Retailers await Vegas' impact on San Fran market
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, July 26, 2004
San Francisco — The first furniture market hosted by the World Market Center in Las Vegas is likely a year away, but some retailers say its impact may be felt this week in San Francisco in both a good and bad way.
The word "nostalgia" came up several times in interviews with retailers coming to the summer market here. Some think a full-fledged market here may be winding down, while others aren't ready to make that call.
Either way, they say this market should be interesting and inviting.
Assuming the World Market Center developers do everything they say they're going to do, "I'm assuming the West Coast market simply moves to Las Vegas," said Eric Blackledge of Blackledge Furniture in Corvallis, Ore. "I think San Francisco will remain as a marketplace, but my guess is it would become more for the design trade."
But that doesn't mean this summer's market will be lackluster. As some suppliers have opted out of San Francisco and prepare for Las Vegas, others have moved in or expanded their San Francisco spaces. Universal has expanded its presence, Blackledge noted, and others have made short-term lease deals in San Francisco for the next two markets.
"I think next year everyone is going to go to Vegas to see what happens," said Mary Li of R.S. Basso in Sebastopol, Calif.
If buyers decide they can get everything they need there, she said, San Francisco "will become superfluous."
Li said she could support San Francisco going forward as long as the two Western markets aren't scheduled at the same time. Indeed, she's hoping Las Vegas proves more of a threat to High Point, which she attends, but reluctantly.
Dave Harkness of Harkness Furniture in Tacoma, Wash., is taking a "wait-and-see attitude" on San Francisco's future. He has attended markets here for nearly 30 years and is a Gold Pass holder.
"We'll opt to be where the manufacturers are in the long run, and where (our) buying group (meets). I don't think anyone knows what's really going to happen."
The same goes for Taylor Ganz of Los Angeles-based McMahan's, who said, "We don't really care where the market is. They could put it in the North Pole, and if that's where manufacturers showed their goods, that's where we'd go to buy them."
