The programme aimed to make the airport more accessible to small business owners, with move-in ready fixtures provided to reduce start-up costs.
Ten years on, the San Francisco International Airport’s (SFO) Pop-Up Retail Program continues to help small enterprises. The San Francisco Airport Commission has just awarded a specialty retail lease to Chalo, a small business owned by Danielle An, which currently operates one of the pop-up concession locations in Terminal 3. An will be the fourth graduate of SFO’s Pop-Up Retail Program to be approved for award of a specialty retail lease at the airport.
“SFO’s Pop-Up Retail Program has been a win-win since its inception,” said airport director Ivar C Satero. “It gives small businesses greater access to retail opportunities at the airport, while introducing travellers to concession concepts that truly surprise and delight. My thanks go out to our SFO concessions team for creating a programme that, ten years later, continues to achieve its goal.”
The first pop-up concession opened at SFO in January 2014 in the renovated Terminal 3, Boarding Area E. Eleven small businesses have since operated concepts in the move-in ready spaces. In many cases, their products continue to be offered by other airport retailers, another success element of the programme.
SFO has had an office for Small Business Affairs in 1982.
Image: San Francisco International Airport
