Seattle Small Businesses Are Popping Up on Instagram

POOPU and a Polaroid—basically analog Instagram. When Seattle’s Properly Organized and Orderly Pop-Up sells an item, one member of the founding trio must hover over the Instagram comments section. Her job: identify which customer reacted quickly enough to claim, say, a floral ceramic candlestick by local artist Shannon Hobbs. It’s gone in a matter of seconds. Sarah Chu (@ess_chew) brings hand-dyed clothing (@sei_shop_designs) to the virtual table. It wasn’t always this way. Back in some now-distant past, these popups were full-on events, held in places draped with tinsel where, cofounder Shaana Hatamian says, “you could hang out and dance and, like, look at this beautiful flower sculpture.” Late last year, in the thick of Covid restrictions, the popup (which goes by the hilarious acronym POOPU) took their long-planned holiday party to Instagram. Their success might help explain why so many small businesses use the app to sell their wares, if not exactly in the way Instagram intends. POOPU’s approach is almost like waiting in line for a new sneaker release. The site dropped a collection of Seattle designer Bad Ratio’s airbrushed tees promptly at 10am one Monday in November; cofounder Julia Kernerman’s hand-painted nesting dolls followed a few hours later.…
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