Carson Pirie Scott and Calvin Klein plan to open a pop-up shop in River North on Friday, a first for both companies.
The 1,600 square-foot store, at 116 W. Hubbard St., will remain open for seven days and showcase Calvin Klein’s fall collection of sportswear, dresses, jeans, underwear and accessories. The companies are taking over unfinished retail space on the first floor of Hub 116, a newly constructed office and gallery building.
The pop-up shop brings the Carson’s name back to a fashionable district of Chicago after more than a three-year absence. Carson Pirie Scott, a unit of Bon-Ton Stores Inc., shut down its historic Chicago flagship in the Loop in 2007, citing the high costs of operating the more-than-century-old store. Since then, Carson’s has been looking off and on for a new location downtown. Carson’s operates a small commuter store at 120 S. Riverside Plaza near the train stations.
The practice of setting temporary shops, pioneered by Target Corp. in New York in 2002, has taken off since the recession, fueled by a glut of vacant retail space. Pop-up shops are transient by nature, operating mere months, weeks or even days. The format allows retailers and designers to create a buzz, while landlords generate income from spaces they have been unable to lease. The temporary storefronts also provide a testing ground for new retail concepts and an avenue for reaching new customers.
Several companies have operated pop-up shops in the city including Target, Kraft, Lexus, Motorola and Sears.
smjones@tribune.com
“more-then-century-old” – how about more-THAN-century-old!
THEN it would be correct!
Carson’s has hardly been “absent” from Chicago despite the closing of its flagship store on State Street. It has kept a small store at 120 South Riverside Plaza, near Union Station, open on weekdays for years.