High Point could become 'Showplace to the World'
Jay McIntosh, News Editor -- Furniture Today, February 5, 2006
Doesn't this sound exciting? Throngs of consumers line up and pay money to walk through and gawk at the world's greatest displays of home furnishings. Fired up with ideas about decorating their homes, they hurry back to their local retailers and place their orders.
It's a fantasy that can be achieved, says longtime sales representative Johnny Tingle.
His idea: Shorten the High Point market by a couple of days. After the professional buyers finish their work, hide the price tags and throw the showrooms open to the public. Even if people can't buy, they'll want to see the latest and greatest furniture, with a breadth of product and striking displays that stores can't match.
Tingle, whose TradeWinds Partners group, based near Atlanta, sells the Hooker, Bradington-Young, Paoli and Whitehall lines, said he'd be happy to stick around at market to show the consuming public what makes the world's largest furniture show so special. He'd gladly refer them to retailers who can make the sale. It would be like his contract lines, where he works with a potential end user, say a hotel chain, and then lines up the customer with a dealer.
"If we have the world's best furniture markets, why do we continue to hide them from our ultimate end users? Where else than High Point could we have a show that could really WOW the furniture consumers? It's all in the presentation, and that should happen in High Point," says Tingle.
As we all know, the High Point market traditionally has been off limits to consumers, except for the occasional celebrity and anyone with a neighbor or a relative at market who could score a pass.
There are good reasons for this. Retailers need unfettered access to the product and personnel of manufacturers and importers; some of the goods won't be at retail for months anyway, if ever; retailers might worry that showroom visits would lead to factory-direct sales (real factory-direct sales, not the kind advertised by some stores). And I guess there are security and intellectual property concerns.
But, says Tingle, it's not valid to reject the idea of a consumer show just because "we've never done it that way before." People with that attitude "are racing toward the cliff," he says.
While consumer days are almost unheard of at U.S. furniture markets, they're fairly common in Europe. I've been to Paris furniture shows on public days and seen hundreds of people lining up to fork over a few euros for the privilege of seeing the displays and talking to company representatives. Sales to the public are forbidden, but exhibitors provide lists of stocking dealers.
Regarding High Point, Tingle says the improvements that have been made to the market are nice. But he worries that if the market doesn't consider starting consumer days, eventually Las Vegas will.
"High Point could really be the Showplace to the World," he says. "What does it cost if we do it? Easy answer. What does it cost if we don't?"
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High Point could become ‘Showplace to the World’
Feb 6, 2006
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