October 2011 Market Follow Up

After spending a week in High Point with friends in the furniture industry, I have the following observations and information:

1. It did not seem to be as crowded in the Main Buildings as elevators were easily accessible. That may be because the market is spread out. It may be that some retailers come in on varied schedules so everyone is not there at the same time. Or unfortunately, there just not as many people coming to market anymore.

2. Retailers that I spoke to from around the country, but especially in the Midwest and Rocky Mountain states were satisfied with overall business. In golf we call it a son in law shot - not exactly what we hoped for but it could be a lot worse.
3. Jerry Epperson gave his semi-annual industry pep talk. Two things that I found particularly interesting were these observations from his report
• "A key problem for home furnishings since 2006 has been a dramatic decline in the formation of new households. After averaging 1.2 million new households per year from 2001-2006, they have dropped to only 460K, on average, per year since 2007. Demographers expect the rate to exceed 1.0 million as early as 2012 and continue at that level for most of the next decade."
• Look for 2012 to be a better year for home building, and home furnishings should get the benefit from that in 2013. Look for consumer confidence to recover in November and December thanks to some modestly encouraging economic news, lower fuel prices and the coming holidays.
Jerry summed it up by saying "Furniture is a credit sensitive, housing dependant, consumer confidence driven purchase. Add to that it is a large ticket and easily deferrable in terms of replacing it. As a result, our decline since 2006 has been much more severe than total retail sales. Yes, this stinks but our day will come when housing and employment rise and the banks are lending." Jerry Epperson has a good sense of the industry and I recommend his newsletter "Furnishings Digest Newsletter".

4. With the purchase of the market buildings in one entity for a large portion of North Carolina market space as well as Las Vegas, there will definitely be some changes. I think it will be refreshing to have the markets on the same page versus a Vegas versus North Carolina battle. Bob Maricich, CEO of International Market Centers, was very upbeat about the future for the combined entity. I am hopeful that this can be an asset for the industry to increase overall consumer market share.

5. Congratulations to Kathy Parks and Jennifer Sova of the International Home Furnishings Representative's Association (IHFRA). They again reached new highs in membership exceeded 1600 members. If you are a rep and not a member, you are missing out on a lot of benefits including a free seminar at market on using IPAD's sponsored by Web4Retail. We had over 100 reps in attendance. The replay of this will be available on our website for members as well as a more advanced webinar series for serious IPAD users. Call the IHFRA office for more details at 336-889-3920.

6. The NHFA has a new President, Marc Schewel. Based on his introductory remarks at the Annual Meeting at market, it sounds like it will be a very enjoyable year. If you are a retailer, look to join the NHFA or the WHFA for the benefits and the networking.

7. Speaking of networking, I have a save the date notification. It was announced that the All Industry Home Furnishings Conference will be May 6-8, 2012 in Palm Springs. It was a great learning event last year and this year looks to be as good. For more information go to www.HomeFurnishingsConference.com.

As you can tell, markets are a great place to find out what's going on in the industry besides just furniture introductions. It's also a terrific way to network. After going to as many markets as I have gone to, it does become somewhat of a reunion of old friends who also happen to do business together.

Please comment below on what good and positive things you heard about while at market.