Holiday Christmas markets, pop-up markets helping boost small business sales on Delmarva

SALISBURY, Md. – It’s no secret that people on Delmarva love their pop-up shops, and that can be seen on third Fridays, Small business Saturdays, and the many Christmas markets and pop-up shop events.

Those events are more than just a fun outing to a brewery, or downtown square, they also represent a big investment into small businesses, and a substantial boost of revenue for start-up small businesses and the towns that host them.

“These small businesses that are not yet in brick and mortar spaces, they need a leg up and need to establish a customer base formulate a brand and all those are important when you go to a bank and want a business loan,” Salisbury Chamber of Commerce President Bill Chambers.

Chambers believes these markets can help to bridge the gap and allow for businesses to grow without overhead costs that often come with retail spaces or wholesale online ordering.

“If you’re an artist or a craft maker then wholesaling your losing money, you don’t have the scale,” said Bathing Bee and Rust and Honey Owner Allison Shelton. She tells us, Rust and Honey is her physical location in Salisbury, selling candles, bath bombs, arts and crafts, and other local handmade goods as well as platforming local artists in the area.

She tells her business relied on those pop-up markets and small businesses Saturdays before she had her location, and she wants to help platform new businesses, and give more opportunities for people to shop local.

“We wanted to provide a space for other vendors to be able to showcase and have a stage for their things to be a storefront for everyone,” she said.

She says the supply chain shortage has brought even more attention and customers to local vendors like hers, she says a popular item, shark-shaped bath-bomb, has sold over 7,000 units this year alone and is difficult to keep in stock, despite being all locally produced.

She says artists who work at Rust and Honey will also be able to share in that success, as well as participate in pop-up events when they are available.

Bill Chambers says the amount of those pop-up events has doubled in recent years, and with professional staging and organizing, more people come to spend, drink and savor the atmosphere.

“It’s a gathering like no other, it’s creating almost a small downtown business group without the brick and mortar,” he said.

Chambers says the events are drawing crowds from across the states, boosting tourism, and encouraging more businesses to open up, knowing they will have support in their early stages.

He says he’d like to see more towns across Delmarva invest in pop-up markets and expand their tax base.

“There are opportunities here jurisdictions that seize it to encourage entrepreneurs and businesses via pop up market festival market are goanna reap rewards,” he said.

Chambers tells us the next step is for the State and Federal governments to recognize the benefits and begin offering grants to towns and localities to help construct permanent structures and buildings that can be multi-use and implemented to help small businesses in the area.

“Our representatives have to see this would be an easy grant and it would keep that money local and pay for itself with that growth we are already seeing,” Chambers said.