Kanye West has made millions from his Pablo fashion pop-ups but Fitzroy traders say the event has cost them significant business.
Charlotte Knightley, who manages the stationer Zetta Florence, which is next door to where the temporary Pablo store set up from Friday to Sunday, said the store lost about $6000 in regular trade.
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Shoppers camp outside Kanye West pop-up shop in Fitzroy
Hundreds of shoppers in Melbourne queued for hours to get their hands on a piece from the rapper's new fashion line.
Ms Knightley blames the crowds that lined Brunswick Street for three days for the loss in trade.
She vented her frustrations on Facebook on Friday, addressing a message directly to the rapper turned fashion mogul.
"From one retailer to another our customer bases are quite different so when your customer swear at my little old lady customers who are just trying to come in to buy an album to protect their war time treasures, it's a bit of a problem," she wrote on West's Facebook page.
"I just thought I'd drop a note to see if you will send through a cheque to cover the loss ... I know you are a little in debt but maybe your wife could swing you $6K? For my family it's our livelihood."
Thousands of people – the vast majority of them young and male – queued from Thursday afternoon to get their hands on the Pablo clothing, which was only on sale for three days at 21 pop-up shops around the world. Prices ranged from $50 to $400.
Speaking to Fairfax Media on Monday, Ms Knightley said she didn't blame West or his store for the downturn in trade but found the experience incredibly frustrating.
"There were 700 people standing in front of the door so when I had a lady with a walker trying to come in she was sworn at by the crowd. I can imagine if I was standing in the rain for 30 hours I wouldn't be happy either," she said.
She said the event appeared to be disorganised in terms of the number of security guards and inadequate rubbish bins.
Had she been given notice she said she may have tried to capitalise on the event by printing posters for people waiting in line or hiring her own security for the store.
Instead, she said the store took just 20 per cent of the takings compared to the same day last year.
"Every store that was impacted by it, we all tried to speak to the police and the council and [the police said] there was nothing that could be done about it," she said.
"Sure there were 700 people in front of our store but they weren't our customers."