Pop-up stores go upscale

For most retail stores, staying in business for only a few days would be considered a major flop.

But a growing number of merchants are opening shops and abruptly shutting them down soon after — on purpose.

These quickie retail operations — known as pop-ups — are showing up around the nation, filling in the gaps at recession-battered shopping centers for a fraction of the regular rents.

Once limited to seasonal shops and dusty liquidation centers, pop-up stores are now being opened by some of the nation's biggest retailers. (And in Washington, the State Liquor Control Board plans to open temporary liquor stores in at least four malls during the holiday season.)

It's a trend that could reshape the nation's retail landscape if it continues, diminishing the power of commercial landlords and making it easier for merchants to test new locations and products with little commitment.

"It's something that's just getting bigger and bigger every day," said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at market research firm NPD Group.

Designed to generate buzz and lure shoppers with a get-in-while-you-can appeal, pop-ups allow merchants to move quickly, opening up shops to test a new product or market, and closing them without much fuss.

Gap recently opened a pop-up shop in a trendy area of Los Angeles to promote its new premium denim line; celebrities including Halle Berry and Ashlee Simpson-Wentz turned out for the shop's launch party.

Toys R Us is setting up about 80 temporary toy shops nationwide, including several at upscale malls previously unavailable to the chain. J.C. Penney touted its back-to-school offerings through interactive pop-up displays. .

Pop-ups' move to the mainstream was born out of the recession: Desperate landlords are able to fill vacancies in their shopping centers, and nervous retailers can get space for a few weeks or months without signing a long-term lease.

"It used to be that the landlord was in the driver's seat — you used to beg to get into a mall," Cohen said. Now, "the landlord is just happy to get anybody into a space."

Landlords were once able to demand leases of 10 to 20 years, he said, now retailers are able to get spaces for 10 to 20 days.

The trend could have lasting implications for the industry, said Carol Schillne, an executive with commercial real-estate brokerage CB Richard Ellis.

"The mind-set before was that pop-up stores were Christmas stores and Halloween stores and it had a negative connotation," she said. "Then all of a sudden some of the trendier retailers started to do it."

A glut of open real estate allowed Toys R Us to nab dozens of temporary locations around the United States for the holiday season. The toy giant is using the spaces to launch Holiday Express toy shops, its first major pop-up effort.

"We were able to get into some of the finest malls in the country and into some of the spaces that we really wanted to get into that we would not have been able in the past," Toys R Us Chief Executive Jerry Storch said.

The end of the recession, he said, will not necessarily bring an end to the model.

"Once we learn more about where these work and how these work, we'll be able to maintain a pop-up strategy in good times and bad," he said.

The stores' here-today, gone-tomorrow tactic can be a tough sell to some shoppers.

"I like stability," said Jon Delgado, 41, as he shopped at a Toys R Us Holiday Express store at Citadel Outlets in Los Angeles. "I want to know a store is going to be there."

Citadel marketing director Jess Irwin said the outlet center agreed to allow Toys R Us to sign a temporary 4 ½-month lease — significantly shorter than Citadel's typical multiyear leases — in the hopes that the toy giant would ink a long-term agreement once the holidays are over.

"You do have to be a little more flexible in these times," Irwin said.

Information from The Seattle Times archives was included in this report.