Pop-Up Shops Are Breeding In The Hamptons – And Here’s Why

The Hamptons, the swanky summer vacation locale for the wealthy and the preppy, has become absolutely teaming with pop-up shops in recent summers.

Most of these chic, designer shops will only be open for a couple of months during the summertime, and many will largely be trying to break into the affluent East Coast market for the first time by connecting with some of the movers and shakers who typically summer in the Hamptons.

Think of it as an extended episode of Shark Tank with a lot of pastels and boat shoes.

The typical Hampton pop-up, according to Bloomberg, is a fashion, beauty or jewelry store that opens around Memorial Day, usually sells higher end goods, and is typically a brand that has little or no prior exposure on the East Coast.

These aspiring brands jockey for position as early as the previous fall, because the Hamptons is all about that summer boom period – it’s not nearly as much fun in the winter.

Usually by the spring, all the desirable locations on the main drag have been scooped up and leased by the most prominent or eager pop-up stores seeking to make entry that season.

In a recent interview with Bloomberg TV, Melissa Gonzales, founder and CEO of Lion’esque, a pop-up architect firm that has helped over 80 pop-up stores successfully open in New York and Los Angeles, noted that the Hamptons is currently one of the premiere pop-up spots in the world and a market that her company is increasingly dealing with, due mainly to its exclusive “seasonality.”

But Gonzales also noted that the pop-up trend is spreading throughout the world and becoming one that retailers and costumers should definitely start paying attention to.

“You see them more often in cities that have high foot traffic, like New York City, and seasonality like the Hamptons, but they’re happening nationwide. They’re happening across the world, they’re happening in London, they’re happening in Australia, New Zealand, so it’s definitely a paradigm shift that’s international for retail,” Gonzales said.