6.9. Case Study: Fit Dads!
Overview
Fit Dads is a membership-based online community for fathers on the move. They had a healthy user base and were influential in the sector. Vendors advertised on their site regularly, and users actively engaged with each other monthly or weekly. The site offered member discounts at participating businesses, giving them another reason to log in regularly. Fit Dads was ready to leap from an online community to an in-person pop-up event in which multiple vendors and members would meet in one place. Organic produce farmers, health-industry vendors, exercise equipment makers, and a host of others were ready and eager to join in on the potential event, but Fit Dads had yet to research the legal requirements for such an event.
Solution
The pop-up event was meant to incorporate experiential and transactional elements, so Fit Dads wanted to ensure that it ran seamlessly and without any problems. They contacted their local government, checked online, and reached out to a lawyer to first determine what legal considerations they needed to understand and where to get the permits and insurance required. Fit Dads acted as the event organizers and were granted usage rights to the space they needed by the landlord via a short-term lease agreement. Fit Dads then signed participation agreements with each vendor. Commercial public liability insurance coverage was acquired by Fit Dads for the event overall, but each vendor also had to get their own insurance for specific areas of coverage. Food safety and other regulatory concerns were reviewed by each vendor and Fit Dad’s own lawyer to ensure that nothing was overlooked.
Result
The event succeeded, with each vendor recording sales above their early predictions. No major incidents occurred, and the visitors had a great time seeing all the different products and services for sale. The event helped Fit Dads’ online community grow and started fostering demand for more pop-up events. Fit Dads also noted that they could tailor the mix and variety of vendors to each future pop-up location in an effort to match the interests and needs of customers in specific markets.
Questions
Please answer the following questions:
- If you wanted to open a pop-up shop that sells baked goods, what legal or regulatory considerations do you think are important?
- List three types of insurance the vendors with shops in Fit Dads’ event would not necessarily need to have and explain why.
“Chapter 13: Legal Considerations of a Pop-Up Operation – Mini Case Study” from Pop-up Retail Strategies in an Omnichannel Context Copyright © 2018 by Ryerson University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
