Pop up shop idea please.

[PassingStranger]

Been gifted a pop up shop for a while.
No rent.
What would you do either selling, service or community wise, but obviously making money. Thanks.

She also apparently has no idea what to do with the shop, it's a time of year where many people will be reining in spending especially during a cost of living crisis.

She could well spend hours and hours sitting in an empty shop serving few customers each day to make a few pounds that will cover the electricity bill if she's lucky. If she's not lucky she could lose thousands in unpaid bills, unsold stock and most people need to earn money to pay their living costs, otherwise it's a hobby and likely a depressing one at that.

Are you into knitting or crochet?

I was mournfully looking at a vacant shop near me the other day and thinking (with zero retail experience!) that our area would actually love an indie yarn and crafting store, with a big table in the centre for classes/stitch 'n' bitch drop-ins etc. Have a free tea table with a kettle and teabags, stock a few nice brands of wool and explain it's for a pop-up to see if they might accept returns on unsold stock at the end of the 2 - 3 months or whatever it is.

Yoga/pilates studio - rent the space by the hour to local teachers.You could probably just do it with an Instagram - no website.

Alternatively, I echo the idea above of identifying a trend that fits your local demographic to a t and buying a lot of it (not tooooo much though - be careful) from AliExpress.

Buying and selling kids second hand clothes. But you need money to purchase. That's what I would do. Have a price list to buy each item, then sell for a mark up.

She has reiterated that she has retail experience

So do I aka I've worked in a shop. So do millions of people. That's vast acres different from having actually run a shop and made a profit. If OP had credible retail experience i.e. had actually run her own shop before, she wouldn't be sitting here with no clue what to do with a popup.

1. When.
2. How long for
3. How big is it
4. What licence does it have? There are limits on what you can do!
5. What skills do you have? Could you make something to sell?
6. Have you got experience of running a shop?
7. What happens afterwards?

Something exciting for lunch and something to take home for dinner.

Who said she hasn't a clue?

Soliciting brainstorming from a wide swathe of people is savvy. She may still have her own ideas.

Tricky month has people have spent out on Christmas and sales.

The weather is turning cold cold, so maybe hats, gloves, scarves etc, especially children’s. Can you purchase stock on sale or return?

Yoga studio is an interesting idea, especially this time of year.

Nothing that involves investing your own money. If you have no marketable skills and it’s in a residential area, it sounds like a good way to lose a lot of money. There’s probably a reason there isn’t a successful business already thriving there.

I would offer it as a pop up space to people who want to pay a little bit to have some floor space for something. Think of summer businesses who need indoor space in winter - the couple who run a coffee truck at festivals, handmade clothing boutique that is usually online, cake maker who wants to sell cupcakes, or create a co-working space or something similar, hire out for meetings or community events.

Eye brow or nail bar

Four massage chairs at £1 for three minutes or whatever the going rate is.

%3D%3D

This isn't about retail experience.

It's about (not) having a business idea and (not) having a plan. An Opportunity is available and there's no amount of retail experience that that will make up for being without an Idea and without a Plan.

She may well have a plan, or is in the process of forumulating one. Group-sourcing ideas doesn't negate that. The amount of self-righteous know-it-alls here is off the charts! She's merely asking for ideas.

wax melts, bath bombs, etc

All the stuff I want to get rid of! And that my extended family want to get rid of. Good quality clothes, furniture, books, bric a brac, cushions, bunting and the extensive collection of hand made costume jewellery and decorations I used to sell at craft fairs pre-covid.

Yes, money.

@PassingStranger well if it's about money you need two things -
1 - stock
2 - stock that is something that isn't easily available in that area so will sell.
We could suggest 1001 ideas here but they aren't going to be useful unless we know what gaps in the market there is where the shop is.

OP, the reason people are asking for more info about who lives there, what other shops are nearby, and so on is that you need to be selling something people want - that is, the people who will see your shop. So if it's all young families on a tight budget, pre-loved clothes and toys could be a winner. Young professionals might welcome a shoulder massage in a relaxed space. You get the idea.

So the question is, WHO will you be selling to? What kind of people will be passing?

Exactly, talk about fifty thousand questions lol.
What sort of people will be passing lol.......
Thanks to those that gave ideas.

Fgs sake chill out and stop looking for an argument

Well if you need to make money I'd forget the idea completely and do paid work instead.

The chances of you making even NMW for the time you put into this unit in the short to medium term are extremely low.

Not looking for an argument or being 'a buzzkiill' just knowledge of statistics about starting this sort of business and the voice of bitter experience.

Sounds like a money pit to me, but hey ho.

Round here something like a play cafe would go down well, but you'd need to buy equipment, have a coffee machine, buy food snacks to sell on, have toilets and goodness knows what in terms of insurance and food hygiene certs,

Honestly, this is a weird response. Mocking people for asking what sort of people will be passing??? That's literally the single most important factor for choosing what goes into a vacant retail space.

At the most basic level, saying/knowing whether the passers are poor or rich dramatically changes how useful the suggestions that YOU asked for will be.

A very odd attitude from the OP. Can't sing, can't dance, and knows FA about the business retail if they can be so flippant about the Ps of marketing. But tbh that sums up most of the table-holders using the local pop-up space in town. Bath bombs, crochet, cookies, and organic healing krystals pitched at midweek footfall. Most of them take a good book.

The only one I can remember making a really good go of it was a florist, who used it as a stepping stone from working on the kitchen table to getting a proper shop of her own.