Fairfield Market To Offer Array Of Local Vendors Saturday

FAIRFIELD, CT — For Ashley Perkins, a Fairfield mom and co-owner of the independent online apparel company Gells, the POPSHOP Market is a perfect place to share her wares, and well as mingle with many people in her community.

“We love POPSHOP,” she said. “They’re very well-organized and I’m happy to support them.”

While the market usually arrives in town in early December or June, a POPSHOP Market will take place 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Fairfield Theatre Company.

“Our Fairfield market is an outdoor-indoor concept that pops up in the summer, fall and for the holidays,” organizer Ashley Kane Daley said.

About eight years ago, Daley and a friend were approached by another friend about creating an open-air shopping event similar to something like the markets in New York City or Europe, where business and merchants that didn’t have brick-and-mortar shops could offer their wares to local customers.

Daley described it as “an elevated market that was not your mom-and-pop craft fair — something very curated, where you could find something different that could not be found in a store or on Amazon.”

She doesn’t let just any business into the show.

“These vendors are hand-picked from the hundreds of applications we receive for every market,” she said. “We hate to do it, but we do have to turn away vendors and try our best not to oversaturate in any one category.”

Meghan Doody, owner of the Fairfield-based business Beautiful Day Designs, was a regular customer at the POPSHOP events before starting her own business and joining the group of vendors.

“It’s been an amazing investment,” she said. “I get to connect with my customers in person and meet other great vendors.”

While it’s an opportunity to show her work and make sales, she and others pointed out that it’s also a kind of community gathering, featuring music, food trucks and a general social scene.

“I feel like it’s such a good mixture of all different ages and people from all over Fairfield,” said Perkins, who has run Gells with her husband, Richard, for six years. “I’m always amazed at the traffic that they get.”

And unlike many fair-style events, she said, visitors are interested in getting some shopping done while they’re there.

“People really come to peruse (and) they’re there to buy also, which is nice as a vendor,” she said.

Daley, who is hosting another POPSHOP on Oct. 23 at Milford Green, said at the end of the day, the market provides an opportunity for people to support local businesses, which she said is the biggest reason to visit.

“For a good percentage of our vendors, this is not only their dream, but their livelihood,” she said, especially following the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic.

“So POPSHOP is really a way to support them financially,” she said.