TOPIC

This meeting's topic is pop-up stores, with a focus on the 2026 Soccer World Cup activations.

General information

• Antitrust Guidelines
• Guide of Conduct

Takeaways

1. The pop-up is a core merchandising instrument rather than an occasional add-on, and members run it for distinct purposes: to capture a cultural moment, to express the store's own point of view and to sell space to brands. The World Cup produced three models: El Palacio de Hierro's licensed, multi-category pop-up in all its stores; Bloomingdale's brand-led takeover of the Carousel around Hugo Boss; and Breuninger's nine-month, three-phase campaign co-built with Adidas. Manor's "Dreamy Fall" event in Geneva illustrates the store's own point of view, and its Guess takeover the sale of space.
2. Dedicated pop-up space is becoming store infrastructure. The Carousel is the flagship's permanent pop-up space, while Manor rents out most of the pop-up areas it creates. El Palacio de Hierro has a single paid space in Polanco, and next year will add dedicated spaces of around 100 sqm in three stores for its own themed pop-ups rather than for brands. Its semester themes work because tight curation within a limited window gives customers a reason to buy now, and with four themes planned for next year, the store will design custom fixtures for each.
3. Selling space is a revenue line, and the store keeps its identity through rules the brand must accept. Manor's retail media department sold Guess a two-week takeover of four touchpoints, while Bloomingdale's charges brands for windows and shares multi-brand costs through co-op. Bloomingdale's refuses large logos on windows and normally refuses vendor mannequins. Breuninger bars logos outside the building, and Adidas delivered a large façade treatment without one.
4. A physical activation delivers its full value only when it is amplified through social media, influencers and events. Breuninger's Adidas campaign started with social teasing and added influencer seeding in its second phase, well before the tournament opened. Bloomingdale's vintage jerseys attracted attention on social media and among collectors, and Rhone also took part in "Saturdays at Bloomingdale's", the weekly programme of store events and activations. Manor's "Dreamy Fall" event, held for top clients and selected influencers, generated strong traffic on Instagram. The space still needs people to sell it: most of El Palacio de Hierro's pop-up spaces have no dedicated sales staff, yet some products need explanation.
5. Pop-up volume is rising faster than the organisation behind it. Breuninger ran around 200 pop-ups last year, counted as spaces, and now dedicates one and a half full-time roles to them; Bloomingdale's runs thousands. Manor has no single owner, with the work spread across its departmental VM teams. The heaviest burden is communication, with brands and internally. Bloomingdale's now requires an in-person site survey before any commitment and would advocate an AI tool to answer brands' routine questions, while Breuninger is looking for workflow software.

Timing

Tuesday 29 September 2026 3 pm to 5 pm Paris time.