rethinking retail: pop ups, food trucks and other trends from detroit
DESCRIPTION
A brief overview of the pop up trend in Detroit based on IMG coverage from 2013.TRANSCRIPT
Rethinking Retail: Pop Ups, Food Trucks and Other Trends from Detroit
Ashley Aidenbaum – Group Publisher
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Defining Pop-Ups
• Short-term retail operations which “pop up” one day and are gone the next
• Term “pop-up” is trendy, but concept is not new• Benefit to retailers: in a down market, sellers can take advantage
of lower rents and shorter leases to generate sales and drive attention to certain properties
• Popular types: Food and beverage Art gallery/exhibition Pop up yoga/fitness Jewelry and apparel Crafts Seasonal items
Model D Covers Trends in Detroit
Tashmoo Beirgarten – West Village
Urban Grounds – Eastern Market
Komodo Kitchen – Midtown
Doing pop-ups has been an amazing experience for us. It has helped us build our brand and audience and test our product with no capital investment. - April Boyle
Café con Leche – Lafayette Park
"We were looking for a neighborhood that has the same type of community - Lafayette Park has that feel.”
- Jordi Carbonell, co-owner, Café con Leche
Moosejaw – Woodward and Grand River
Somerset CityLoft – Lower Woodward Corridor
Part of effort to fill retail from Campus Martius to Grand Circus Park
Rustbelt Market – Ferndale
“What you will see as a shopper when you walk through the doors will leave you in awe. It is the result of a collective of 60+ of the best creative based businesses Michigan has to offer consuming 15,000 sq feet of a former corporate big box.”
Jacques Tacos – Metro Detroit
REVOLVE is a collaborative program of the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation (DEGC) that partners with local leaders, building owners, entrepreneurs, and artists to activate vacant storefronts with transformational businesses and art installations.
Revolve Detroit
Challenges
• Financial/Practical• Startup investments (equipment + fixtures)
• Obtaining market analysis/feel• Registers/payment method (Square)
• Attaining critical mass• Accessibility to new entrepreneurs
Opportunities for Retailers
Short-term benefits:•Marketing a location•Flexibility with unfinished spaces/spaces in transition•Short term occupancy – better than vacancy•Allows potential occupants to feel out location•May provide helpful sales data for potential long-term occupants
Big picture:•Activating spaces/creating a destination•Regional economic development to build prosperity•Building stronger neighborhoods and communities
Recommendations for Real Estate Professionals
• How to leverage• Partnerships with economic development and other entities• Leasing suggestions
• License agreement (versus lease) laying out terms• Other considerations/challenges
• Insurance• Utilities• Health department
• Make sure all parties are clear on long term intentions• Have a strategy
• Marketing• Communication• Engagement
Further Recs from Revolve Detroit
Recommendations from Michael Forsyth – DEGC
•Make connections – building owners + entrepreneurs•Partnerships are key to success – local community orgs and others may have insider info on what the area wants and needs•Leverage resources to simplify the process –
“At REVOLVE, we’ve developed some key tools to accelerate the pop-up process. For example, we help file temporary food licenses with the health department for our pop-ups. The simple two week permit is half off if it’s filed by a non-profit ($125 non-profit, $250 for-profit), which is one more reason to team up with REVOLVE or your local CDC. We customized a “license agreement,” kindly provided from Pittsburgh’s pop-up program, as a substitute for a lease. It’s a simple agreement between building owners, pop-up tenants and REVOLVE. Next year we’ll be releasing a guide with all the permits, checklists and resources entrepreneurs need in one place.”
•Tell the story!
For full story: http://www.uixdetroit.com/features/michaelforsythrevolvefeature.aspx
Further Recs from Model D for EntrepreneursTips from Claire Nelson – Model D
•Be conservative about your expectations.
•Cluster, cluster, cluster. West Village is a great example. Not one pop-up store/event on its own, but a few at one time. Give people multiple reasons to go to a new place! This, of course, takes extra work/time for collaboration & coordination between multiple retailers/events.
•It's all about your social network & appetite for heavy social media activity. That first blast of editorial love from the local papers will get you your first big wave -- but maintaining that, even for a short burst of a few weeks or months, is where you'll have to get creative.
Resources
• Model D http://www.modeldmedia.com/• Metromode http://www.metromodemedia.com/• Urban Innovation Exchange: http://www.uixdetroit.com/• Curbed http://detroit.curbed.com/• REVOLVE Detroit
http://www.degc.org/local-data.aspx/revolve-detroit-is-a-retail-evolution Michael Forsyth: [email protected]
• Good http://www.good.is/magazine• Next American City http://nextcity.org/• Spacing http://spacing.ca/
Resources
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