Retail Pops Up

Stores that pop up and disappear just as quickly, that’s the new way of retail innovation that sweeping across America. Make it an unexpected, shocking event and people will come, seems to be the new mantra, according to this story in The Economist. Using disused storefronts and even unused museums, as Target did here, popup retail is giving the struggling retail business in the US the mileage and publicity that traditional TV and newspaper advertising is not able to provide. Although pop-ups have been used as a marketing tool for more than five years, the weak property market makes them even more popular. Daffy’s, a discount retailer not usually known for its choice zip code, opened a pop-up in Manhattan’s chic West Village this week on the ground floor of an apartment building that had been tenantless. Hermes, Gucci and Brooks Brothers, all luxury retailers, have opened temporary shops in East Hampton this summer. Their leases are only a few months long, just enough to ride out the peak season. For the ailing Mall business, unexpected arrival of pop up stores could offer a lifeline. More in the Economist