California retailer experiments with a temporary retail space and finds long-term opportunities
Editor in Chief
This issue’s cover story, “Why Pop-up Shops Keep Popping Up” by Julie A. Palm, examines short-term sales spaces, which are “here today, gone tomorrow” retail events. These temporary sales spaces range from showcasing new products to serving as a community ambassador to introducing an ad campaign to hosting special events to expanding your brand to attracting prospective customers. A pop-up shop even can lead to the opening of a permanent store. Case in point:
According to BedTimes magazine, Sleep Savvy’s sister publication, McRoskey Mattress Co., a 120-year-old luxury mattress retailer (and former manufacturer) with stores in San Francisco and Palo Alto, reached across the San Francisco Bay to San Rafael, California, in November 2017 to open its first pop-up store. During the first weekend of operation, it held a Breakfast in Bed celebration at the storefront, where customers enjoyed pastries and beverages while trying the beds.
The temporary shop was meant to better serve McRoskey customers in the North Bay area. With traffic in San Francisco worsening, the San Rafael pop-up gave online shoppers, wishing to avoid a drive to McRoskey’s store in San Francisco’s commercial district, the opportunity to test beds in person.
The attractive, minimalist brick-and-mortar showroom in San Rafael’s business district began as an experiment and slated to close in February 2018, but the company decided to open a permanent store in the Marin County city north of San Francisco.
According to Jill Bibo, now McRoskey’s vice president of sales and marketing, the community was very welcoming, which made it an easy decision to transform from pop-up to permanent. “The move to downtown San Rafael is an opportunity to readily serve North Bay mattress shoppers, saving them a trip across the bridge,” she said.
So, check out Palm’s story, and, if you haven’t already, give a pop-up shop a try. You never know what bridges you may cross or where it may lead. Just ask McRoskey’s.
