This time last year I was part of a group running a pop-up shop in sunny Penge, south London. I’ve put together my thoughts on involvement in the project, firstly as a reminder of the experience to myself and secondly, in case it might help anyone thinking of taking part in a similar venture.
Saturday 17th March, the Pengetout pop-up shop opened to literally
crowds of shoppers in Penge, south London. A group of nine local artists,
craftspeople and entrepreneurs had joined with Sally Williams from Retail
Revival, supported by Bromley Council, to open this year-long venture. I was
part of the team and had signed a six month licence to sell framed prints and
cards in the shop for a small monthly rent, plus a day each week working on the
shop floor. In return I had a designated section of wall space, and later table
space, to sell my work in the shop.
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| Opening day line-up at the official opening by the Mayor |
The starting line up of traders were:
Mary Gordon Smith, selling paintings, prints cards and pottery
Yolanta from 'Hatome Studio' selling prints, cards and cushions
Lois from 'Jewellery by Lois' selling handmade jewellery and scarves
Claire from 'Taylor and Abel' selling haberdashery and sewing
classes
Tracey from 'All my Style', selling clothes, accessories and
jewellery
Lucy from 'Retrolution', selling mid-century furniture
Carina, from 'Alice & Bert' selling a variety of handmade bags
Rachael from 'Fox and Willow', selling individually upholstered
chairs and stools
Plus ‘shop’ items from Sally at 'Retail Revival'
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| I was able to demonstrate how I worked in watercolour whilst working in the shop |
Early days
There were quite a lot of meetings in the first few weeks as the
traders got to know each other and develop a format of how the shop was going
to work in practice. Sally was at the helm, but it was soon obvious that each
of the traders were going to have to put in a lot of work to make the shop a
success. We had a huge amount of goodwill from the local community which was
fantastic but we also need to build on that and let people from a wider area
know about the shop. In addition, we were able to access a series of business
related workshops held at the shop.
It had been a while since I had worked in a retail environment,
and even longer since I had worked as part of a team, so working in the shop
was a great challenge. As well as selling handmade products, some of the
traders wanted to demonstrate their skills whilst in the shop and I decided I’d
like to draw and paint each time I was there. I hoped that by seeing me at work
it would be a talking point for customers and practically it would give me a
chance to work on current projects.
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| Some of the traders at the Business Design Centre |
Visiting a trade show as a ‘Buyer’
In the middle of May, the traders from the shop visited the
“Pulse’ trade show at Olympia with Sally. I’d visited these events before just
to get an idea of trends in the stationery and gift field but visiting as a
buyer was a new experience. Each of the traders in the shop had a strict list
of products that they could sell within their licence so each of us focussed on
different products.
I soon realised that in order to make the project financially
viable for myself, I’d need to extend my own product range and/or buy in stock
from other suppliers. I knew there were quite a lot of artists locally
producing excellent prints and cards so started to place some orders. I’d also
seen lovely products at ‘Pulse’ which I thought would sell in the shop. My
buying strategy was to buy things with local interest or products that were not
available in other shops in Penge. Here’s a list of people I bought from and
their relevant links, all of whom I’d recommend if you are looking for great paper-based
products!
Final sale
My licence ended on 22nd September and I decided to leave the shop
at this point. It had been a really positive experience and
I’d learnt lots. Working within a team, learning what our customers were
looking for and how much they were willing to spend, was valuable information.
3 important areas if you are
planning to be involved in a pop-up shop:
1. Communication
In general, I think we all got on pretty well considering most of
us didn’t know each other before the start of the project. Early on we had lots
of meetings and although we didn't all agree, views and suggestions were openly
given and discussed. As time went on, it got increasingly difficult to find
times that were convenient for everyone and we let that side of things slip. We
did have a ‘What's App’ group to help with customer inquiries and staffing, but
I feel it would have been useful to sit round the table at least once a week
and catch up with new products and services we were offering and reflect on any
events from the previous week. The limited amount of conflict that occurred
centred around two areas. Firstly, the crossover of products that each of us
could sell and secondly working out a fair rota.
2. Publicity and marketing
Sally set up a website for the shop along with a social media
presence on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Individually we all used our own
social media to let our customers know that we were trading in a bricks and
mortar shop on the high street. We also were featured in the local SE20
magazine. However, there always seemed to be people discovering the shop for
the first time so we obviously didn’t reach all of our target audience.
3. Have a good range of products
Having been used to displaying work in gallery situations where a
selection of work can hang for a month or more, it soon became obvious that I’d
need to ring the changes with the prints that I had in the shop. Customers who
came in each week would be looking for ranges to be refreshed so I needed to
develop and expand the range of pictures and prints that I was selling. As the
involvement with the shop had happened so quickly, I hadn’t any plans for new
work so this is an area where I struggled. I had hoped to develop products too,
outside the paper area, maybe using fabric or ceramics but didn't manage to
progress quickly enough in this area. Retail is quite fast moving and if I had
the chance to be involved in something like this again, it would be an area I
would focus on. Also enjoyed demonstrating watercolour in the shop and could have developed this into offering workshops.
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| Decorating carrier bags to spread the word about the shop |
What I realised…
- I enjoyed being part of the team
- I don’t want to be a shop keeper but would like to sell in bricks and mortar retail shops
- Pricing for retail is different to pricing for galleries
- There is a limit to the amount people spend in shop as opposed to gallery
- People like buying cards
- I need to have a range of collections
And one more thing...
It's so difficult for small retail businesses to make their numbers add up and survive on the high street. Do support them whenever you get the chance!
I enjoyed my visit to the shop, I'm sure that neighbouring shops benefited too. We had breakfast in the café two doors along. I would take part if there was one in Croydon.
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