Thousands of shoppers will converge on northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin once again for the spring edition of the popular Vintage Shop Hop Friday and Saturday, March 6 -7.

The event is a self-guided road trip designed for vintage and antique lovers in the northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin region to discover new shops and discover vintage treasures.

Each year 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 participate in this one-of-a-kind event, according to a news release.

Shoppers will find participating businesses in DeKalb, McHenry, Lake, DuPage, Lee, Ogle, Kane, Kendall and Cook counties in northern Illinois.

What started with 180 shops 13 years ago, the Vintage Shop Hop has been a way for small retail shops to market to a bigger audience.

“It gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling to know that my event can impact so many small businesses in just two days time,” said Ann Campos, Vintage Shop Hop founder. “Shoppers can get in on any of the vintage decorating trends including ‘cluttercore’ or ‘granny core.’”

Campus said “cluttercore” is all about intentional clutter. The trend gives permission to display collections or items that are reminiscent of grandma’s house, as well as nostalgic décor.

“The Vintage Shop Hop is the perfect time to hunt and gather the goods for many trends including mid-century modern, traditional, primitive or a host of other décor styles,” Campos said.

The idea came to Campos 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 businesses, and the result is the Vintage Shop Hop,” Campos said.

The event, now twice a year, is only open to locally owned, 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 and now stretches from I-80 in Illinois on the south to Gleason, Wisconsin to 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 inbig shopping malls or national chain décor stores.

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 list and map are both found on the event’s blog page here or on the Facebook page. Click here for a direct link to the interactive Google map of participating businesses.