28 shops shut every day in the UK meaning our high streets are turning into dead towns! One in every six retail premises lies empty yet there are so many entrepreneurs and small businesses who are fighting to get their products in customer’s hands.
Can a pop up shop be that little ray of hope for small businesses in the recession? We think so but there’s no time for thinking….let’s #godo something about it.
We teamed up with 13 other small businesses from E-Spark (www.entrepreneurial-Spark.com) to organise our very first pop up shop ‘The Entrepreneurs’. We found an empty shop in Glasgow’s Princes Square and devised a plan on turning this from a shell into a stylish shop. This wasn’t going to be any normal shop as we had a variety of products ranging from Fat Free Drizzles, ‘Powernap’ – a revolutionary travel pillow to ‘Bella Brilla’ and luxury wedding accessories.
We begged and borrowed wooden pallets, wine crates and a till. We were going for the shabby chic look! (Skint). ‘Dwell’ in Princes Square kindly agreed to let us use their spare contemporary furniture (You don’t ask, you don’t get.. right?) and the plan all came together nicely.
We launched on the Friday night with a VIP launch night which Councillor Gordon Mathieson and Sir Willie Haughey attended then traded on the Saturday and the Sunday.
The Pop Up Shop was a brilliant success and we collectively brought in over £6000 in the two days. Mary Portas would have been delighted…we will definitely be popping up again soon!
Check out a video and photos of the weekend below:
http://blog.entrepreneurial-spark.com/espark-presents-episode-1-the-pop-up-shop/
www.cake-cetera.co.uk 