Shops At Market Arcade

the studio with a pop-up shop. That is right, Lauren. Thank you so much. That was the perfect segue because we're bringing some of downtown's holiday cheer right here in the Wing It Studio this morning for our Friday find. We're joined by Eric andrea, Dacey of Buffalo Adore, and also Brandy Meriwether. You are the downtown development coordinator for Buffalo Urban Development Corporation, and we're talking about what Mayor Brown just mentioned, and that is Queen City pop-ups. So Brandy, I'm going to turn it over to you first. For people that haven't heard of a pop-up shop, what exactly is that? Yeah, basically what Queen City pop-up is, it's a partnership between the City Buffalo Urban Development Corporation, Buffalo Place and Working for Downtown, where we partner with property owners who have empty storefronts along Main Street, who donate the space for free for us to set up a temporary pop-up shop that features local retailers. And the space is offered free of charge for the pop-up period in hopes to really get the vendors to test the market and to see what downtown retail is really about, ultimately hoping that these vendors will sign on to permanent leases to occupy some of the empty storefronts we have on Main Street. And I want to point out that this doesn't feel This is almost Yes, the vendors are great. So we've got a lineup of wonderful vendors for this first pilot holiday initiative of Queen City pop-up. We have Azarize Innocence, we have Buffalo Adore, we have Preferred Work, we have Rust Belt Love There as well, and we also have a handmade jewelry maker, Uniquely You. So we're so excited. They have great merchandise. Andrea and Eric are going to talk a little bit about that later, but we'really excited to have them on board. We're also thrilled to be working with Sinatra and Company, who were gracious enough to offer their space at the Historic Market Arcade Building, free of charge for this initiative. And this is so exciting. So one of those shops that you mentioned, of course, is Buffalo Adore. Andrea and Eric, you're here from Buffalo Adore. Now for a local business, what does this pop-up shop, what does this do for you as local vendors? Well, it brings us more exposure for the people of Western New York. So it's going to help grow our business. Our business is growing, so a secondary location is going to be needed soon. So this is great to test the market. But more important, what it's doing, it's giving the people of downtown somewhere to go somewhere to shop. And we're hearing it already in the first week. What a great response that we're hearing from the downtown workers, the downtown living, that it's giving them a whole other place to go Christmas shopping. And of course, for our Friday Find, we always show you a product or products that make your life trendier, easier, just more fun. Now the original idea was to have stuff just from Buffalo Adore, but you brought in that out, and I'm so glad you did, because you brought a cross-section of some of the things that these businesses at Queen City Pop-Ups offer. So can you give me a rundown? Let'start with, of course, what you have on the table from Buffalo Adore. Well, we brought, of course, from Buffalo Adore. We try to focus on Buffalo things, because we all adore Buffalo. So we have wall signs, Buffalo artwork, all sorts of fun stuff And then from Queen City Pop-Up, we tried to bring a little bit of everyone's work. So Azre is innocent. She does skincare and beauty products, the jewelry and the scarves from Uniquely You. And we have some cards and some mugs from Rust Belt Love, and then some custom apparel from Preferred Work. So everything you see here is available at the Pop-Up shop downtown. So whether you want something that is strictly Buffalo themed, This is your place to go to see a lot of local vendors at once. Absolutely. And there's also other businesses that are in the market or are paid currently, so there's even more for everyone to choose from. Also of course, you're right there in the heart of downtown, so there are plenty of restaurants to go and support local restaurants. And just get a feel of the city at holiday time, which is really magical. Now Brandy, how long is it open and when can people stop by and say hello? Our Pop-Up shop actually runs from now through Christmas Eve. We're open Monday through Saturday from 10 to 6 and Sunday from noon until 5. We also have extended hours tonight. We're working in partnership with the Queen City Gallery. Another great business that's inside of the Market Arcade, so we'll be open until 9 o'clock for all the shoppers who want to come out and support. Now there'so much buzz around this right now. Are there any plans to do it after the holiday season? Yes, actually this is our pilot launch, but this is an ongoing project that we're going to be working closely with the mayor and Buffalo Place as well as our other partners on. So we're going to be bringing other temporary pop-up shops to downtown and we're going to keep doing this initiative until we really begin to see our local retailers occupy some of those storefronts on Main Street. And we've had so many local vendors here on Wingy. It's just real quick, if anyone wants to get involved in this or maybe share their pop-up shop, how can they get in touch with you? Sure. We're on Facebook at Queen City Pop-Up. We're also on Twitter. You can also follow up with me via our website, which is BuffaloUrbanDevelopment. com as well as information on the city's website, which is city-buffalo. com. And this is just proving that there's no excuse not to shop local because we are making it easy for you to do that right here in the city of Buffalo. But we're going to change gears just a little bit and we're going to send it out to Emily.