Is High Point Market at a Low Point?

High Point, N.C.—On the fourth day of the High Point Market, held March 26–April 1, exhibitors Joanne Watley and Brenda Trainor stood outside their temporary booths at the Suites at Market Square and looked up and down the empty aisles.

"This is bad, but on Tuesday it was even worse," said Trainor, who has exhibited at the market for Genese River, a New Wilmington, Penn.-based rustic furniture company, since 1989. "It was like a tomb in here. You could have played bowling for dollars down the aisles," she added.

Watley, who works for Malabar Grove, a bedding company based in East Providence, R.I., agreed. "It's been very slow," she said. "This show was moved too close to the winter markets."

Trainor said she had done half the business of previous years.

At press time, the High Point Market Authority, which runs the largest home furnishings market in the United States, did not have attendance figures available.

Beyond the date change at this year's market, from late April to late March, other factors that exhibitors interviewed by Tradeshow Week pointed to for the lack of crowds were the struggling retail furniture industry, particularly the small-to-medium retailers, who have suffered the most from industry consolidation; the high costs of hotels and transportation in the area; and the difficulty of getting to and around High Point.

"The big box stores are shutting down the smaller stores," said Brian Casey, president and CEO of the High Point Market Authority.

As if that weren't enough, on the tip of everybody's tongue at the High Point Market was the World Market Center's semiannual Las Vegas Market, most recently held Jan. 29–Feb. 2.

Casey, a tradeshow veteran, played down the perceived drop in attendance. He said people "would always say the attendance is down, but buying was good."

Daniel Ide, director of sales and marketing for Welton USA, an Irving, Texas-based furniture manufacturer with a permanent showroom on Main Street at the market, was a case in point. "We've done good business. Overall, traffic was down, but we have had a lot of good buyers filling orders," he said.

The slump in the housing market has also trickled down to the furniture industry in the last year. "Most of the broader economic actors that influence the manufacture and sale of furniture indicate that 2007 will be a challenging year for our industry, just as 2006 was," Casey said.

High Point is not only caught in the crossfire of a challenging economy, but also competition from the Las Vegas Market, which is becoming a formidable presence with 2.9 million square feet in two buildings, temporary exhibits in other venues and another building with approximately 2.1 million sq. ft. of exhibit space scheduled for completion in 2008.

Many High Point exhibitors had strong opinions about what would be necessary for the market to successfully compete with Las Vegas.

"It's very expensive here for a small town, and the restaurants don't quite get it," said Ron Ainsworth, vice president of sales and marketing at Emerald Home Furnishings, which has permanent showrooms in both High Point and Las Vegas. "For lack of a better word, there's a lot of gouging going on."

Exhibitors said they'd gotten numerous complaints from buyers about the high cost of hotels, restaurants and rental cars.

"In the tradeshow industry we all know when there's a compression on room inventory there will be a natural rise in room rates," Casey explained. "We have started a sub-block room rate program where, if you book early, you can save between 22 and 43 percent. The problem isn't solved, and it continues to be a critical issue."

High Point is also a difficult market to navigate. There is very little parking available near the market. And, once there, the more than 2,600 exhibitors are spread out across 188 buildings and 12 million sq. ft.

Casey said High Point has launched a major effort to make the market easier to get to, and around. Free shuttle buses run to the market's center continuously from hotels in nearby cities, as well as back and forth to off-site parking lots and the regional airports. A brand new transportation terminal was also completed this year with designated lanes for shuttles.

"We've vastly improved transportation systems," Casey said. "We've not only eliminated complaints but also gotten praise as well."

The market also made other recent changes:

• a name change, from the International Home Furnishings Market to the High Point Market
• a new logo
• a new marketing campaign focusing on re-branding the market
• establishment of a preview event for top manufacturers 30 days before the market
• collaboration with a production company to create video and material in order to extend the life of the market year round with an e-newsletter and other media.

Casey said the issue of the date change was front and center.

Exhibitors, such as Jeff Chauvin, owner of home accessories Atlanta, Ga.-based store, Bougainvillea, squarely blamed the earlier dates for his slow sales.

"Buyers still have stuff they need to sell in their storerooms," he said. "People are only putting in small orders."

Moving the dates from late April to late March pushed the market closer to winter events, including Las Vegas Market's January show, he added.

While High Point considers its date strategy, Las Vegas may make a move of its own in the near future. Right now the Las Vegas Market is at one of the busiest times of the year in the city.

After the most recent show, Las Vegas Market CEO Harvey Dondero told Tradeshow Week, "Our dates are not driven by availability of space, but by what the industry wants. You'll have to watch in the coming months to see what we have to announce about that."

Casey said there was nothing he could do if the Las Vegas Market's dates changed. "I think it would be a huge mistake on their part," he added. "There are people that go to both, but I think Las Vegas would be in trouble to do that."

Even if Las Vegas did move its dates, exhibitors who attend both said there were a number of reasons why they'd prefer to do business in High Point.

"I know guys here (in High Point) that have 60,000 sq. ft. showrooms and pay more than that in Las Vegas for 10,000 sq. ft.," Ide said. "There's also no union labor here. In Las Vegas, my guys started to take boxes of brochures off our truck, all these union guys surrounded them and said they couldn't do that. They charged me $25 each box, which was more than I paid for an entire day of showroom space here."

Though Las Vegas may be a threat, a number of exhibitors said they had no intention of leaving High Point.

"I have no plans to go to Las Vegas," said Fortson Turner, owner of Turner's Fine Furniture, which has seven locations in Georgia. "High Point is much bigger, and there's a lot more product here."

When Las Vegas' third building is completed, the center will have 5 million sq. ft. of permanent space. Even with another 1 million sq. ft. of temporary exhibit space, it's still just half the size of High Point.

Susan Laws, a buyer for Heirlooms, a furniture company in Durham, N.C., isn't budging. "I would not go to Las Vegas," she said. "This market covers my needs. I don't need to fly halfway across the country."

Casey isn't flinching either.

He said, "Being here is like shopping in a place that has everything. Being there is shopping in a place that has a tenth of what's available."