Throughout 2009, malls across the country have been battered by the downturn, struggling to stay afloat amidst a record number of store closures and a high rate of retail vacancies. Now that the holiday season is nearing, though, those same vacancies are turning out to be a benefit for some retail companies. Loosened lease terms and lowered rental rates on retail spaces have created a perfect storm for a myriad of companies planning to open temporary “pop up” stores this holiday season.

Hickory Farms and Calendar Club have been springing up in malls for years. This holiday season, however, they’ll hardly be alone. Big-name companies like Toys ‘R Us, American Eagle, and even eBay are all planning to enter the “pop up” game as well, opening retail stores for a limited time—usually 10 to 20 days—in malls and other commercial spaces across the country. These stores are good for the malls themselves, too, since they tend to bring in new customers and provide additional revenues, albeit only for a short period of time.

Of course, the biggest fans of pop up stores are oftentimes the shoppers themselves, since these stores tend to offer limited-time deals on products that aren’t available year around. We’ve put together a roundup of some of the most anticipated pop up shops this holiday season.

Toys ‘R Us – The toy giant has plans to open 80 temporary Holiday Express stores this year, “including several at upscale malls previously unavailable to the chain.”

eBay Store – The online auction site his opening its first brick-and-mortar pop-up shop on West 57th in New York City, just in time for the holiday season.

77Kids by American Eagle – In an effort to gauge public interest in its new children’s line, American Eagle Outfitters has opened a temporary pop-up store in a suburban Pennsylvania mall for 77 days during the holiday season.

Citizens of Humanity – The premium denim brand recently opened a holiday pop-up shop in Los Angeles.

Brookstone – The gift emporium is planning to open a temporary holiday store inside the Altamonte Mall in Florida.

The Limited – The fashion retailer’s New York pop-up store was so successful when it opened in October that the company has decided to extend its run through December 28th.

At the end of 2007, Lori Chalmers was laid off from her main graphic design gig with one day’s notice. Scrambling for income, she took a shot at turning her hobby—designing and making handbags—into a business. The 30-year-old talked to us about how she created her Toronto-based fashion company, Cha Cha, from scratch.

One day?
Well, as a freelance you have no protection, no severance, nothing.

I came home and had locked myself out of my apt. So I was waiting for my landlord, thinking about how I could make some money quickly. I had been making bags for my friends and for myself. It was my one skill.

When did you start making bags?
In college — I went back to school when I was 23, and my party days were kind of over by then. I had a lot of free times on weekends. So I’d sew. I’d go to second-hand stores and buy leather jackets and skirts and take them apart and make new things. I learned from trial and error.

Had you thought before about turning it into a business?
My mom would always say, It would be so great if you could do this for a living, it’s what you love to do! I agreed but I said I could never do it. I thought it would take a lot more money. I didn’t know as one person you could do this.

But the Internet has helped tremendously. I was able to set up my own shop online, take care of my own shop. I could do everything myself — I didn’t have to rely on retail stores. That’s been what’s let me survive and thrive.

What was the first thing you did?
At about the same time I had done a craft show and was sitting next to a girl who told me about Etsy. I went home and looked it up. Etsy lets you start a shop with basically nothing. It’s a great starting point for someone. I don’t know if I would say quit your job and sell on Etsy, but it’s a great way to try it ut and make some money. I didn’t have money for a web site so I started a blog. I did all my own press releases.

There’s a lot you can do when you’re broke and creative. Money does make it easier, but being broke doesn’t make it impossible.

“There’s a lot you can do when you’re broke and creative.”

Are you making a living from Cha Cha now?
Yes. I’ve been doing it full-time for just over a year.

How long did it take to get to that point?
I feel like I’ve been really fortunate. Within a short while of being on Etsy I became a featured seller and got on the first page, which brought me a lot of customers. But it’s not an overnight thing at all. My background is graphic design, which is incredibly helpful, but it’s not a business background. In the beginning I would make something and I couldn’t make anything else until I sold something to make some money.

Your designs are pretty affordable; I imagine that’s helped in this environment?
Because I’m direct sales I’m able to keep prices a bit more reasonable. I don’t think as a new brand you can come out right now trying to sell $800 bags and make decent money. The people who send a lot of money on handbags are generally comfortable with their brand and don’t want to try something new. But if you offer something at $200 that’s a risk they’re willing to take.

What have you learned that might help budding entrepreneurs?
The biggest thing that I would suggest to people is planning. Set goals—even if it’s monthly goals, sales goals or things you want to accomplish. I didn’t have that opportunity because of my situation — I just had to jump in and try to make money. I could have done better if I’d had a planned.

Do you think you would have taken this leap eventually anyway?
I don’t know if I would have. You get comfortable in your job if you don’t love it. Sometimes you need to be forced into a situation, even if its not comfortable right away. There’s a chance I would still be doing random freelance jobs. Being laid off is bad but it gave me the time to focus on this. It’s hard to start a business and work a full-time job as well.

Would you ever go back to graphic design?
Not unless I have to, no.

The news you need to survive and thrive in recession.

Clothes, cars and houses aren’t on the list these days, but one thing people are still spending on the recession is shoes. (NY Times) Here’s how to spend less–if you want to. (Recessionwire)

The United States economy shed 190,000 jobs in October, and the unemployment rate reached a 26-year high of 10.2 percent, up from 9.8 percent in September. (New York Times)

The House voted yesterday to expand a popular tax credit for home buyers. The bill, which also extends unemployment benefits and expands a tax break for money-losing businesses, now goes to President Obama, who plans to sign it today. (Boston Globe)

LA’s homeless population is dropping despite the downturn–by a whopping 38 percent in two years. (LA Times)

Mexico’s president says his country is no longer in a recession. Well, nyah-nyah to you, too. (Latin American Herald Tribune)

Economists, on average, expect unemployment to peak in February 2010 — eight months after the recession’s assumed end. Even that forecast might be optimistic. (Wall Street Journal)

The downturn has increased the number of cycling deaths in Britain, since many more people are riding bikes to save money. (Daily Mail)

As the economy has fallen, embezzlement and employee theft have increased, according to some experts, who suggest the rise is a reflection of fiscal strain and low morale. (Las Vegas Sun)

So far, 7.5 million jobs have been lost in this recession, and the lion’s share of them — 75 percent — were held by men. Meanwhile, more and more women have had to become their family’s primary source of income. (NPR)

In a speech about deficits and economic recovery, White House Budget Director Peter Orszag described how the deep recession will have lifelong impact on today’s college students. (McClatchy)

Famed hedge fund manager Jim Chanos says there are eight things investors should have learned from the recession–and damn well should remember. (The Business Insider)

If you come across a good article or blog post about the recession pass it on. To receive Recession Briefing in your inbox, subscribe to our daily email.

A daily review of the employment fallout around the country and the world.

Today’s Total: 696

NetJets will lay off 495 pilots nationwide…Wachovia Corp. child care center is laying off its entire staff of 130… Chevron will be cutting 25 operations and management jobs from its Alaska workforce… Up to 25 employee layoffs may be announced on Monday from the Cooley Dickinson Hospital… Goodwin Procter has laid off 21 second-year business law associates… Comcast hints at possible layoffs in its advertising department… The E! Entertainment channel has laid off several employees from their production staff… GM may make some of its temporary layoffs permanent…  Newburgh’s Harp & Whistle Restaurant and Pub laid off its entire staff with no notification and stopped payment on their final checks.

Are you one of the Screwed? Check out Recessionwire’s Laid off 101. Read more about layoffs at the sites compiled on our layoff tracker page.

People from Wall Street to Main Street were caught off-guard as Lehman Brothers fell and the rest of the financial system seemed to be on the verge of collapse. But according to Carmen Reinhart, Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland and co-author of This Time is Different, global financial crises have followed a predictable pattern for centuries—and  policy-makers and regulators should have seen this coming. Here is what she had to say about the state of our economy, the contributing causes of financial crises, and what we can do to help prevent them in the future.

Recessionwire: The recession has been declared officially over, but what does that mean for Main Street? How long can we expect the impacts of this recession to last on banking, credit, home ownership, loans and the job market?

It has proven difficult over the course of centuries to overcome this combination of arrogance and ignorance.

Reinhart: In terms of the business cycle, we have either just bottomed or are bottoming right now. The bottoming out of the economy impacts the average person in three different ways. First of all, if you look at recoveries from severe banking crises like these, it takes another two years from the bottom to get back to pre-crisis levels of income. Secondly, unemployment is a lagging indicator: even though the signs are widespread and conclusive that from a GDP-standpoint things have bottomed, unemployment is likely to continue to rise in the months ahead. Finally, the credit situation is far from normal. Banks still have a large fraction of the assets of their loans in the non-performing category, which means that the credit crunch is likely to still prevail. These are in line with experiences of past recessions following financial crises and are pertinent to the outlook here.

RW: In your book, you state that governments and investors “delude” themselves into believing that “this time is different.” Why do governments and investors believe they have outsmarted a formula guaranteed to result in economic crisis?

Reinhart: The two words that my co-author Ken Rogoff and I use to summarize this phenomenon are arrogance and ignorance. Ignorance involves the general unawareness that these crises episodes have been occurring for hundreds of years. The arrogance part goes hand-in-hand with the assumption that the rules of valuation—price-earnings ratios, debt-income ratios, current account deficits—apply to somebody else, and that we’re somehow smarter. It’s proven difficult over the course of centuries to overcome this combination of arrogance and ignorance. A good example of this is how we’ve reacted to the Japanese banking crisis that began in 1992. Estimates of the bail-out costs of that crisis amount to 20-25% of the GDP. You would think that we would look at the Japanese experience with that crisis and say, “We don’t want to go down that path,” which includes forbearance, guarantees, zero-interest rates, and preserving zombie banks and loans. But that’s what we have done.

We are all guilty of this in varying degrees. In terms of the real estate bubble, it takes two to tango; it’s the lenders that are pushing the loan and the borrowers that are willing to take it on despite their likely inability to meet payments. On the part of policy-makers, there was a not-so-benign disinterest in the skyrocketing prices of real estate and the current account deficit—the money that we were borrowing from other parts of the world. The way that I have characterized it on many occasions is through Einstein’s definition of insanity: we keep doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different outcome.

RW: Do you think the solution to global cyclical financial crises lies in regulation?

Reinhart: The evidence shows that from 1800 onwards, capital mobility and highly liberalized financial systems are more crisis-prone. However, the process of regulation is a complicated one in the globalized world, and there’s a certain need for synchronicity, because otherwise the activity is going to shift from one country to another. You’re relocating the problem. I see regulations coming, but countries in Europe are much more amenable to regulation than the U.S., and those differences make for a more complicated, delayed solution.

RW: Ken Rogoff stated in an interview that politicians and regulators “are not likely to change.” If it’s true that arrogance and ignorance are a part of human nature for consumers as well, do you see any hope for breaking this cycle?

Reinhart: No. I think that what we do see is that periods of sobriety follow these crises. But then, as time goes on, we begin to think, “Well those were really archaic times,” even though they were not. Regulators tend to regulate the last crisis, but not future ones. And policy-makers will act on the assumption that “this time is different.”

RW: If this cycle is inevitable, what impact did you hope for your book to have on politicians, regulators and consumers?

Reinhart: Well, few things hold in absolutes. There are two expectations. The first expectation is that, at some point, there may be preemptive actions put in place by a policy-maker as a result of seeing early warnings crop up. The second expectation is that we are trying to make the ignorance part of this equation more difficult, even though we are powerless to do anything about arrogance. We can serve as a reminder that the cycles of over-indebtedness ending in tears have been with us for a long time and that they are universal—they don’t come with exemptions.

RW: What did politicians, regulators and banks do well to help control this crisis? In what ways did they fail?

Reinhart: In my view, the swift and aggressive stimulus from monetary policy and the central banks have been an appropriate, local response to the crisis. The fiscal stimulus packages have their well-known problems, but they have also been a move in the right direction. I think, frankly, the major policy disappointment is how we have addressed—or more accurately not addressed—the non-performing loan problem of the banking industry. The problems that originated in the banks are still with us, and it’s been over two years.

RW: Is there anything that does distinguish this crisis from the ones that came before it?

Reinhart: Each crisis has its own flavor, and this one is no exception. I think one area where, thus far, we’ve had a better outcome than in the Great Depression is the aggressiveness of monetary policy in the U.S. and other countries in responding to the crisis in a counter-cyclical way. Emerging markets have also been evolving without the pro-cyclical monetary and fiscal policies that have made them notorious. That’s a welcome change.

A daily review of the employment fallout around the country and the world.

Today’s Total: 15,116

The good news: According to WSJ, planned layoffs fell in October for the third consecutive month and reached their lowest level since March 2008… Puerto Rico has decided to delay the layoffs of 7,000 employees until next year.

The bad: GM announced its plan to slash 10,000 jobs from European division Opel… HSBC anticipates trimming 1,800 jobs… Daimler announced plans to lay off 1,000 workers at a Mercedes car unit in Germany… Microsoft completed its layoff plans by cutting 800 staffers… Associated British Foods is expected to reduce its workforce by 400… Anglo Irish Bank is set to lay off 230 employees globally as phase one of its “redundancy program”… Citigroup Inc. reduced its credit card and wealth management staff by 175 this week… DRS Technologies laid off 160 employees from offices in Brevard County, Fla… Sitel reduced its workforce by 150 in Andalusia, Ala… Novell laid off up to 130 people last week… Kingfisher Airlines handed out 100 pink slips to Indian pilots… Robinson Memorial Hospital of Ravenna, Ohio laid off 54 full and part-time workers… The Wheatland Tube Co. of Pennsylvania consolidated two plants and cut 40 employees… The Glen Electric plant laid off 40 workers in the U.K… Time Inc. layoffs continued with 8 buyout requests for People, 18 cuts in editorial staff at Essence, and a decision to fold Fortune Small Business that impacted 11 employees… Nascar intends to lay off more employees than last year after the conclusion of the season on November 22.

Are you one of the Screwed? Check out Recessionwire’s Laid Off 101. Read more about layoffs at the sites compiled on our layoff tracker page.

What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.

Some coin laundries are closing and many others are battling sales declines, as Americans are even cutting back on their laundry costs. Some are using the home equipment of friends or relatives, while others are wearing items multiple times between washes. (Wall Street Journal)

Remember those 99-cent recession iPhone cases? Well, Case-Mate is holding a contest for artsy folks who take the time to decorate them. Win a mo-ped! (Case-Mate)

Last week the Obama administration claimed the $787 stimulus program saved or created more than 640,000 jobs, but a review shows that some are simply wrong, while others contain apparently subjective estimates. (New York Times)

A roundup of recent news about food stamps: 36 million Americans now receive them, they’re accepted in more places, and states are slow in responding to applications. (The Awl)

The best hard-luck stories are the ones you can savor without feeling guilty about it, stories about people who were clearly foolish with their money. Enter Willie Aames, former child star and current VH1 whipping boy, who lost everything after a series of business deals went bad. (Salon)

Casey Mulligan doesn’t think the recession was caused by consumers suddenly cutting their spending. “The roots of this recession go a lot deeper than the paradox of thrift.” (New York Times/Economix)

As analysts point to a handful of indicators that suggest the recession is relaxing its grip, millions of laid-off workers remain caught it in its clutches. (MCT News Service )

The number of Americans filing for initial unemployment insurance fell last week. There were 512,000 initial job claims filed in the week ended Oct. 31, down 20,000 from the previous week. (CNN/Money)

After spending more than a year in suspended animation, the commercial real estate industry is expected to hit bottom in 2010 with a wrenching thud. (Los Angeles Times)

Stanley Bing outlines some of the post-TARP questions we should be asking one year later. (Huffington Post)

If you come across a good article or blog post about the recession pass it on. To receive Recession Briefing in your inbox, subscribe to our daily email.

Matthew and Marnie Brannon, co-owners of Midwest Fiat in Columbus, Ohio borrowed $110,000 earlier this year to help them expand the vintage Italian car parts and service shop they have run for five years. The process took six months of  diligent work, but the Brannons learned some valuable lessons about what it takes for small business owners to beat the odds and get funding during a downturn.

Two of their most important tactics for securing a coveted business expansion loan included making their plight known by publicizing their loan search through the press and other outlets as they were struggling through the process. They also worked on building relationships with potential funders by using contacts within their business network with ties to the banking industry. Combining different tactics helped them eventually attract investors and fulfill their dream of expansion.

Maybe you are a small business owner who was rejected for a loan in the past year; or perhaps you want to approach a lender for the first time; or you may simply have aspirations of launching a new business. Regardless of your loan goals, the following tips can help you achieve the Brannons’ success by navigating the current economic climate and getting the money you need to thrive.

Never stop networking. Join and become active in a couple different types of organizations where you can meet other small business owners and managers who can potentially introduce you to their trusted business advisors, as well as financial organizations. Targeted business organizations or trade groups can help you really fine-tune your focus because they will introduce you to those with financial interest in your industry that might be able to help you with funding. Regardless of the actual organizations you join, make sure they are good fits for your type of business and that you don’t join more than one of each type so you’re not spreading your time too thinly.

Make your funding and expansion plights known. One thing the Brannons learned is that publicizing your search for funding can potentially bring interested parties and potential investors out of the woodwork. According to Laurel Delaney of Small Business Trends, a recession can be a great opportunity for small business owners to attract investors and clients alike because it presents an opportunity for these owners to show they have the “guts to press on, even in the face of insurmountable obstacles” (Small Business Trends). Keeping a public profile can help anyone seeking funding look very attractive to lenders and approach them from a position of great strength.

In the end, building a profitable business is about building key relationships. Ultimately, the products or services you provide to clients or how great you are at your job are not going to make or break your business or increase your chances of being successful at getting a loan, starting or expanding your company. As with marketing your business to potential clients, you need to focus on building relationships with key contacts in industries related to finance that can actually bring you closer to those that can and will give you a loan.

Good times or bad, small businesses must fund their growth if they want to stay healthy and competitive. Continue to build important relationships with other small business owners, stay diligent about networking, and approach those that can help you secure funding from a position of strength.

The 30-Minute Rule has nothing to do with eating food off the floor.

It’s a way to keep your spending in check by curbing impulse shopping — especially important as some of us are starting to feel flush again.

Maybe you’ve just found a job after months of unemployment. Maybe you just feel like the economy is starting to wobble towards a recovery. It’s hard not to unleash all that pent-up desire to buy. But over-spending is not a habit we want to return to as a society.

The 30-Minute Rule is ridiculously simple. When you see something you just have to have, wait a half-hour before you buy it.(A day is even better, but we’re taking baby steps here.)

If you’re shopping online, walk away from the computer. Wash dishes. Go outside, for God’s sake. If you’re in a store, say you’ll come back later Grab a bite. Go hunt down whatever it was you came looking for in the first place.

Chances are that feeling of need will pass. And that doesn’t save you the money you would have spent on that one item–it keeps you from buying more, since researchers have found that shopping leads to more shopping.

A daily review of the employment fallout around the country and the world.

Today’s Total: 11,809

Johnson & Johnson plans to lay off up to 8,000 employees, affecting 6 to 8 percent of its global workforce…Royal Bank of Scotland will lay off 3,700 retail banking workers… 51 employees of the Fresno Bee’s circulation department will lose their jobs… 28 employees of the Michigan Department of Agriculture will be laid off while 11 Capitol security workers will receive 30 day layoff notices… Olympia city will probably see 14 city employee layoffs in January… Emmet County may be forced to layoff 5 employees to avoid a negative 2010 budget… Sprint Nextel Corp. is preparing to lay off dozens of employees in its wholesale business.

Are you one of the Screwed? Check out Recessionwire’s Laid Off 101. Read more about layoffs at the sites compiled on our layoff tracker page.

What you need to know today to survive and thrive in the recession.

How far would you travel for a job? How about Antarctica? That’s where $18.5 million of stimulus money is ending up. (CNN/Money) Like we’ve said, Stimulation for everyone! (Recessionwire)

The Obama administration is intensifying its search for policies that can stoke job creation without adding significantly to the nation’s crippling budget deficit. (Washington Post)

The Senate and House are poised to agree on a compromise measure to extend unemployment benefits that also would expand a popular $8,000 tax credit for homebuyers. (New York Times)

There are persisting errors in the government’s latest effort to measure the effect of the $787 billion stimulus plan despite White House promises last week that the new data would undergo an “extensive review” to root out errors discovered in an earlier report. (Associated Press)

Concerns are mounting that efforts by governments and central banks to stoke a recovery will create a nasty side effect: asset bubbles in real-estate, stock and currency markets, especially in Asia. (Wall Street Journal)

According to information from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data, African-American workers have lost jobs at a rate 50 percent higher than white employees over the past two years. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Given the many problems weighing on the economy, a mediocre recovery does indeed seem more likely than a strong one, writes David Leonhardt. But history certainly offers pessimists and semi-pessimists some cause for humility. (New York Times)

It is no surprise that the bursting of the credit bubble led to a global crash in consumer spending on luxury goods. (The Big Money)

Faced with lurking dangers to the budding recovery, Federal Reserve policymakers are sure to leave a key interest rate at a record low to entice Americans to spend more and help the economic turnaround gain traction. (Associated Press)

Newly empowered by the Supreme Court, the attorneys general of several states hit hard by the housing collapse are exploring consumer fraud suits against major mortgage lenders. (New York Times)

If you come across a good article or blog post about the recession pass it on. To receive Recession Briefing in your inbox, subscribe to our daily email.

Says who: U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, as the department reported a 3.5 percent growth in the GDP in the third quarter following six quarters of decline.

“Today’s numbers indicate that the tough decisions this administration made to rescue the economy from the abyss were correct. We’re headed in the right direction, and even though there are still too many Americans out of work and still much work to be done, without the action taken in the early days of this administration, the pain families are feeling today would be much worse.” (Commerce Department press release)

Why it might be false: Sustainable recovery means indicators are turning around, but widespread forecasts for rising unemployment, ongoing woes in the financial services sector and questionable consumer confidence all throw doubt on the idea of recovery. Unemployment isn’t expected to peak until next summer. GMAC Financial Services is in its third round of bailout talks; Citibank’s long-term health is still under question; and CIT just filed for bankruptcy. When the Consumer Confidence Index sank to its lowest reading since May to 47.7 in October, stocks followed. Sustainable recovery? Doesn’t sound anything like it.

Why it might be true: GDP grew by 3.5% so quantitatively the numbers have clearly pointed to recovery. Some pockets of the economy like Walmart.com, Facebook and Kiva.org are hiring. Recently, Google’s Eric Schmidt has said he sees business conditions improving. In another Conference Board report, U.S. leading economic indicators rose 1% in September. It was the sixth straight increase and strongly pointed to recovery.

Our call: The macro recovery is just that, macro. Even though GDP grew by 3.5%, what does that really mean in our day-to-day lives? Average Americans across the country probably don’t feel 3.5% more secure about their jobs, 401Ks or mortgages. Even though some pockets of the economy are experiencing growth, they are also just that, pockets of growth that only a small minority will benefit from. Until we’re over staycations, coupon clipping and cheap treats, it’s going to be hard to feel like we’re in a recovery, much less a sustainable one. That said, since growth is better than contraction, we can say that we’re moving in the right direction, but we’re a long way off from real recovery.