In a previous post about the state of used bookstores in Pittsburgh, Lindsay mentioned the emergence of a new business model, the pop-up. Pop-up businesses occupy a retail or cultural space for a short period – a day, a week, a month – close, and then reappear at a different location for an equally temporary engagement. Pop-up business have taken off in cities around the US (you can read a serial pop-up entrepreneur in Denver on BlogLocal’s website). Now Pittsburgh seems to be awakening to the trend. City officials recently announced the launch of Project Pop-Up Pittsburgh, an initiative designed to help bring small business owners and local artists into downtown, specifically into one of the many unoccupied storefronts. You can read more about the project’s goals and guidelines on their website: http://projectpopuppittsburgh.wordpress.com. The deadline for submissions is September 13, 2011 at 5:00PM.
In the meantime, we hope you will continue supporting Pittsburgh’s current pop-up stores (and alerting us to new arrivals). East End Book Exchange recently announced three new pop-up events:
- Saturday, August 20th at Commonplace Coffeehouse in Squirrel Hill. 10-4pm
- Saturday, August 27th at Assemble (5125 Penn Avenue in Garfield). 10 – 4PM. We will be joined here by Tech-To-Go, the tech pop-up project from BirdBrains Labs.
- Sunday, August 28th at Pittsburgh Public Market in the Strip District. 10-4PM.
Check their blog for more details and updates: www.eastendbookexchange.blogspot.com