.

“Between Boo Radley, Loomis and us, there are a lot of unique gifts to find in this little stretch. Petunia & Loomis is definitely a draw to downtown. We hope we can help people find them, and we hope they can help people find us,” she said.

Together, the three stores show downtown Spokane is “weird and fun,” she added.

Reporter Thomas Clouse contributed to this article.