More than 40 Black- and brown-owned small businesses will offer their products for sale on Saturday, Feb. 22, noon-3 p.m, at Elver Park Neighborhood Center at the 3rd annual Minding My Black-Owned Business Pop-Up Shop.
“It’s important to us, especially during Black History Month, to highlight Black- and brown-owned businesses in the Madison area and beyond,” Takela Harper, assistant director of the Elver Park Neighborhood Center and Theresa Terrace Neighborhood Center, tells Madison365. “Traditionally, we’ve also had some people come from Milwaukee or Janesville and other places to set up a table and sell their merchandise, too.”
The event, now in its third year, is hosted by Elver Park Neighborhood Center and Theresa Terrace Neighborhood Center.
“The first two events were pretty successful. I would say we had around 200 to maybe 250 shoppers,” Harper says. “It looks different every time because it’s just what the particular business owners bring in that year, but we do have a full house. We have a raffle that the business owners help out with by giving out a ticket for every sale that they have. We put it all in a bucket for us to raffle off and people can win gift cards to local establishments and local businesses.”
While Black- and brown-owned businesses have grown significantly in the U.S. in recent years, they still make up a small share of overall firms and revenue. Saturday’s pop-up shop, which honors Black and brown entrepreneurship for Black History Month, is a key event to help give these small businesses exposure.
“These entrepreneurs recognize the importance of an event like this, not just for sales but for getting their name out there. Some of these people wouldn’t be recognized as a small business, or they just don’t have the resources and things like that to go out and sell their merchandise,” Harper says. “They may have a Facebook page or some type of social media, but getting out in the public and showing the public what they have, and bringing business cards and stuff like that … is really a good way for them to promote themselves so that they can be seen and can be successful.”
The pop-up raffle will happen every 30 minutes which will include donated items from the vendors as well as gift cards.
“I love the camaraderie at this event and getting all these people together, shining the spotlight on them, letting them be the voice,” Harper says. “Another great thing about this is that it is 100% free. Most pop-up shops charge vendors a vending fee. We don’t charge anything – everything is 100% free to the vendors. And I definitely think that’s an important part of this event.”
Harper’s eight-year-old son, Michael, will be one of the entrepreneurs at the event selling lemonade to attendees. “I’m excited about that. This will be his third year vending,” she says. “And so it’s pretty fun to just watch him do his little thing with business.”
Elver Park Neighborhood Center is located at 1201 McKenna Blvd.
“Most of the vendors at the event will be accepting cash or credit cards or cashless features like Apple Pay and Cash App and things like that. We encourage people in the community to come on out and have a good time and support some great local businesses,” Harper says. “We’ll have some food vendors. We’ll have that lemonade. We have a candy stand that we like to highlight … so people can bring their kids to enjoy that.
“We just have a bunch of different stuff you can come to get: you can get some hair products, you can get some slacks, you can get some cool whip. We have everything A to Z.”
