Whether shopping, dining out or finding a job, we’ve moved into a world of less security but more opportunity
There is about a third more shopping space than retailers need Small companies are snapping at the heels of bigger ones
Where the artists lead, the capitalists will follow. So Hackney graduated from hipster’s heaven to banker’s boudoir, and now the pop-up has moved from a means of using empty spaces as studios and galleries into the retail mainstream.
When H&M sets up a summer shop for six weeks in an old brewery off Brick Lane in London’s East End, you know that temporary installations have become a permanent feature of the business.
The pop-up economy is everywhere. It isn’t just shops: it is nightclubs, rooftop bars, cinemas and — according to Dojo, an app that tells me exactly what is hip and happening in the pop-up scene — a couple of less conventional options: an immersive cocktail cloud, whatever that means, and a floating table on which I am invited to dine. For those who wish to make, rather than partake in, pop-up, there are agencies such as Appear Here that will rent you spaces from Tunbridge Wells to Glasgow for a day or a few weeks. The phenomenon is so well established that some pop-up companies have become middle-aged and settled down: The Wandering Chef has decided that the itinerant life is a bit tiring and has taken up residence behind the Little Yellow Door — a bar that pretends to be somebody’s flat — in Notting Hill.
Pop-up happened partly because impermanence encourages creativity, which makes things more fun. There is “immersive dining”— not so much dunking customers in the soup as creating an environment ( fin de siècle France for one evening, southern American voodoo blues for another) that turned eating into theatre. And immersive theatre of the sort popularised by Punchdrunk — taking over vast multi-room spaces to create mysteries that the audience gets involved in — is part of this trend.
But economics and technology offer a more fundamental explanation for the pop-up movement. Internet shopping means that the value of retail space has fallen, as was sharply demonstrated earlier this year when Tesco took a £4.7 billion write-down on the value of its stores. People in the retail business reckon there is about a third more shopping space than the industry needs. That explains why there is such a generous supply of temporary space on the market.
The internet has speeded up the pace at which fads come and go, and this is at odds with the old model of bricks-and-mortar retailing. The companies that build shopping centres and own high streets want retailers to sign long leases, but tastes change so fast that the retailers prefer not to make those sorts of commitments. They need to test things, and bring them to market, more quickly than they used to. The pop-up is thus not just a new sort of outlet but also a means of doing market research.
Digital communications have enabled the pop-up economy. In the days when marketing was by word of mouth or an expensive, months-long campaign, an established presence in a high street location was essential. But these days entrepreneurs use social media to let their customers know which fashionable new backstreet bar or warehouse they should hurry along to this evening. A “press night” for a restaurant that a friend of mine organised was for bloggers only — enough to make the blood of a mainstream journalist run cold. Pop-ups are not just an interesting phenomenon in themselves: they are also part of a wider trend towards the temporary and away from the permanent. There are pop-up hotels (Airbnb), offices (vrumi), and a host of pop-up driving, cleaning and even legal services. This means, of course, the creation of lots of pop-up jobs.
Should we celebrate or mourn the crumbling of permanence? More the former than the latter, I reckon. The great virtue of the pop-up economy is that it lowers the entry barriers to getting into business. When you don’t need the money to take out a long lease on a big shop or restaurant, or to build a factory or run an expensive marketing campaign, then the only requirements for setting up shop are energy and a good idea. That has helped small companies grow: since 2000, 1.4 million micro-companies have been created in Britain.
There are downsides. Hillary Clinton was right when she said last month: “Many Americans are making extra money renting out a spare room, designing a website . . . even driving their own car. This on-demand or so-called ‘gig’ economy is creating exciting opportunities and unleashing innovation, but it’s also raising hard questions about workplace protections and what a good job will look like in the future.” The questions are harder in the US economy, which has fewer protections on healthcare and unemployment benefits than ours, but the new world is nevertheless more insecure than the old.
GETTING away from it all can be a chance to rake it in. A crop of start-ups is looking to change the way people travel by encouraging them to rent out their stuff – their car, their spare luggage space, even their skills – to those who need it.
Take Flyta, a “social shipping” company in Ottawa, Canada, that launched in April. Holidaymakers can post their travel dates and destinations, connect with strangers looking to ship something to the same spot and offer to take it for a fee.
When the company first started, CEO Farhad Khan used it to shuttle mobile phones and laptops between the offices of a software company. Now, users rely on it to receive things that are rare or expensive in their home country, such as textbooks, regional brands of food or even medical devices. The method is much cheaper than traditional shipping, says Khan. “It saves a lot of hassle.”
Carhood in Melbourne, Australia, also aims to help travellers cut costs. Rather than leave their car in the airport car park, travellers flying from Melbourne can drop it off with Carhood. While they’re gone, the company will clean and store the car for free in exchange for the right to rent it out. Since its launch earlier this year, more than 1000 people have offered up their vehicles.
“How much stuff do you have that you don’t use?” says Christian Schaefer, co-founder of Carhood. “The power of today’s economy is in ourselves and the way in which we’re learning to share things with others.”
This idea powers the “sharing” or “gig” economy: the range of online services that let people connect directly with each other thanks to modern technology. On a laptop or a smartphone you can quickly find someone with the right skills or in the right place, establish a basic level of trust via messaging or video chat, and then beam payment to them when all is done.
On GoCambio, a website based in Cork, Ireland, that launched in March, travellers looking for a place to stay can offer language lessons instead of money. In the future, the company hopes to expand this to include other skills, such as tutoring or playing guitar.
“On GoCambio, travellers looking for a place to stay can offer language lessons instead of money”
“Everyone has something they can share with someone else,” says Rosie Mansfield, managing director of GoCambio.
The undisputed sharing king in the travel industry is Airbnb, which enables people to rent out their flat, bedroom – or even tree house. Since its launch in 2008, the company has become wildly popular, with more than a million listings worldwide. Its success has inspired websites such as PlateCulture, which lets users turn their homes into restaurants, and Rover, which offers peer-to-peer pet sitting.
But relying on strangers rather than professionals carries added risk that the companies must find a way to mitigate. Flyta, for example, asks users to pass a background check and agree to a temporary hold of money on their credit card before carrying packages.
Companies such as these are dramatically changing how people experience new places, says Pauline Frommer, who is editorial director of the travel guidebook series Frommer’s and encourages people to try social housing sites.
“You’re more likely to meet and have conversations with people,” she says. “I think it’s a wonderful development.”
The gig economy
The sharing economy has spawned a wide range of apps and services.
MONEY: TransferWise in London enables users to exchange currency by connecting them with someone looking to transfer an equivalent amount in the opposite direction.
FOOD: With Instacart, a start-up based in San Francisco, those who are too busy to shop can find someone to pick up and deliver whatever they need.
RIDES: The apps Uber and Lyft let users turn their cars into taxis. For those with a little more cash to spare, New York City-based Blade offers on-demand helicopter rides.
ANYTHING ELSE: TaskRabbit lets users book someone to do odd jobs for an hourly rate.