Hundreds turn out for Forbidden City show
Lifestyle Enterprise hopes to inject excitement
Jeff Linville -- Furniture Today, January 15, 2008
HIGH POINT — The temperature may be chilly, but the traffic is hot this week at Lifestyle Enterprise’s third-annual winter event.
More than 600 retailers are here this week for the Forbidden City Furniture Show. The company booked flights and hotel rooms for more than 580 people, according to an unofficial tally. Dozens more have driven here from around the region, said Managing Director James Riddle.
Looking around the company’s break room Monday afternoon, Riddle saw accounts from as far away as Chicago, Northern California, Mexico and Panama. He said other buyers have come from Puerto Rico, New England, Alaska and Hawaii.
The doors opened at 7:15 a.m. Monday and by 7:30 there were eight retailers registered, each with three or four buyers, said Riddle. By 9 a.m. he could hardly move through the East Commerce Street showroom.
About 50 other exhibitors scattered around the downtown area are open this week as well.
Lifestyle, a case goods and leather upholstery importer, is offering several promotions this week. Considering the success of the past two shows, the company couldn’t open its doors with anything less than the best, according to Riddle. Still, he added, incentives only draw interest, while the real selling point is the everyday value of a good product at a promotional price.
He said the show aims to spur excitement during a slow period in the industry. “Everybody wants to come up with the silver bullet, and we have the silver bullet,” he said.
Several retailers said Monday that sales continue to be slow in the new year. One said last weekend was the worst he can remember in the month of January.
Although retailers and manufacturers alike are struggling, Riddle said most buyers he spoke to seemed to be in good spirits.
Lifestyle held a dinner in the International Home Furnishings Center ballroom Monday night. Emcee Andrea Duke, Miss North Carolina USA, presented a new BMW Z4 3.0i sports car to one of the registered guests, Paul Burt of MD Pruitt’s in Phoenix.
At tonight’s dinner, Lifestyle will hold a drawing for a Mercedes Benz SLK 280.
Associate Editor Tom Russell contributed to this story.
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