No Stop for Pop-Up Shop In Venice

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Last summer, Venice design firm Ilan Dei Studio turned a couple of shipping containers into an “off-the-grid” pop-up shop to sell outdoor furniture.

The Abbot Kinney Boulevard site, lacking plumbing and electrical connections, was an experiment in retail only meant to last three months. But it’s still open and the owner has signed a lease to stay at least two more years.

Founding designer Ilan Dei said the indoor-outdoor furniture shop, which powers its low electrical needs with solar panels (hence the off-the-grid label), has been more successful than he imagined.

“We committed to staying because we’ve been operating in the black for the last few months,” he said. “Usually in retail it takes between two and three years to get to that point.”

Before opening the pop-up shop, Dei’s firm only sold furniture directly to customers who solicited its interior design services. L.A. restaurant chain Lemonade, for example, bought its modern yellow-and-white furniture from Dei after commissioning the firm to shape its look.

Dei said the pop-up shop was an opportunity to put his retail design expertise into practice without assuming the risk of a long-term brick-and-mortar store.

“It’s a great way to get a sense of the marketplace without a lot of capital,” he said. “We discovered that we had built a strong community that was interested in us staying, so we decided to stay.”

The unconventional shop is not without its drawbacks. Since there’s no plumbing, employees must walk a couple of blocks to a restroom.

“Until recently, this was all under the category of experiment,” he said. “But that’s the purpose of a pop-up shop; it’s fertile ground to try new things.”

– Bethany Firnhaber

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