SF market starts early
Wednesday kickoff draws mixed reviews, modest traffic
By Larry Thomas -- Furniture Today, February 1, 2004
SAN FRANCISCO — SAN FRANCISCO — Amid signs of growing optimism about business conditions, the winter furniture market kicked off its earlier-than-usual four-day run last week in a spruced-up San Francisco Mart.
Traffic was described as light to moderate on opening day, but many exhibitors theorized the market's new Wednesday-through-Saturday schedule altered traditional traffic patterns.
The long-established Friday-through-Monday format, which was scrapped this January to avoid having the market open on Super Bowl Sunday, typically resulted in very busy showrooms the first two days and quiet showrooms the final two.
"Opening day, for us, got off to a bit of a slow start, but it picked up later on," said Don Mecke, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Standard Furniture. "I think the new schedule is good for retailers, as it doesn't take them away from the store on the weekend."
The Wednesday-through-Saturday format was intended to be a one-time change, but San Francisco Mart officials said they might make the schedule permanent beginning in 2005.
"We had good feedback from exhibitors on the format, but we'll be surveying buyers after market to see what they think about it," said Roseann Carini, SFM's general manager.
Sheue-Wen Lee, CEO of case goods producer Winners Only, said small and midsized dealers from the West Coast were overwhelmingly supportive of the new format, but that wasn't always the case with buyers from larger retailers.
"Some of the large-store buyers were complaining that, since they weren't staying over Saturday night, their airfares were more expensive than normal," she said.
There appeared to be few complaints about business conditions and almost no griping about the condition of the SFM building. Scaffolding that had hidden the front of the venerable Mart 1 structure for years recently was removed, hallways were adorned with fresh paint and new carpet, and several restrooms and lobby areas had been renovated.
"The people working on the market have been great to work with and very helpful," said Mike Norris, vice president of case goods importer Michaels-Pilliod.
Phil Sherman, national sales manager for Boyd Specialty Sleep, described opening day traffic as "steady" and said he was excited about his company's chances of landing several new accounts.
"We saw a lot of new faces," he said. "And we saw key (Top 100) players like Art Van and Nebraska Furniture Mart."
Sheldon Lubin, president of Canadian-based motion upholstery specialist El Ran, said, "We saw some very high-quality buyers here. Traffic was excellent."
Exhibitors said dealers generally were upbeat about business conditions, but they remain a bit cautious because several upward spurts in business during the past three years have fizzled.
"Since the first of the year, a lot of retailers are telling us that business is OK," said Greg Roy, vice president of upholstery merchandising at Lane. "It looks like things may be picking up."
David Banister, senior vice president of sales at Broyhill, said, "We got off to a good start this year. We are getting sell-through."
Editor in Chief Ray Allegrezza, Executive Editor David Perry and Case Goods Editor Powell Slaughter contributed to this story.
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