Comment: Are pop-up stores a sign that things are bad?

So are they good or bad? Symptomatic of a general malaise across a sector that is under pressure or a sign that retail constantly renews itself and this is just another indication of that tendency? The subject, in case you hadn’t guessed, is the pop-up. And at a moment when a survey by Retailmap purports to show that more than a third of fashion product in high street stores is discounted, you can’t help but wonder whether the rash of fashion-led temporary stores is a case of conducting major surgery with a sticking plaster.

There are two types of pop-up it would appear. Those that seek to capitalise on events when footfall is high and which close shortly after these have taken place and units that are the precursors to more permanent structures. Into the latter camp fall both the forthcoming John Lewis pop-up in Exeter, which will precede the arrival of a full-line store in the city six weeks after it opens, and the current Opening Ceremony pop-up in Covent Garden, which is doing the same job.

In the sort of world in which confidence was in ample supply, pop-ups that test a market would merely serve to demonstrate that retailers are an entrepreneurial bunch, but not so reckless that they wish to move wholesale into a market that they know nothing about. Unfortunately, it does appear that that majority of pop-ups that are out there currently are more concerned with raising the profile of a brand and/or raising a quick buck while shoppers are around.

As such, you have to reckon that the way in which the pop-up phenomenon has grown and grown is an almost inevitable consequence of an industry that is under very severe pressure. Developers have spaces to fill and gaps really don’t look good (look at some of the larger schemes in London during the recent Olympics and the way in which they were suddenly ‘full’) and if it means giving away space for a short period, then so be it.

Those who praise the creativity of brands and retailers that operate pop-ups might do well to examine the reasons for temporary stores being around. There is no doubt that we are seeing creativity in the temporary store sector, if that is what it can be called, but it is against a backdrop of haemorrhaging sales and heavy discounting. Nero might have been pleased…