Buyers like almost all they see at WMC
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, February 4, 2007
Las Vegas — Furniture retailers shopping the market here last week were overwhelmingly positive about the expanded breadth of exhibitors, products and price points, and punctured the premarket notion that tough business conditions might lead to light buying.
That's not to say this market was perfect. Several dealers complained about the elevators in the World Market Center's Building B, for example. Shuttle experiences were mixed, and some said the high-end offerings here are not yet up to speed.
But it's clear Las Vegas has stolen the hearts of some dealers who won't be going back to High Point, and gained others who haven't been going to North Carolina.
And it wasn't just a swarm of little stores making the rounds. On opening day, for instance, buyers and leaders from five Top 100 companies — R.C. Willey, Kane's Furniture, American Signature, El Dorado and Walker Furniture — could all be found in the AICO showroom at the same time.
Even some of those who say they don't buy at markets said that product here was gaining strong nods if not final commitments.
"We saw a lot of new, fresh looks we didn't see in High Point," said Pedro Capo, chief operating officer of 10-store El Dorado Furniture, based in Miami Gardens, Fla. And since most of the Vegas showrooms are smaller than those in High Point, it's easier to focus on what's new, he said, adding, "You don't have to go though 40 or 50 things you've probably already seen."
Capo also said Las Vegas
was easy to shop. Travel time between showrooms is less than it is in High Point, so El Dorado's team spent more time looking at product.
So will El Dorado keep coming to High Point? "Definitely," Capo said, "unless something major happens."
While many exhibitors here reported record order-writing, not all retailers make such commitments. Pam Leonard and Sue Browe, buyers for The Old Cannery Warehouse in Sumner, Wash., for example, only use markets to shop, then buy later. But like many here, they said they liked what they saw, with a lot of goods getting "preliminary nods," and "That's it!" reactions.
"We're excited," Leonard said. "I was worried we'd come down here and just find a sea of beige, but instead, we saw ... new finishes and colors, fresh takes on the lodge style."
Leonard and Browe were impressed by strong statements at Stanton, Douglas, Sunny Designs and Aspenhome, with the latter offering new Jena Hall-designed furniture that "tied functionality with beautiful style," Leonard said.
For some high-end retailers, Las Vegas is still lacking. Howard Haimsohn, president of San Diego-based Lawrance, and Jim Gabbert, CEO of Minneapolis-based Gabberts, both said the market hasn't arrived yet when it come to a strong high-end offering, although it has improved.
"I still feel it will be potentially a couple of years before ... we have to be here on a regular basis," Haimsohn said. Nine of the 25 members of the Contemporary Design Group, a buying group Lawrance belongs to, were here this time, he said.
Ralph Sproull, owner of high-end store Classic Home Furnishings in Atlanta, said he was "under-impressed" with this — his first — Las Vegas Market because of a lack of medium-high to high-end product.
"It's a middle to (promotional) market, and a lot more transitional than what we do," he said. He did buy from some new sources, including Copper Instincts, Dovetail and Tables & More.
Sproull also gave the WMC poor marks for the elevators in Building B, and had a bad shuttle experience with a rude driver who refused to make all the listed stops. But most buyers seemed to have good things to say about their experience here.
Richard Brenner, co-owner with brother Jay Brenner of three Ashley Furniture HomeStores in Pennsylvania, has been to nearly every High Point Market for the past 20 years. But after his first market here, he said he's not going back to High Point.
"The way the market is designed, the ease of getting here, the atmosphere and hospitality of the people here — it's just fantastic," he said.
Dennis Novosel, president of Stoney Creek Furniture in Stoney Creek, Ontario, said he loves High Point and will keep it as his buying market, but said he was impressed with WMC's Building B.
"It's shaking my belief that (Las Vegas) won't be a big threat to High Point," he said. "Down the road, I believe we'll have to use this market as a buying event."
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