Attention Walmart shoppers, there are two pop–up stores located in Southern California this holiday season in order to allow consumers the chance to browse an assortment of toys and electronics, and then order them directly from Walmart.com on laptops and tablet computers at each store.
"The goal was to give our local customers easier access to the range of products on Walmart.com," spokesman Lorenzo Lopez said, requoted from a Los Angeles Times article.
"It's not uncommon for us to test different formats and different offerings in different markets just to learn how customers respond."
The Westfield Topanga mall located in Canoga Park, just a few miles north of Los Angeles and in the heart of the San Fernando Valley, will house a 1,000 square foot Walmart pop–up store, while downtown San Diego will have the remaining 3,000 square foot pop–up store.
Each pop–store is either the fraction of the size of an average Walmart Express store (15,000 square feet) or Walmart Supercenter (180,000).
Most of the products on display are not for purchase with the exception of items such as headphones and 3–D glasses, Lopez said.
"The emphasis for us is to offer the new format and see how customers react," Lorenzo said.
Pop–up stores are not a new concept as the trend has been seen in larger cities like New York where business owners have been able to rent a location on a short–term basis in order to get the word out about their business, unload old inventory, test out a new product or try out a new business idea.
Other business owners have worked out an agreement to share their store space with another business allowing both parties to help grow each other’s business while feeding off the other’s clientele.
With so many Los Angeles store fronts empty because of the economy and high–cost to start a new business, opening a pop–up store for a short–term trial basis would give a prospective business owner the opportunity to see whether the business model is successful or would need refining.
Even if a Los Angeles business owner is unsure whether it’s necessary for their business to try out a pop–up store, why not visit the Walmart located in Topanga mall and see their pop–up display for an example on how it is done.
Hurry, both stores will close at the end of December and Walmart will not open any other pop–up stores this holiday season.
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