The trend of pop-ups stores appears to be on the rise in Harrogate town centre with two new ones opening recently at the Victoria Centre.
The latest ones follow the Ellie Warburtons pop-up cake shop which took over the former Swarovski store on James Street.
The idea of a pop-up is that it gives prime town centre space to small, local businesses at a fraction normal Harrogate high street rents.
The pop-up space outside the Victoria Centre near Claire’s is run by property consultants Barker Proudlove.
Before opening, Barker Proudlove had five businesses booked in for the first seven weeks.
The first tenant of the space, last week, Laura Berryman of L&N Candles said her pop-up was a “great success”.
She suggested similar venues should open in Harrogate to give small businesses the chance to reach more customers.
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Today, a ping-pong pop-up parlour opened in the shopping centre as a community space for locals to use. The aim is to encourage more people in to the town centre.
Pop-ups also stop a unit standing empty in Harrogate, even if only temporarily.
The trend has been welcomed by the Harrogate BID manager Matthew Chapman. He said:
“The BID is very supportive of having pop-up shops, albeit temporary, to bring empty units back to life. It is a great way of helping breathe new life into the high street, and also helps start up and independent businesses to test the market with their products without unnecessary financial risk.
And for the landlord, it also means they aren’t liable to pay ‘empty shop’ rates.”