Tucked away in a small strip mall off Cohasset Road is The Broom Closet, a haven for occult trinkets and unusual oddities.
Melisa Flores and Monique Charles run the store, two witches marking their first Halloween as a retail shop in Chico.
They are a mother-daughter business duo who've been around for five years, the first four in Red Bluff. They made the trek to Chico after the county turned their shop’s building into offices.
It was a tumultuous time but the process of leaving one city for another offered a lesson on intuition, something they emphasize to clients.
“When you're open, things start falling into place, and boy, we made the decision to move on a Sunday, and by Wednesday we had keys,” Flores said.
Now in Chico, they offer services like tarot and palm readings, cleanses and ancestral healing. They host crystal ball readings and various classes and workshops. They also have a walk-in magic bar for making spell jars.
While The Broom Closet has the makings of a trendy metaphysical shop, Flores and Charles say they are rooted in Peruvian, Caribbean and Southern Black traditions.
“We come from a variety of cultures, and all of our family is very ritualistic,” Flores said.
Rituals inform everything in The Broom Closet, from what music is playing to what incense is burning. Flores and Charles say achieving the right ambiance and energy ensures the store is prepared to welcome whatever is going on in the community.
“We have people come in here excited and giddy, but we also have people come in here and can't talk or have very deep, intense things going on,” Charles said. “So the frequency has to be set in order to accept all other energies.”
Some people know to seek out the shop for supplies or spiritual guidance, but Flores and Charles hope they’ve also created a nonjudgmental, non-scary space for people who maybe don’t know what they’re looking for.
Or, maybe they know what they’re looking for and that’s to see the two witches.
