Just a few days after Halloween, it was beginning to look a lot like the holiday season as shoppers flocked to the festive shops at New York City’s Bryant Park Winter Village, popping in and out of its red-and-green “jewel box” kiosks in search of holiday gifts or a bite to eat.
These 190+ booths are operated by Urbanspace, which has been curating public markets in the city for over 30 years.
The company began in London in the 1980s, running Camden Lock market and other markets across the UK. When Urbanspace president Eldon Scott expanded the business to the US in 1993, he opened several holiday markets: first at Union Square and Columbus Circle, and eventually Bryant Park, the market in midtown Manhattan which Urbanspace took over curating in 2016.
The Bryant Park market opened on October 27, with the other two to follow later this month. Just a few blocks away from the Rockefeller Plaza, home of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, the market attracts 4 million visitors over the two-ish months it’s open, according to Urbanspace. Its sales have continued to rise since 2019, Scott told Retail Brew, and while the market itself can’t grow too much, constrained to Bryant Park’s 9.6 acres, it managed to squeeze in about 20 more booths since last year, and is also adding a new online platform to take the market’s vendors beyond the park.
Hitting the market: Every year, the holiday shops at Bryant Park’s Winter Village is a mix of new businesses and returning favorites, with an emphasis on “local and/or small” (but not “tiny,” Scott specified—its booths range from $22,500 to $40,000, depending on size and location within the park, plus electrical fees). The company has a rolling application process for the market, he said, trying to leave spots open for new businesses. Scott didn’t share how many applications it receives a year, but said there is “pretty solid demand.”
Urbanspace is looking for a “combination of energy and a great product,” Scott shared, as well as having a “footprint in their own community,” like Soap and Paper Factory, which has been operating in New York’s Hudson Valley for decades.
Vendors we spotted at this year’s market also include two booths operated by New York-based apparel and accessories boutique Mûre + Grand (selling, among other things, friendship bracelets à la Taylor Swift), fair trade gift maker Mr. Ellie Pooh, a booth called Fluffy Alpacas that sells, well, alpaca stuffed animals, and of course, ornament seller Christmas in New York.
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All is e-comm: When Scott first started with Urbanspace decades ago, he recalls wondering whether public markets would outlast the rise of online shopping. Fast forward to 2023, and the company this year is growing its business with its first online marketplace for its three holiday markets, Kewl Street, allowing consumers to shop online with a single shopping cart across select vendors at the three markets.
Scott said the idea came from the vendors themselves, who said they were seeing declining sales on some of the larger e-commerce sites due to the growing volume of businesses competing with one another.
The online platform also allows vendors to sell products they may not offer in their booths (they only have, at most, 12 square feet to work with) and allows the markets’ vendors to continue selling their products long after the kiosks come down. Brands currently on the site include condiment brand The Truffleist and jewelry maker Gabriela Ceballos.
“What we’re trying to dabble with is, how do you create some of the high touch and experience of an actual event with the convenience of digital shopping? And I think it’s a really important thing to be working on,” Scott noted.
It takes a village: Bryant Park is the last of the three markets to close on January 2, but Scott said by then he’ll already be thinking about next year’s holiday season. After decades of curating these holiday markets, he said the experience “doesn’t get tiring,” as it’s ultimately “about connecting with people.”
“Every year, they go up relatively quickly, and suddenly you look at this space that was a week before a plaza, and then suddenly, this little community of shops. It’s like this village got built in a week,” he said. “It’s just magical to see it transform that rapidly…There are always new people, and then old people you’ve known for a long time…It’s like having family over for dinner.”