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Las Vegas buyers: Strength in holiday and online sales keep retailers shopping

Buyers say business is 'OK'

Susan Dickenson -- Home Accents Today, 2/2/2010 9:55:00 AM

Retailers interviewed by Home Accents Today at this week’s market report that business is “OK” and that they’re here to shop. They came from as far east as Boston, as far west as Hawaii, as far north as Canada, and include a few Vegas first-timers. Overall, their moods were upbeat, their outlooks positive as they perused the showrooms Monday morning. Here’s more of what they had to say:

We’ve been in business for six and a half years, selling furniture and home accents. Business has been consistent -- not great, not bad, just kind of a C+. Christmas was off about 5% compared to last year. We just finished the January clearance and got rid of a lot of old product so we’re looking for some new things to energize and spruce up the floor. We come to every Las Vegas Market. Vendors’ pricing so far has looked pretty good. For us this year, it’s been more about availability. Manufacturers have been cautious about stocking too much so that when you do need it, you can’t get it. -- Jon Atherly, Westside Furniture, Taft, Calif.

We’re an entertainment farm -- pumpkin patch, Christmas tree farm, gift shop – in business 29 years. We’ve been here twice before and also shop the Los Angeles market. Business these days has been a little slow. Fall was good for us, Christmas was a little off. In this showroom (Midwest-CBK), we’re looking for both Christmas and fall/Halloween, and so far we like what we’ve seen. -- Gregg Palmer, Live Oak Canyon Ranch, Redlands, Calif.

We’re an online private sale retailer, in business about two years, and our business has been tremendous. We’ll run a 48-hour private sale, our membership is invitation-only, and we don’t advertise – it’s all viral. It’s picked up as “top brands at value.” Our biggest categories are accessories, apparel and footwear, and now we’re aggressively pursuing the home brands -- furniture and accessories and rugs, mainly brands and high fashion names to put up on the site. Right now we’re going after rugs. We featured Surya, Safavieh, Barbara Barry, Calvin Klein and Tommy Bahama rugs, and next we’re going in to see Karastan. We are here to shop. -- Andrea Dillon and Carolyn Walsh, Rue La La, Boston, Mass.

Our business is 100 years old, and we’ve owned it for 32 years. This is our first trip to the Las Vegas Market. We’re here looking for holiday. We’ve been to one show so we’re looking to fill in, and we’re looking for general gifts, maybe some baby things. Something different and fun that we haven’t seen before and didn’t see at the Seattle market. We did have a good Christmas season so it always makes for a better attitude when you’re shopping. -- Mitch Chandler, Neill’s Flowers and Gifts, Pullman, Wash.

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