The current location of Ten Thousand Villages Courtesy Ten Thousand Villages
As many retailers get away from the traditional brick-and-mortar storefront, pop-ups continue to make their mark on the streets of Buffalo.
Built on the model of the European market and introduced first in the U.S. in Los Angeles, pop-ups now house all types businesses from restaurants to high-end fashion shops. Recently, Buffalo’s branch of Ten Thousand Villages, a global nonprofit fair trade organization with a shop in Williamsville, announced they will move to a pop-up in the Brisbane Building in downtown Buffalo.
The area’s Ten Thousand Villages business was selected to participate in the Queen City Pop-Up, a partnership between Buffalo Urban Development Corporation, Buffalo Place Inc. and Working for Downtown.
The goal of Queen City Pop-Up is to: “Create a vibrant Downtown that serves as a destination for the Western New York Region. We will achieve this goal by facilitating the short-term lease of vacant storefronts in Downtown Buffalo to assist small retailers with entering the downtown market. Queen City Pop-Up transitions empty storefronts into vibrant retail shops to create new and exciting destinations and a positive economic impact on Downtown Buffalo."
Vice-Chair of the Board of Ten Thousand Villages Kevin Opp says the organization has looked to relocate to the city of Buffalo for a long time.
“This ‘pop-up’ store concept provides us the right opportunity to bring our fair trade merchandise to the city’s residents and test this urban marketplace,” he says.
Ten Thousand Villages sells home goods, gifts, and artisan work from more than 130 groups in more than 38 countries around the world. The Ten Thousand Villages, Queen City Pop-Up shop will open on Thursday, June 22 and run through the summer to September 1st, 2017.