Thousands of shoppers will converge on northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin once again for the fall edition of the popular Vintage Shop Hop on Friday and Saturday, October 3 & 4, 2025. 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 300 to 400 locally owned vintage shops, antique malls, women’s boutiques, occasional and pop-up shops, home décor stores, 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 twelve years ago, the Vintage Shop Hop has increased in popularity every year. The fall Vintage Shop Hop features 294 individual, locally owned shops in 146 towns. Inside those 294 shops the goods being sold belong to 9,494 small businesses. “It’s a fabulous feeling to know that my event can impact so many small businesses in just two days”, says Campos.
“Shoppers can get in on the ‘cluttercore’ or ‘grannycore’ vintage decorating trend” says Ann Campos, founder of the popular Vintage Shop Hop event. “For the past few years minimalism took over, but not anymore. Now it’s okay to embrace ‘clutter’”. Cluttercore is all about intentional clutter. The trend gives permission to display collections that make you smile. Think embroidered fabrics, a variety of patterns, wallpaper, items that are reminiscent of grandma’s house, décor that brings you joy. “The Vintage Shop Hop is the perfect time to hunt and gather the goods for this trend or any other décor style,” says Campos.
The idea came to Campos twelve 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.” The event, now twice a year, is only open to locallyowned, for-profit shops. There are no big box stores, franchises or chain stores allowed. Social media has played a huge role in the rapid growth of the shopping extravaganza.
“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 shoppers who are excited to have a list of hundreds of unique shops dropped in their lap. The result? You can’t hold them back!” Campos laughed. The two-state event has grown organically over the past twelve years and now stretches from I-80 in Illinois on the south to Antigo, Wisconsin on the north.
“The participating shop owners are very passionate about the history of their antiques as well as their buildings. 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 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 or national chain décor stores. Shoppers can find stores housed inside century-old barns, historic homes, banks, gas stations and churches all making the shopping experience memorable.
For shoppers, the road trip planning for the Vintage Shop Hop is made easy with an interactive Google Map and Master List of Shops. The event 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 have become a ‘road trip bible’ for shoppers. Find both at https://vintageshophop.blogspot.com or follow the event Facebook page at www.facebook.com/VintageShopHopEvent.
A direct link to the interactive Google Map is here: https://bit.ly/VSHOctober2025GoogleMap