The upswing in pop-up stores, as the short-term placements are called, is playing out in all sorts of ways,
and in all sorts of places — including dark malls, former grocery stores and shuttered art galleries, according to real estate brokers, landlords and tenants.
In 2012, when she started looking for physical stores to augment her online business, she had
to cold-call landlords directly, she said, because “brokers had never heard of pop-ups.”
Landlords are finally coming around, she said, but they may have no choice, as stores continue to go out of business.
Swooping in to capitalize on the rash of empty stores in New York
and elsewhere are some new brokerage-type businesses, which charge fees to landlords as brokers do and also sometimes market spaces concurrently with other agents.
Pop Up Goes the Retail Scene as Store Vacancies Rise -
As traditional retail stores close and vacancies mount, landlords across the country appear newly receptive to leases
as short as a week, eschewing the typical 10-year time frame, even in locations that once shunned limited stays.
“I tell them that some money is better than no money, and I promise not to bother you.”
The rise in pop-up stores is adding another element of change to a retail industry facing upheaval
from profound shifts in consumer habits and powerful new competitors, especially online.