R.I. Gen. Laws § 6-14-3: License required for sale.

No person shall offer for sale a stock of goods, wares, and merchandise under the description of “closing-out sale”; “going-out-of-business sale”; “discontinuance-of-business sale”; “selling-out”; “liquidation”; “lost our lease”; “must vacate”; “forced out”; “removal”; or other designation of like meaning, or a sale of goods, wares, and merchandise damaged by fire, smoke, water, or otherwise, unless he or she shall have first obtained a license to conduct a sale from the clerk of the city or town in which he or she proposes to conduct a sale.