Pondering the crowds

Becky Boswell Smith -- Home Accents Today, 8/1/2006

Walking up to an exhibitor at a recent show, I asked the usual almost rhetorical question: So, how's the market for you?

The answer I loved: How are you measuring — the old market standard or the new one?

There is no doubt markets are changing. We still stand around at any of them (and there are plenty of them) and comment on the size of the crowds. Or the lack of buyers. We see reports that attendances are up, flat or slightly off and question who's counting.

Crowds everywhere are smaller, certainly in summertime. Why wouldn't they be — retail is still soft, stores have reduced personnel so owners can't be absent, it's so-o-o hot this summer and most important — there are fewer buyers than ever.

Where those retailers are ultimately going to choose to buy is the big question, one market centers are aggressively working to answer to their own benefit. New buildings, more expansions, more amenities, music, shifting dates — the list goes on and on.

Exhibitors, too, are analyzing the puzzle. Their questions sound like a geography lesson as they mull the importance and vitality of Atlanta, Las Vegas, New York, Los Angeles, High Point and Dallas. Oh, and Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, Denver, Washington and Boston.

Dollars fly out the window as they create beautiful showrooms and booths only to anxiously await those buyers. Who's going to win the hearts of those precious retailers?

No doubt, change is in the air.