At first glance, Folie a Trois doesn’t look like it belongs in Baton Rouge.
Tucked away in Towne Center, where it’s nestled in a 1,200-square-foot space between Bumble Lane and Rickey Heroman’s, the store appears as French as its name suggests—like the interior of some quaint chateau plucked out of Paris or Provence, where most of its antiques, artwork, candles, furniture and other home goods merchandise are from.
What’s also intriguing about Folie a Trois are its owners, most of whom still work nine-to-five jobs elsewhere: Margaret Lawhon Schott, the former WBRZ-Channel 2 news anchor, and her husband, attorney Martin Schott, as well as caterer Margo Bouanchaud Hayes and her husband, florist Lance Hayes. The two married couples are longtime friends who were on a vacation together in France nearly three years ago when they came up with the idea for a pop-up store that would market the French goods they saw in flea markets during their travels.
As a short-term pop-up retailer, the store has a one-month lease within the bustling Towne Center for the month of December. Holiday shoppers have the option of peering through the selection either on one of several specified days during dedicated hours of operation, or by appointment.
“We’re at stages in our lives where we’re not looking to take on the burden of yearlong overhead, rent and building maintenance,” says Lawhon Schott, “so there’s a psychological benefit as well as a financial benefit to it.”
They’re not alone in their mindset. The pop-up business model is becoming an increasingly viable option for retailers, especially during the voluminous holiday season, when guaranteed foot traffic and high sales tend to make the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas an especially profitable time of year for retail. For the 2019 holiday season, the National Retail Federation predicts sales will hit $3.8 trillion, up some 4% from last year, which equates to each person spending roughly $1,048 on average.
Read the full story about pop-up retailers in Baton Rouge from the Dec. 17 edition of Business Report. Send comments to editor@businessreport.com
