With only a free space and literally an empty shop, VillaLobos mall managed to collect 3.2 tons of clothes and help thousands of people in need.

The Governor of the State of São Paulo and other Brazilian personalities like footballer Neymar (with 15MM followers online) got involved and caught the media’s attention.

Other malls have shown interest in implementing the idea in their countries.

So, we're turning it into an open source project. This means that the shop blueprint, the key visuals and the communication kits are going to be made available for free to anyone to spread goodwill.

The key issue was not only to generate a good number of donations but also to make people aware of the cause and consolidate traffic to VillaLobos mall. The Empty Store itself was the media and the main character of the idea, but with huge press coverage and support from celebrities, socialites and even the Governor of the State of São Paulo, we increased several times the visibility and awareness of the activation.

Brazil is a tropical country but São Paulo gets pretty cold during the winter. So, for the annual Winter Clothing Drive, we created a new way of collecting donations.

A Loja Vazia, or The Empty Shop, is a store at VillaLobos shopping mall,

with empty hangers, empty shelves, empty windows. You bring clothes to the shop instead of taking them from the shop.

The space fills with donations during the day and is emptied out at night to receive more pieces the next morning. To encourage donation of clothes in good conditions, the shop team creates outfits and displays them as fashion looks.