Lifestyle packs 'em in
More than 500 attend High Point show
Jeff Linville -- Furniture Today, January 23, 2006
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| Signs at High Point’s Furniture Plaza welcome buyers to the Forbidden City Furniture Show. Several building owners jumped on board with Lifestyle’s dealer event. Merchandise Mart Properties, which owns this building, also provided shuttle service between showrooms. |
HIGH POINT -- Lifestyle Enterprise exceeded its expectations last week, drawing more than 500 buyers representing about 350 retail accounts to the show it spearheaded here. Lifestyle paid for flight and hotel expenses for many of the guests, but also drew retailers who hadn’t made reservations with the importer. The company’s total also probably excludes some smaller retailers who traveled here to see some of the more than 60 other companies that opened their doors for what became a mini-market. Ed Marshall, president and CEO of case goods resource Orleans Furniture, said about two dozen dealers visited his company’s showroom on the first two days of the three-day event. “Most of them were people we already sell, but it was a good chance to take a look at what they already have on the floor and show them some things they might need to add,” Marshall said.
 Steve Tronstein, left, Gardner White, Warren, Mich.; James Riddle, Lifestyle Enterprise; and Bob Yondo, Walker Furniture, Las Vegas. |
| Steve Tronstein, left, Gardner White, Warren, Mich.; James Riddle, Lifestyle Enterprise; and Bob Yondo, Walker Furniture, Las Vegas. |
Companies including Largo, Palliser, Vaughan-Bassett and SLF also said they saw enough buyers to make the event worthwhile. Roger Friesen, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Palliser, attended the Toronto show but flew to High Point as well, and said he wasn’t disappointed. Hooker, the largest of several exhibitors open in the International Home Furnishings Center, saw steady traffic coming to view its dozens of new samples.
 Bob Wo, left, and Bub Wo, C.S. Wo & Sons, Honolulu, Hawaii. |
| Bob Wo, left, and Bub Wo, C.S. Wo & Sons, Honolulu, Hawaii. |
“We had six accounts stop in by lunchtime on the first day,” said Ray Harm, senior vice president of sales. “That is six accounts we would not have seen if we had not opened the showroom.” While Lifestyle was pleased to see more people than expected, the extra traffic did create quite a crowd at its dinner parties. On both nights, the company filled the Centennial Station dinner theater to capacity.
 Charles Bailey, left, Don Fowler and Bonita Stephens, all of Fowlers Furniture, Knoxville, Tenn. |
| Charles Bailey, left, Don Fowler and Bonita Stephens, all of Fowlers Furniture, Knoxville, Tenn. |
During the first evening, the company held a drawing for a BMW 2.5i convertible roadster that went to Fernando Zertuche Cantú of Zertuche SA de CV, in Monterrey, Mexico.
On the second night, Aime Fitzhugh of Gardner White in Warren, Mich., won a white Mercedes SLK.
*Editor-in-Chief Ray Allegrezza and Business Editor Larry Thomas contributed to this story.
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Lifestyle packs 'em in
Feb 5, 2006
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