Monthly pop-up vintage marketplace comes to Grover Beach

Junque Love, a pop-up marketplace featuring local vendors with vintage and repurposed goods, opens for its second show Friday and Saturday after a successful debut last month.

The monthly show is the first of its kind on the Central Coast, said the show’s creator and coordinator Jennifer Little, a full-time marketing director.

Pop-up marketplaces are the new wave in vintage and antique businesses, particularly for part-time or side-business vendors who are looking for a way to reduce the cost of inventory and rent and the time commitment of working in a shop, Little said.

Junque Love is open the third weekend of every month in a 1,500-square-foot building at 866 Grand Ave. in Grover Beach. The building sits empty for the rest of the month. Little said she quickly sold out of booths for this weekend’s show — the space accommodates 15 vendors.

The vendors are local, coming from places such as Paso Robles and Santa Maria. Several also participate in Three Speckled Hens — a semiannual antique show at the Paso Robles Event Center.

Junque Love has no admission fee to the public, which was made possible by the venue’s low rent, Little said. She added that she felt it didn’t make sense to charge someone to go shopping. The vendors only pay a fee for the booth space, Little said. She declined to disclose financial information.

The previous show in February drew about 300 people each day, running Friday through Sunday. The March show will only run Friday and Saturday as the pop-up tests the market to gauge what shoppers want, Little said. She anticipates a 15 percent increase in traffic from the previous show.

Because of strong interest from both patrons and vendors, Little said she hopes to move the show into a larger venue by June and expand to 30 vendors. The pop-up market would require about 4,000 square feet, Little said.

Vada Mason, owner of The Old Potting Bench, a vintage, collectibles and antique store in the Village of Arroyo Grande, was instrumental in starting up Junque Love, Little said. Mason supported the idea and provided vendor contacts to organize the event.

Little anticipates The Old Potting Bench will move into the current Junque Love venue when its lease for the Arroyo Grande Village space is up at the end of June. By that point, Little said, she hopes to have found a new South County location for the pop-up market.

This story was originally published March 17, 2016 at 5:06 PM with the headline "Monthly pop-up vintage marketplace comes to Grover Beach."