Local pop-up shops gain popularity

Last year, Atlanta got to sample mobile shops when fashion designer Cynthia Rowley rolled through town. She launched her Shop on Wheels after hearing that DHL had cut its truck fleet. She wondered what it was doing with the abandoned vehicles. Rowley converted one into a Cynthia Rowley store, with hardwood floors, a fitting room, printed-fabric wall coverings and Lucite fixtures.

The truck, which carried the entire range of items in the Cynthia Rowley collection, parked at Phipps Plaza in February. The intention, a spokeswoman said, was to provide customers a retail vehicle in locations where Cynthia Rowley does not currently have a brick-and-mortar boutique (the closest one to Atlanta is in Charleston, S.C.). "The Shop on Wheels is a new way to think about retail and for Cynthia Rowley to offer her customers the ultimate in service -- the store literally comes to them," the spokeswoman said.

More recently, food trucks have made a big showing in Atlanta, feeding festival-goers and lunchtime crowds in neighborhoods such as Midtown, Inman Park and Atlantic Station. Willy's Mexicana Grill launched a food truck in December that pops up at events across the city and can be hired for private catering.

Early this month, TV Guide Network also went the truck route to promote a new television series about a nail salon in California. The mobile spa spent two days in Atlanta offering free manicures to passers-by who watched clips of the upcoming show, "Nail Files," while being serviced.

Pop-up shops also came in another form last year when vendors took over several vacant retail spaces on Peachtree Street for the holiday season. "The term ‘pop-up' has become more popular this year in Atlanta, and people are understanding it more because a lot of people are doing it," said Tucker Berta, who organized the event.

One vendor, Jake's Ice Cream -- which currently sells out of Irwin Street Market -- became so attached to its storefront at 860 Peachtree St. it didn't want to leave, Berta said. It is now in negotiations to rent the space. And that's just one way that pop-ups are starting to change Atlanta's retail landscape.

"We've been a fan of pop-ups whenever they make sense financially," said Graham Heard, a spokesman for Billy Reid, the Florence, Ala.-based maker of luxury apparel and accessories for men and women. "It allows us to test the waters with a market we are pretty sure about."

With six branded shops across the country, Billy Reid has Atlanta on its short list for a new location, Heard said. During its first pop-up last year in Midtown, the first day yielded about $5,000 in sales. "Atlanta is obviously a market we have had our eye on for a long time and a market we think we should be in, but in a way sometimes you have to go there and be part of it and act like you have a store there to really get a sense of it," Heard said. The company has done pop-up shops in Chattanooga and has had offers from places as far away as Vancouver, B.C., (it didn't accept). On Saturday, it will participate in another pop-up event at the Goat Farm, Heard said.

For a small retailer like Lisa Resnick, founder of Lisa Jill Jewelry, having a pop-up shop allowed her to show customers her merchandise in a way that trunk shows and gift shows don't always make possible. "[A pop-up shop] wasn't just taking a table and putting jewelry on it with a few props," she said. "It was really setting up as a shop." Resnick used rugs and painted furniture to create her vision of a retail store, even if it was only for three days.

"It is a way for me to go to different communities and meet different kinds of people and introduce my product to different types of people," Resnick said, noting that many of the brick-and-mortar stores that once carried her merchandise are no longer in business. Pop-up shops have helped her offset the loss of revenue, she said. But it's not just about selling more stuff. One of the things Resnick most enjoys about pop-up shops is the chance to interact with her customers.

"If they see my jewelry on a rack in a store, they may not know there are five different ways to wear my necklaces. When I show it to them, they are like, wow," she said. "It is so much more exciting to me to get to see who is buying."