‘Tis the season for seasonal pop-ups: As Halloween-themed retailers race toward Oct. 31, Christmas shops already are stocking up on decorations, trees, gifts and elves on shelves. And considering that they’re only operational for a few months, these retail operations have an outsized impact.
Clare Rose, head of specialty leasing at mall operator PREIT, which hosts more than 3,000 pop-ups each year, revealed how seasonal retail provides excitement and variety for malls and shopping centers while giving invaluable physical retail opportunities and experience to small and startup brands. PREIT went private in April 2024 after emerging from its December 2023 bankruptcy and reorganization.
Retail TouchPoints (RTP): What role do pop-ups play in keeping malls relevant and “healthy”?
Clare Rose: Pop-ups are extremely important to a shopping center because they bring in new retailers and a fresh perspective. Shoppers come into our properties three or four times per month — some customers come in on a weekly basis — and they want to see something new, fresh and different. These pop-ups can be kiosks operating in a common area as well as in-line tenants and a range of other formats, and for all these formats we provide something different, unique and immersive. The flexibility is the fun part.
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Pop-ups also bring in small mom-and-pops and entrepreneurs, so shoppers can see [retail offerings from] people who never thought they’d be able to do retail in a mall setting. One brand started as a pop-up in a park in California, and now it’s in all the North Face stores. A billion-dollar industry can start very small.
At PREIT, if you have an idea, we’ll help you cultivate and create it. I love seeing retailers become bigger and be something more, if that’s what they want. We also have some holiday pop-ups that have been with us for more than 20 years.
RTP: Are there particular malls or shopping centers that do best with seasonal tenants?
Rose: To see what’s a good fit, it all depends on the environment, the retail mix and the demographics of the retail space, and it also depends on who the pop-up’s customer is. We have A, B and C malls, and we’ll place a pop-up in one and see if it works; if not, we’ll put them in another center. Some don’t work in an A mall but will do phenomenally in a C mall, and vice-versa.
RTP: As the landlord, what kinds of data are you looking for from prospective seasonal tenants to help make these types of decisions?
Rose: The most important is that they know who their customer is. One of the things that’s a little annoying in dealing with these retailers is when they say, “Everyone is my customer.” Well, it’s not quite everyone, so the question becomes, who is it you want to reach? Are they customers of Victoria’s Secret or Abercrombie & Fitch, for example? That helps us figure out where to put you in the mall and how to position you so that you can figure out your niche and grow from there.
It’s also helpful if [the pop-up retailer] is open to new ideas and doesn’t get stuck in [a mentality of], “I’ve always done it this way.” You can learn from everyone else — all the other experiences, including the national tenants that put millions into their experiences — you can steal from those ideas. In fact, you can learn so much just by walking a mall — seeing the visuals and positioning of the merchandise, even wayfinding.
RTP: Looking at the big picture, how do these pop-ups fit into the retail real estate environment in the U.S.?
Rose: Small businesses in the U.S. equate to 60% of retail volume, and that’s significant. We execute 3,000+ [short-term] agreements at PREIT properties [alone] each year. A lot of people think specialty retailer business development is this small pocket in the mall landscape, and it’s really not. Those kiosks and pop-ups have a big impact on the big picture for us.
I personally love specialty leasing. It’s a lot of fun finding that new idea or concept and bringing it to life, adding it to the retail mix for the shoppers. Anything we can do to bring “new” to the mall is enjoyable.
