Retailers need to bring market excitement home
By Ray Allegrezza, Editor in chief -- Furniture Today, October 14, 2001
A few weeks ago, Furniture/Today broke with a 25-year tradition. Instead of featuring the week's latest news, we used page one of our Oct. 1 issue to publish an open letter to the industry.
At the heart of the letter was the belief that we need to get back to the business of getting back to business. And as part of that objective, our letter strongly encouraged retailers and manufacturers to come to market.
Make no mistake: We are living in unusual times.
I applaud everyone who decided to come to market. Not only is it a vote in support of our industry, it's a vote in support of your business and your way of life.
As you peruse this issue, a number of things will be apparent. For openers, we followed through on our promise to switch from sketches to photography of all the products featured in our First Look section.
You told us that four-color photography was more helpful to you as you evaluate product, and as part of our ongoing effort to make the paper even more user-friendly, we listened and acted.
The second thing that will become obvious as you look at our Market Guide presentation is the sheer number of introductions that exhibitors have brought. In this issue, we feature nearly 260 introductions from about 230 companies.
According to the majority of manufacturers interviewed for this issue's product stories, the dominant strategy this market is to build on past successes via line extensions of established, successful groups.
Put another way, be prepared to see plenty of new products, although fewer of the big, splashy collections we've seen at past markets.
According to our staff of seasoned product editors, attendees should be on the lookout for six major style trends at this market. We've dubbed them as follows:
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Great outdoors
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Shapely Shaker, milder Mission
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Fine lines
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Lifestyle transitions
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Mediterranean influence
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European heritage
We believe our style map in the Market Guide section will prove to be a valuable resource to help you navigate the market.
Pipelines need to be replenished. The exhibitors are here, ready to help you fill them. There is plenty to do and see during the next week or so. Let's get busy, roll up our sleeves and go to work. Let's have a productive and successful market.
Finally, as an industry, let us look for ways to capture the excitement and innovation evident in so many showrooms, and find ways to translate that to retail selling floors.
Your customers deserve that. I also believe that retailers who create ways to bring the excitement of market home to their stores will sell product.
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