Leslie Fisher and Chrissy Gibbs figured there was a need for a safe place where parents could drop off their little ones for a few hours.

But the two Spotsylvania County stay-at-home moms weren't ready to lock themselves into a long-term lease to try out their idea.

So Fisher and Gibbs asked for, and got, a one-year lease in Spotsylvania Towne Centre and opened Wiggle Worms in June. It's a colorful spot where children can play games and make crafts while their parents shop, go out to eat or take in a movie.

"Because it's such a new idea in the area and we don't have any backing, we wanted to make sure it works before we go all into it," said Gibbs.

Businesses have been popping up for short periods of time for years, as evidenced by the Spirit Halloween store that opens in a vacant store in Fredericksburg each fall, then closes before the last bit of trick-or-treat candy has been polished off.

These days, however, they're just as likely to be first-timers testing the waters, such as Wiggle Worms, or major retailers trying to create buzz, which Target does occasionally in larger cities for some of its well-known designers, such as Mossimo.

That's partly because there are more opportunities for experimentation due to the vacancies created when chains such as as Linens-N-Things and Circuit City folded, said Scott Krugman, spokesman for the National Retail Federation in New York City.

Spirit Halloween, for example, will be opening soon in the former Tweeter store in Central Park. Tweeter closed in January after the company went bankrupt.

"In past years, that wouldn't even have an option," said Dawn Hoover, Silver Cos.' vice president for commercial sales and leasing.

Gibbs and Fisher are running Wiggle Worms out of the old Radio Shack location near Costco. That section of the mall doesn't get as much traffic from parents of young children as it did before the Disney Store closed, Gibbs said, but their business is doubling every week as word-of-mouth spreads.

"We're thinking about expanding the lease," she said.

Pop-up stores also help create buzz for retailers, and some offer shoppers a chance to go online to check out a wider range of goods than can be displayed in a small, pop-up location, Krugman said.

That's the case for the Swarovski kiosk in Spotsylvania Towne Centre. The company, a world leader in precision-cut crystal, opened it to help build interest for the 1,500-square-foot store it has planned for The Village at Towne Centre, the new open-air addition at Spotsylvania Towne Centre.

The Swarovski store currently is on hold until more retailers open in the Village at Towne Centre. Customers who want a wider selection than what's in the kiosk can page through catalogs or go online there, said store manager Katie Bowles.

"We have our ups and our downs," she said. "Some of that could be solved by being in a normal-size store. There are definitely a lot of people in the area who like the product."

Businesses that get short-term leases while they're starting up often segue into longer-term leases once they get established. Matt Tierney, for example, started Gamepad in Five Mile Centre Park with a one-year option in 2007, because he wasn't sure how viable it would be.

"At that time, it was pretty unusual to get a one-year lease," he said. "Most people were doing longer-term leases. We hadn't hit the financial slump that hit later in 2008."

Gamepad got off to a slow start, Tierney said, but eventually developed a strong following from customers who liked playing its video arcade games and competing with players around the world through its Internet connections.

"That's when I started talking to the mall," he said. "I actually had not looked there initially because the prices were so high. When I came back, some tenants were leaving."

Tierney got a three-year lease for the former Aladdin's Castle location and moved there in June of 2008. He's already getting 10 times the foot traffic he did at the other location.

"We'd love to be in The Village [at Towne Centre]," he said, "but have been told there's no opportunity for that yet. We'd like to be open later; we're more compatible with movie theater hours."