A green tinge for Quadrant
SWANSEA’S Quadrant Shopping Centre is taking part in an eco-shop trial this month at one of its empty retail units.
A new temporary store, called The Little Green Shop, has launched in a former mobile phone shop unit just inside the entrance to the shopping centre and is open until October 23.
The shop is being run by the city’s Environment Centre, which promotes environmental sustainability and has already had a shop, called The Green Shop, at its Pier Street base next to Morgans Hotel in the Maritime Quarter for the past decade.
The new short-term city centre Little Green Shop has made its home in the unit that used to be Go Mobile, next to HMV.
The fortnight-long opening slot is allowing the Environment Centre to showcase its ethical goods, refills and unique items, as well as its environmental vision, to a new audience of shoppers in the heart of the city centre.
The pop-up is proving popular and is part of a wider project run by Swansea-based Urban Foundry, which specialises in pop-ups, marketing, workshops and social enterprise.
Manager of the Environment Centre Rhian Corcoran said: “The Little Green Shop is proving very popular at the Quadrant and people are interested in what we are selling and speaking to us about our environmental efforts too.
“The empty phone shop unit gives us a chance to try something that wasn’t there before for us to do.
“Being in the city centre in the Quadrant is great for an independent like ourselves.
“If there is potential for others to have a chance at a pop-up shop then I think they will take it because it means reaching more people potentially.”
It remains to be seen if the success of The Little Green Shop could potentially lead to more pop-up stores using empty units at the shopping centre.
However, the Quadrant has been bolstered by a string of new arrivals taking the place of some big-name departures.
The centre appears to be starting to bounce back after taking a huge hit with the loss of Debenhams, Dorothy Perkins, Burton and Animal, which have all shut up shop for good in recent times.
But now it is benefiting from the arrival of three new retailers – a toy shop, a clothing shop and a sports store.
The former Debenhams, the centre’s largest unit, is still empty, as are the Game and Disney stores.
The Little Green Shop is open Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm, until Saturday, October 23.