Pop-Local is dedicated to helping local independent businesses and artists around Clark County. The business officially started its journey in August 2020 as a pop-up shop concept to support businesses through the pandemic. When shop owner Jessica Chan’s other company, Night Market Vancouver (Pop-Local’s sister event company) was temporarily halted at the beginning of the pandemic, she created the pop-up shop to give local vendors a new home to sell their products and increase brand awareness. What began as a pop-up business will now become a permanent brick and mortar fixture on the downtown Vancouver waterfront. To help support the buildout of its new location, Chan ran an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign last summer. Pop-Local will officially open its doors on March 5th, hosting an all-day grand opening event to celebrate.
Chan shares, “The goal of the store is to give an opportunity for local vendors to have a consistent retail presence, while streamlining the process for them and supporting their product sales. All that is required from vendors is for them to drop off their products. Pop-Local handles everything else from there!”
Vendors participate in a membership and consignment model, where they pay a base monthly membership cost to have their brand featured, plus a small percentage of their sales. Pop-Local handles merchandising, marketing, product photos, inventory management, and sales.
So far, there are more than 70 brands represented in the store that are all local to the Vancouver and Portland metro area. They are always open to new products and are still in the process of onboarding new vendors. Each vendor will have a ‘vendor profile’ available for customers to read about each specific company. Customers can expect Pop-Local to continue to evolve and change as new products arrive.
“We pride ourselves in being ‘hyper-local’ and supporting brands that are truly within our neighborhood to inspire a greater local economy,” explained Chan. “I care deeply about showcasing our brands and their stories.”
The company’s free grand opening event will be at its new location at 111 Grant Street. The ribbon cutting ceremony begins at 12pm and will feature speakers from the Port of Vancouver, Vancouver Downtown Association, and more. Local samplings, live music, and giveaways from featured vendors and area businesses will happen until 7pm.
To learn more, visit the Pop-Local site here.
