With the holiday shopping season officially upon us, shoppers are hunting for deals and, in the midst of a recession, short term retail shops are finding their own bargains.

Gary Garabedian runs several temporary store’s in Rhode Island throughout the year. He sells costumes at Halloween, calendars just before the New Year and sports memorabilia during the holiday rush.

“It’s a different business- being in and being out. You have to get rid of your inventory at the end. You can’t get stuck with it, where as a year round store has the ability to run a sale, get rid of it, bring new stuff in,” Garabedian said. “So, it has its positives and its negatives.”

One positive for short term shops this season is budget prices for prime real estate.
Pop-up shops are filling gaps in shopping centers left by the closure of retailers- like, KB Toys, which shut-down after last holiday season.

“There’s a big retail downturn in commercial real estate so there’s a lot of vacant space throughout the country and big national chains like Toys R Us- stores that never had temporary stores- are now going into it to try and maximize their profits and only be open for a shorter period of time and only be open when it’s busy,” Garabedian said.

Toy’s “R” Us is opening more than 80 “Holiday Express” stores in malls and shopping centers across the country and 260 “Express” location within their Babies”R”Us” stores nationwide. But, the mega-chain is not the only shop stepping in to fill the toy merchandising void left by the closure of KB Toys.

The Massachusetts based toy retailer Learning Express is opening a dozen temporary stores to meet the frenzied needs of holiday shoppers.

“We feel that parents will still want to buy toys for the children during the holidays so it keeps our business up,” said George Russell, Vice President of New Store Development for the Learning Express.

While most will close after Christmas- some could become full time shops. Learning Express, which specializes in educational toys, is expanding, despite the tough economic climate.

“We’re in about seven states and each (short term) store will have about seven or eight employees during the holiday season. Hopefully that mall might be looking for them to stay a little longer so those employees can continue to work on throughout the year,” said Russell.

While temporary stores do not offer long-term employment opportunities they do create short term work for job seekers with flexibility.

A warning for shoppers: Temporary stores may offer expanded shopping options during the holidays but, buyers should be aware that most will shut down shortly after the season so returns should be made promptly unless the pop-up stores are run by a franchise that offers shoppers the added security that returns can be made at a permanent location post-holiday.

“If you’re buying something for the holidays, most of these stores will be open through about mid-january, maybe the end of January,” Jon Hurst, President of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts warns. “Know that if you buy something from a temporary store or even a gift card, make sure you do that return, make sure you redeem that gift card as soon as possible after the holidays.”