Strong Survey Preference Moved High Point’s Market Dates

May 15, 2007  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in High Point on May 2007 The High Point Market Authority board of directors voted unanimously Wednesday to return the bi-annual market back to its traditional April-October schedule after survey results indicated that more than half of retailers prefer that schedule over the March-September dates the Market Authority adopted in 2005.

A new 10-year schedule will be released on June 1. The fall event—scheduled for Oct. 1 to 7—will not change, but the spring 2008 event will likely be the first to shift from late March into April. The board expressed a preference for a Monday-Sunday schedule.

According to a press release issued immediately after the board’s vote Wednesday, 57 percent of retailers prefer October over September and 51 percent favor April over March.

Following this year’s spring event—the first in memory to begin in March—several exhibitors and some retailers urged the board to return to the April-October schedule, saying the earlier spring dates created conflicts with school spring break schedules that prevented some retailers from attending. In addition, some exhibitors said the earlier dates created a greater potential for poor weather conditions.

Market Authority President Brian Casey said the latest survey was conducted by a professional, third-party firm, Exhibit Surveys, that received input from more than 2,000 companies. “We continue to make decisions based on what the majority of customers are telling us,” Casey said. “We are very confident that the results of the surveys are reflective of market’s large and diverse constituency.”

He said survey respondents were less definitive about which days of the week they prefer, but Monday through Sunday had the most support, with 42 percent of respondents favoring those days

While there was virtually no discussion of the latest change by board members at the meeting, Steve DeHaan, executive vice president of the National Home Furnishings Association, told board members immediately after the vote that the latest change will present difficulties to associations like the NHFA that have scheduled meetings in coordination with the nine-year schedule the Market Authority adopted in 2005. He said numerous organizations have reserved hotel and meeting space for future events and added “they have contracts out there that have to be honored.”

In a press release, Skip Cox, president of Exhibit Surveys, said the percentage of buyers, exhibitors and sales representatives who responded to the Market Authority survey earlier this year is much higher than is typical. “All response rates were about twice what we normally receive and likely reflect the high interest of attendees and exhibitors in the issues we are addressing.”

The Market Authority hired Exhibit Surveys late last year to assess and analyze the city’s market to identify factors that would enhance the value of attending or exhibiting. The firm also sought to determine preferences on when the event should be held. More than 1,600 buyers, 200 exhibitors and 200 sales reps responded to the survey. “The high response rates gives us a low margin of error at a high (95 percent) confidence level,” Cox said.

The Market Authority board made a schedule switch to March and September two years ago after a survey it conducted showed strong support for the move. A press release issued at the time said “an overwhelming majority of respondents are in support of moving market to (March and) September.” Advocates for the change said the earlier dates would make it easier for retailers to receive new products in time for Labor Day and January sales, which are both periods when many furniture stores hold major promotional sales.

On Wednesday, Casey said the 2005 survey was conducted before he took the job, and he declined to comment on why its results were so different from the latest survey.