On the final Thursday of the summer months — May, June, July and August — the city of West Point will host a pop-up market downtown on 3rd Avenue from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The West Point Downtown Development Authority is presenting the market, which will feature the sale of homemade and homegrown goods, including but not limited to food, art, home décor and gift items.

“For several years the Downtown Development Authority has brainstormed and had conversations about a farmer’s market concept,” said Meghan Duke, West Point’s Economic Development director. “We just didn’t know if there were enough farmer’s in the area to put on an event like that.”

She said West Point’s economy has room for growth in consumer goods, which helped bring about the pop-up shop idea.

“One of the segments within the downtown of West Point that needs growth is the consumer good/retail sector,” Duke said. “We have a lot of dining, and we can buy shoes and we have one clothing store, but I think there is an opportunity there for retail development for small businesses.”

She mentioned that while the opportunity is available for retail shops, the downtown’s brick and mortar buildings are not conducive to that business model. Duke was recently made aware of the pop-up shop idea at a retail roundtable for Georgia cities, and the idea fits nicely with West Point’s infrastructure.

“In this roundtable, one of the ideas that came up that some communities were doing was this pop-up market,” Duke said. “This small-sized, sidewalk-filled opportunity for those businesses to have a presence on main street so that the residents in the community can interact with those business owners. That’s really the idea behind it.”

What started as an idea for a farmer’s market has expanded to an opportunity for West Point vendors to engage with potential customers and residents throughout the city.

For more information, contact Duke at meghan.duke@cityofwestpointga.com. Vendors can still sign up for any of the four pop-up markets by contacting Duke.