More than a Store is a regular column that delves into the experiential side of grocery retailing.
When I found out in early December that Pop Up Grocer would bring its store-within-a-store format featuring unique food items to 70 Nordstrom department store locations, I was intrigued.
I’ve written about Pop Up Grocer before and even visited the temporary location it occupied in Washington, D.C., in 2022. Since then, some of the then-niche DTC brands that I saw at that pop-up have found a larger retail stage. Cereal brand Magic Spoon entered Target in the summer of 2022, marking that brand’s first major retail expansion.
That’s the whole point of Pop Up Grocer: Give smaller and DTC brands a dedicated space for consumer discovery. It’s not surprising that Pop Up Grocer, which now has a permanent store in New York City in addition to its temporary formats, would partner with Nordstrom. The department retailer has built a reputation for supporting DTC brands and has customers who won’t shy away from higher price points, like a set of four linen pie napkins for $44.
A Nordstrom in the Washington, D.C. area is one of the 70 housing a Pop Up Grocer, so I went last week to check it out and see what sort of takeaways I could glean for grocers.
Inside the Nordstrom at the Tysons Corner Center mall in Tysons, Virginia, the Pop Up Grocer has a prime spot near the mall-side entrance on the store’s first floor, which houses home goods, beauty, and children’s and pet items. The display both stood out and blended in with surrounding displays, with whimsical and fun packaging greeting shoppers amid a department that includes Valentine’s Day goodies and a rack of pet accessories.
All the products I spotted were shelf-stable, but the range was larger than I expected. Not surprisingly, there were snacks like $8 bags of beet chips, trail mix, miso candy bars and personal-sized bags of popcorn. I also spotted cooking and baking items like boxes of rainbow sprinkle cookie mix and bottles of algae cooking oil (didn’t know that existed!). A sign for “Happy Hour” items includes cans of alcohol-free Aplós drinks and botanical beverages from De Soi. Thanks to the eye-catching packaging, I picked up a tinned fish gift set from Fishwife and jars of Hot Girl Pickles from Good Girl Snacks.
As fun as this experiential display was for me as a consumer, when I put on my “grocery industry lenses,” I can see how Pop Up Grocer’s continued success with pop-ups is something for grocers to keep their eyes on.
As grocers turn to local and niche sourcing to help fine-tune their differentiation and consumer loyalty, they should pop over to Pop Up Grocer to discover brands and get a sense of the kinds of innovative flavors and products that click with consumers. Specialty grocers have been thriving financially even amid macroeconomic challenges thanks to their unique range of premium and niche goods. That assortment of tasty, free-form and healthy items plays a key role in helping grocers like Natural Grocers and Sprouts Farmers Market stay strong.
While my Nordstrom trip happened during a period of slow foot traffic on a weekday afternoon, I would have loved to spend a few hours on a Saturday spying on which items customers are picking up and ultimately buying. Case in point: The $8 bag of beet chips from Root Foods that I’m munching on while I write this column is a little pricier than I normally spend on veggie chips, but they are good and I would buy them again as a treat.
I’m not a buyer for a grocer, but if I were, I’d be scouting Pop Up Grocer for inspiration and brand discovery.
