#South Africa

Note #1: The title of this post is metaphorical. Native South Africans: Please don’t take offense.

Note #2: If you are afraid of spiders, I recommend that you do not read on. Images may be disturbing.

Pop-ups have taken over Johannesburg. Pop-up clothing shops, pop-up restaurants, pop-up coffeehouses, pop-up night-clubs…you name it. It’s all popping up.

I don’t know if the pop-up concept exists in other places or just here. But in case you don’t know what a pop-up is, basically it’s a business that opens on a temporary basis with the understanding that it could close or move at any time. In some ways, the non-committal nature of this concept is kind of irksome. But in other ways I think it’s cool. It creates urgency and excitement to go and check out the pop-up before it disappears. And pop-ups are particularly well-suited to Joburg, which is one of the most rapidly changing cities on earth (and also has a lot of unused or under-used retail space).