Vintage Shop Hop

There is a Vintage Shop Hop going on throughout Wisconsin and Illinois the first weekend in March AND the first weekend in October 2023. One of the stops is Brown Street Emporium in Oconomowoc and Scarpa Bella Boutique in downtown Oconomowoc. Brown Street Emporium plans to have booth discounts throughout the store.  Brown Street Emporium will be open 10:00 am to 5:00 pm on Friday and Saturday and 10:00 am to 3:00 pm on Sunday for their final outdoor market of the season.

Vintage Shop Hop Deals at Brown Street Emporium:

*Booth discounts
*Free gift with purchase (while supplies last)
*Extending store sales through Sunday March 5th

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The Vintage Shop Hop is a self-guided day of vintage & boutique shopping held twice a year. Thousands of shoppers will converge on northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin once again for the spring edition of the popular Vintage Shop Hop™ on Friday and Saturday, March 3 & 4, 2023. The event is a self-guided road trip for vintage and antique lovers in the northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin region to satisfy their ‘vintage’ addiction and support small business at the same time. Typically, between 350 to 400 locally owned vintage shops, antique malls, women’s boutiques, occasional and pop-up shops, home décor, upscale consignment shops and vintage barn sales in the two-state region participate in this one-of-a-kind event.

What started with 180 shops ten years ago, the Vintage Shop Hop has increased in popularity with each event. “The past three years in the retail world have been difficult for brick-and-mortar stores. These small business owners sometimes need an economic shot in the arm to boost their sales in what is traditionally slow retail season, not to mention the competition of the online shopping craze. This event gives shoppers a reason to leave the house to ‘shop small and shop local’, especially during the COVID world we live in today”, say Ann Campos, founder of the event.  The idea came to Campos ten years ago after talking with a handful of shop owners in her town who had experienced slow sales during the then harsh winter. “After spending several years producing large vintage markets, I decided to marry my love of vintage decor with my background in tourism promotion, event planning and marketing to come up with a way to reach out and do something for local small business” Campos said, “the result is the Vintage Shop Hop.” Social media has played a huge role in the rapid growth of the event. The event Facebook fan page was launched during the first year and has grown to over 75,000 followers between the company’s three social media pages. “The event was destined to grow quickly.  Between the shop owners looking for a unique, low-cost way to promote not only their shop but their town too, and then add in shoppers who are excited to have a list of hundreds of fun shops dropped in their lap. The result? You can’t hold them back!” Campos laughed. The event stretches across two states from the Mississippi River on the west to Lake Michigan on the east, goes north to the Stevens Point & Green Bay in Wisconsin and south to I-80 in Illinois.

Each shop is required to have an “in-store” promotion for the weekend, and many shops go miles beyond just complimentary refreshments (like mimosas and dessert treats). “We encourage the shops to create a day unlike the other 363 days of the year,” say Campos. As a result, shoppers will find fun promotions like “pop a balloon” or “spin the wheel” to determine their discount, door prizes, meet-the-maker, paint demos, live music, food trucks and free swag bags just for stopping in. Others create punch cards promotions to get people moving around their region, hire live music and invite food trucks to park in their lots. All shops will be ready and waiting to greet new faces to their store and provide the shoppers with the best in customer service.   “The participating shop owners are very passionate about the history of their antiques as well as their buildings. In order to compete with big box stores, small business owners have to be creative in their marketing efforts and work extra hard to get noticed,” Campos said. “I’m just happy I can help them out by using my experience to bring customers to their doorstep with this fun shopping event. To my knowledge, it’s the biggest event of its kind in the Midwest.” Many of the shops are set in historic and unique buildings, in downtowns, villages, and the countryside brimming with history which sets them apart from their competitors in big shopping malls.  For example, shoppers who enter Pork’n Beans Primitives in Maple Park, Illinois will step into an authentic 1871 one-room schoolhouse filled with primitives. Shopping for home décor at Wanderlust Scents in Waupaca, Wisconsin, shoppers will find a sweet gift and décor shop located in the historic Mead Bank building built in 1862 which comes complete with a history of a fateful unsolved 1882 murder of banker Henry Mead! Picking for vintage is a focus for the shoppers—and rummaging through Vintage Pickins in Edgerton, WI takes them to a refurbished tobacco barn filled with eclectic finds, furniture, garden and farm goods.   These are just a few examples of shops located inside unique structures making the shopping experience memorable.

Be sure to check the list and map for each shop’s times.

You can follow along on this page as they highlight shops and their activities for the event weekend.

Road trip planning for the Vintage Shop Hop is made easy with the interactive Google Map and Master List of Shops. The Google Map includes all shop details that can be accessed on mobile devices while shoppers are traveling the area. The list and map are both found on the event’s blog page 24/7/365 and can be printed off HERE or follow the Facebook page HERE. A direct link to the interactive Google Map is HERE.
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