Making the pop-up model permanent

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/02/2019 (2531 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The shelves may be bare at the moment, but The Local Entrepreneurs of Winnipeg will soon have a rotating stock of goods from local makers. 

The business is located at 141 Sherbrook St. and is the brainchild of brother and sister duo, Samuel Cadelina and Nerissa Manzano. 

Manzano is an entrepreneur herself — she sells second-hand clothing at various pop-up locations in Winnipeg — and was looking for a better way for small business owners to sell their wares. 

“Doing pop-up shops you set up for that one day, it’s exhausting, and then you have to pack up and do it all over again,” she said. “It’s a lot of work.” 

The Locals will be a kind of long-term pop-up where vendors can rent a display area in the store for $150 a week for up to one month.

The pitch is that sellers will benefit from low overhead and a more permanent location and customers will benefit from ever-changing merchandise. 

“One of the biggest expenses is labour… and then space itself is pretty expensive when you’re a small business, especially when you’re growing and just starting,” Cadelina said. 

The model was inspired by the family’s business in the Philippines, which has multiple food vendors working out of one location. 

“This kind of business is actually really popular in Asia,” Cadelina said.

Retail staff and point-of-sale transactions will be managed by The Locals and vendors will receive 100 per cent of each item they sell.

“The idea is to make it so easy for the businesses,” Cadelina said. “All they have to do is come in, set up their area.”

“They don’t even have to be here,” Manzano added.

Another perk for vendors is the cross-promotion available in-store and via social media. 

“Everyone has their own following,” Cadelina said. “If there’s 20 of you, there’s 20 of you advertising.”

Finding the storefront on Sherbrook was a happy accident. The siblings saw a post about the space on Kijiji and decided to make an Instagram account (@thelocalswpg) to gauge interest in their idea before signing the lease. Manzano got more than 50 emails that day.

“I couldn’t keep up,” she said. 

Evidently, the jumped at the opportunity. 

The space was a former retail store and had all of the amenities they were looking for, including change rooms. 

The Locals can accommodate 25 vendors at a time, depending on the size of the items being sold. Since getting on Instagram in January, Manzano has gotten messages from entrepreneurs of every stripe. 

“Everything from youth clothing, to home decor, to kids to pets, we’re getting a lot of interest from all areas,” she said. “There’s just so many unique ideas out there.”

Cadelina and Manzano are also looking forward to helping others learn about being small business owners. They’ve teamed up with the Business Development Bank of Canada and plan on organizing educational workshops throughout the year. 

The Locals’ soft opening is scheduled for Feb. 26 with a grand opening happening in March. Contact thelocalswpg@gmail.com for more information.