Pop-up stores first popped up a decade ago as an avant-garde novelty, with planners lavishing praise on them as a way of bringing back people to empty or unloved spaces.

Now, with analysis by one of the city’s big retail property agents showing previously unleasable real estate in high demand, some city venue operators are asking if the rise of short-term sales spaces is taking a toll.

Maz Salt, founder of Section 8, one of Melbourne's first pop-up bars. Credit:Simon Schluter

"Pop-up" stores in Melbourne now exist to fill shoppers' every need: clothing, food, beer, cinema, even Magnum ice creams.

Once touted as an edgy retail concept for designers and clothes makers, many ‘‘pop-up’’ stores are now shiny and corporate. Old El Paso has a tortilla pop-up in the Strand arcade, as does Magnum in the Emporium. Other brands, like Uniqlo, use them to test the market before opening permanently.