Bargain hunters descend on Tupelo
Attendance light, but majors at show
Gary Evans -- Furniture Today, February 22, 2008
TUPELO, Miss. — Despite sparse traffic, exhibitors at the winter market here said they were doing a good business with bargain hunters, and were seeing flashbacks to the days when Tupelo was considered the market for promotional upholstery.
Deals were advertised on flat screen TVs throughout the complex of market buildings, and “Tupelo-only” promotions, such as sofa/loveseat combos for the price of a sofa, were abundant in showrooms. That seemed to be the attention-getter here.
“Most of the people we’re seeing are outlet buyers or buyers for major accounts that have outlets,” said Brian Einhorn, vice president for global sales and marketing and Albany Furniture.
“Attendance is as expected and not overly impressive,” he said. “We’ve seen the major accounts that we needed to see and we opened up to major accounts. In general, we’re happy with the market.”
Even though exhibitors were writing business and making new contacts, including people they never see at other markets, most were saying that the market here this week is reflective of economic conditions.
“Given the current retail environment, I was pleasantly surprised by the number of buyers we saw,” said Mike Genrich, vice president of sales for AICO, which showed the company’s expanded rug program that it rolled out in Las Vegas, and its top-of-the-bed program “which did very well.”
Philip Hodgson, executive vice president of Standard Furniture and president of IFM, said the company used Tupelo to debut its Frisco lineup, which is the company’s promotional, made-in-the-USA family of products.
“Tupelo, which is still a strong regional market, was the best place for us to debut our American-made promotional furniture,” he said. “This is still a strong order-writing regional show, especially for the mom-and-pop retailers.”
Simon Pang, president of upholstery maker Northca Mfg., said, “I was prepared for the slowness” but still had “high hopes” that there would be a good turnout from the Southeast because of the company’s location in Norcross, Ga.
Nonetheless, “We prefer Tupelo because it attracts mom-and-pops. We need shows like this,” he added.
Ron Wanek, chairman of Ashley Furniture, said, “Business is OK. This is the first time that we essentially are flat.
“I think this environment will weed out weak players and result in a cleansing at all levels — wholesalers, manufacturers and retailers. I also don’t think this is a quick fix. We are positioning our company to operate in this environment for a protracted period of time.”
Although traffic was slow in Classic Flame’s showroom, the company said it was worthwhile to be here because it had opened at least one key account in each of the company’s three markets here.
Ligo Products said it put most of its efforts into relocating its High Point showrooms and, as a result, was using Tupelo to focus on moving slower-selling goods and offering closeouts. Considering that, Kelly Smith, national sales manager, said he was pleased with the 15 accounts that visited on Wednesday.
Editor-in-chief Ray Allegrezza, leather editor Joan Gunin and staff writer Jeff Linville, staff contributed to this story.
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