I had first heard of a pop-up shop while reading an article on Urban Planning that talked about the power of small projects in distressed communities that lacked the funding for the larger, more impressive ones. Shortly after that, in May 2010, I began working in downtown Rockford as part of the steering committee for the Rockford City Market that was just beginning. Later that fall, I developed and began teaching the Creating the Creative Business course in the Rockford area. Several of the "creative" students, which were also Rockford City Market vendors, hoped to someday have a shop of their own in downtown Rockford.
In August 2012, a group of retailers already located in Rockford's downtown initiated a project called Shop Downtown Rockford. The goal was to promote boutique retailers and art galleries that already existed in the downtown area. By September 2012, the retailer's group was able to find fifteen businesses throughout the downtown area to participate in the Shop Downtown Rockford brochure for the holiday season from October 15th to December 24th. Because the retail shops were not clustered in any one section of the downtown area, the group hoped that a brochure with a map indicating the location of the shops would assist shoppers to find the stores more easily.
Until the early 1970's downtown Rockford had a bustling downtown shopping district with a variety of upscale shopping options including Marshall Field's (now Macy's); Van Wiese & Co. (now Bergners) and D.J. Stewart and Co. just to name a few. All of these had either closed or moved to the Cherry Vale Mall by 1978. In the early 80's, a group of local investors decided to redevelop the D.J. Stewart & Co. building into three floors of office space with retail on the first floor. In October 2012 most of the retail space on the first floor of Stewart Square was vacant. All that existed was a struggling retail shop that had opened about a year before; a restaurant and a small shop that sold handmade pasta; gourmet salts and flavored balsamic vinegar. They had opened in the fall of 2011 and they too were struggling.
As the Rockford City Market season was ending, in October of 2012, I tried to search for a way to allow some of the vendors to set up pop-up shops somewhere downtown to compliment the Shop Downtown Rockford project. The goal was to give the market vendors the experience of having a shop of their own in the downtown during the holiday season hoping they would get the chance to test their "market". I met with the manager of Stewart Square and asked if he would be interested in allowing some of the market vendors to set up in the hallway of the first floor. The hallway was very large and open. It seemed the perfect place to set up these shops out of the weather. He agreed.
Utilizing the first floor of Stewart Square meant that we did not have to deal with side walk ordinances that still, in 2012, did not allow retailers to put items out in front of their stores. A sidewalk sale ban had been put in place downtown in the 1970s but later changed to accommodate the Rockford City Market and other events. The manager was very accommodating and four pop-up shops were opened on October 15th: a soap maker; a pie shop; a bath & beauty shop (that specialized in scrubs and bath bombs) and a baker (specializing in cheesecake). All of the products were homemade and all of the vendors had been in the Rockford City Market at least one season.
There were several issues that we faced. First, the agreement between all of the retailers in the Shop Downtown project was that they would be open from 10am-5pm on Saturdays. Unfortunately, many of the shops were open only when they felt like it and only a few had any kind of regular hours at all. This included the two shops that already existed in Stewart Square. These issues required some direct involvement. The manager of the building had given them space from Oct 15th to Dec. 24th for just $150.00 and that included electricity. He did not feel that he should have to oversee their progress, but he was adamant that they be open from 11am-3pm from Tuesday to Friday and on Saturdays from 10am-5pm.
The most difficult thing was making sure that the shops were open on Saturdays. We invented a couple of in-store events that would bring people downtown to shop on Saturdays that were a great success. This included cooking demonstrations at the pasta shop that was standing room only. In fact, several of the other retailers in the downtown were very impressed by the increase in sales they were experiencing on Saturdays due to the project. Shoppers commented on the Facebook page - which is still active at www.facebook.com/shopdowntownrockford - stating that they "had found shops they never knew existed in the downtown" and they really seemed to enjoy the "new" shopping experience taking root in downtown Rockford.
The greatest success was that two of the four market vendors that had started a pop-up shop in Stewart Square during this time decided to rent shops in downtown right after the holiday season was over. The bath & body shop stayed at Stewart Square (the shop relocated in 2014 to a larger store front in the 400 block of E. State St still downtown) and the pie shop opened about four blocks north primarily because she needed access to a commercial kitchen (she is now located outside of the downtown area next to the Rockford Public Library branch on E. State St).
Not long after the project was completed another of the market vendors opened a bakery in Stewart Square and built a new commercial kitchen with redevelopment grant funds they were able to obtain from the City. In 2014, a regional bank opened a branch on the first floor of Stewart Square and by the fall of 2014 all of the retail space available in the building was occupied.
Pop-up shops have proven to be a way to not only improve the development of a distressed downtown, but also to incubate businesses that will later expand into vacant shops. A win/win in my book.
Another interesting article on pop-up shops is located at http://choose901.com/shab-chic-marketplace/ Choose 901 – pop-up shops in shipping containers