When early shopping gets in the way of selling | Ray Allegrezza
At High Point Market, getting to the merchandise before your competitors can be a smart business move. But when retailers start shopping days before the official opening, some exhibitors say the rush to get ahead is getting in the way of selling furniture.
The complaints aren’t new, but I’m hearing them more often. Retailers want first crack at the new sectional, the latest upholstery collection or the dining group they think will move. I get that. Nobody wants to find out a competitor got the hot new product while they were waiting for the doors to open.
But what good is getting to a showroom first if the showroom isn’t ready, the product isn’t accessible and the rep trying to sell it hasn’t had time to learn the line?
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Exhibitors spend months developing collections and preparing for what is the biggest, for many, selling event of the year. They invest serious money in showroom displays because first impressions matter. They want buyers to see the merchandise the way it was meant to be seen.
Instead, the buyer walks in while the crew is still unpacking, boxes are everywhere and the rep is trying to get up to speed on the new line. Not exactly the polished presentation the exhibitor spent all that money creating.
One exhibitor told me he was so frustrated by an early-arriving buyer that he couldn’t even get to a new item he wanted to show. The product was in the showroom, but it was buried behind the work still going on around it.
Think about how crazy that is. The exhibitor has spent months getting the product ready to sell. The retailer has come to High Point looking for something to buy. And the two can’t get together properly because the buyer showed up before the seller was ready.
Who wins in that scenario?
One rep offered an analogy I liked. Imagine inviting someone to dinner at 7 p.m. At 3 p.m., the doorbell rings. You’ve just finished mowing the lawn, the kitchen is a mess, and dinner isn’t close to ready. Your guest looks around and wonders why everything isn’t prepared.
Because you invited him for 7 p.m. Apparently, he thought the time was more of a suggestion.
Look, I understand the pressure to get an early look at new product. But there’s a difference between being an aggressive buyer and expecting a supplier to be ready whenever you decide to show up. When the merchandise can’t be presented properly, the buyer may not be getting the advantage he thinks he’s getting.
There’s a bigger issue here, too. High Point Market is supposed to be an event. It’s about new product, new ideas, relationships and the energy that comes from bringing the industry together. That’s part of what makes the trip worthwhile.
Yet some exhibitors tell me buyers do their shopping before the official opening and head home on opening day or the day after. By the time Market is officially underway, some of the business is already done, and some of the people who came to do it are gone. For exhibitors who have invested so much time and money in the event, that’s a discouraging way to start the industry’s biggest selling season.
And let me be clear: This isn’t a shot at the High Point Market Authority. The Authority does an extraordinary job managing an enormous, complicated event. But it can’t control everything that happens behind the doors of privately owned showrooms.
High Point isn’t one convention center with one owner and one set of rules. It’s a collection of buildings run by different operators and independent owners. If one showroom opens early to capture an order, another worries about losing that order if it keeps its doors closed. So the race continues.
That’s the bind. Buyers want early access, exhibitors don’t want to lose business by saying no, and the official opening date becomes less meaningful. Everybody may have a reason for doing what they’re doing, but that doesn’t mean the result is good for the industry.
High Point has changed its official dates over the years to accommodate the needs of the business. Yet the problem persists. Some industry people point to furniture markets in Europe and China, where they say opening and closing dates are enforced more strictly. High Point’s fragmented ownership makes that kind of discipline difficult. I don’t pretend there’s an easy fix, and I certainly don’t blame the Market Authority for something it can’t control.
But I do think the industry ought to ask itself what it wants Market to be. If the official opening date is just a suggestion, let’s stop pretending otherwise. If it matters, buyers, exhibitors and building owners need to figure out how to make it mean something.
Retailers deserve a fair shot at the merchandise. Exhibitors deserve a fair shot at selling it. Those two things shouldn’t be in conflict.
And if you’re the buyer who shows up at 3 p.m. for a 7 p.m. dinner, don’t complain about the cardboard boxes. You were four hours early. Be grateful somebody answered the door.
