Tupelo Vendors Abandon Their Customers
Recently I attended the Bi-annual Tupelo Furniture Market in Tupelo Mississippi. The trade show was held Wednesday February 20 thru Sunday February 24 2008. The Tupelo furniture show boasts approximately two million square feet of showroom space for manufactures of all furniture for the house or home office. According to their website they have between eight hundred to a thousand exhibitors displaying their goods from all parts of the world.
So what was popular at the big market this in 2008? Apparently the decision to leave early, which quite frankly is a very frustrating experience for, say somebody who drove all the way from St. Louis Missouri. One manufacturer I went in to visit at 9:30 Sunday morning in Tupelo Building I was not there and their showroom was locked and the lights were off. The other manufacturer left early sometime before 12:15 on Sunday I heard. So I would like to say thanks and give a quick shout out and a cheap plug for the guys at Med Lift & Mobility, Inc. They were very nice and helped as much as they could. They allowed me the opportunity to view the deserters of the unmentioned mattress company’s lineup.
As a vendor who has worked many local home shows, I know what it is like to be both busy and slow. With that being said, slouching sales and /or having little booth traffic is a very poor reason to abandon your showroom booth, your customers and potential customers along with your bi annual industry market.
Short of a medical emergency, whether it is a furniture trade show such as Tupelo Market or a local home show, those participating should be duty-bound to stay the duration. If hours are posted, as they were in this case till 5:00 PM daily, then vendors need to abide by the rules.
Show organizers should put in place effective methods that keep to their advertised promises such as collecting an affective security deposits and refund deposits only when attendees fulfill such obligations. If show participants choose to leave early they are not invited to exhibit in future shows, ever, and will be out their costly security deposit, which is the way it is handled affectively on a local level.
Small dealers like my self rely on the centrally located Tupelo Furniture Market to supply our showroom floors. It is particularly convenient because of location and we can shop the market on the weekend days such as Sunday without having to close our store, which is inconvenient for our customers. Small businesses like ours do not use this as a vacation opportunity for ownership but a supply source for our business. It is my intention and hope that more small mom and pop companies like my self will patronize what is essentially the largest and last regional furniture market in the Midwest. It will benefit everyone including the manufacturer, the retailer, but most of all the retail customers who look to stores like mine for good selection.
I understand the frustration of dealers who attended market on Sunday.Companies who comletely shut down need to have someone man the space,but with such poor attendance it’s unnececery for all reps to be there through sunday, when they need to “hit the road” on monday.
The market is not what it use to be with attendance going down every year it seems, so I think the organizers need to explore shortening the days and maybe combining everything under one roof.
I’ve been going to Tupelo for several years,and enjoy it. I want to see this market continue for several more years.
Comment by ken — February 26, 2008 @ 6:12 pm
I too understand the retailers frustration when they use their (sometimes) only day off to drive to the Tueplo Market and have the vendors (many without warning) decide to leave early due to poor attendance. As a vendor we mailed post cards to all of our regular retailers and many new retailers reminding them we would be there and where to find us. Many times the traffic was lackluster but we made a committment and we stayed. My company decided the sales people would take off Monday to recover and hit-the-road on Tuesday. We had many retailers stop by the show on Sunday making our decision to stay worthwild.
As a vendor I personally think the show should be shortened. Five consective days is too long. Consolidate the floor space making it quicker for retailers to see more vendors. And really, do we need purse and make-up vendors, it is a furniture show.
Comment by Deborah — February 27, 2008 @ 7:26 am
I regret that we were not in our space when you visited, especially since our sales staff was there since last Monday wanting more customers. Our sales staff typically leaves on Saturday unless an appointment is made. I will make a notation on our next mailer and be sure to include you, that we will not be there on Sunday in the August market either regardless of posted show times. Yes, I believe Tupelo needs to change some things for their future, as this was the worst traffic I have seen in many years-and it wasn’t because I was not there Sunday.
In our case, we work so hard for and during market week, the one day I gave them off-Sunday(intended day of rest)is spent alot of time just getting back home and preparing for the next days trip.
We hope your trip to American Wholesale is successfull, they are a great distributor.–Marty S
Comment by Marty Southerland — February 27, 2008 @ 1:09 pm
In response to above comments and a Furniture Today article Called “Tupelo going back to Thursday opening” written by Gary Evans — Furniture Today, 2/27/2008 6:20:00 AM
I think most of us agree fundamentally on a lot of the issues concerning the Tupelo Furniture Market.
Over the last 22 years I have witnessed businesses next door to me open and close and lock their doors as they please, regardless of their hours posted on the marquee. This disgusts me. Miraculously these same businesses suffer and close down blaming low sales volume and no customer traffic for their demise. Neither businesses nor Furniture markets can be so lenient with their open close times.
I think if exhibitors leave and close their booths and showrooms during the advertised show hours they should not be invited back. Mr. Cleveland president of the market complex said in a recent Furniture Today Article That he was disappointed in attendance; he felt that the most traffic was lost traffic by the mom-and-pop stores that could not leave their businesses for more than a few reasons.
Mr. Cleveland seems to tell my story articulately. I left for Tupelo Furniture Market after closing my store on Saturday at its scheduled 5:00PM closing time, the only time I had available. However I disagree with a response to the same article from Ken Smith President of Harden Mfg. I have to question whether you are truly in touch with your customer base. This furniture show has thrived on small independents such as my self and many other mom pop retailers. Current mid week scheduling is why far to many dealers like myself do not attend such shows. I agree that reps and Mfgs need a day or two to get back home, however reps could ideally be given Monday and or Tuesday off as an alternative. They should have written more than enough business to justify the well-deserved time off. I believe the way you presented it, makes the industry look complacent. It is my opinion that sales representatives can reasonably pick up more accounts in 4-5 show days than they he or she could ever dream of writing in an average month, and lets not forget the potential leads for business in future months.
As mentioned I personally left after closing my store Saturday and worked the show Sunday all day. I worked all week Saturday night and drove from St. Louis to Tupelo. Woke up Sunday worked that Behemoth of a building and drove back to St. Louis on Sunday night and worked the next 3 days straight after working the previous week. This idea you have quite frankly it reminds me of when employees repeatedly ask for a pay raise after repeatedly turning down extra hours on a Friday or Saturday night because they had something better to do such as a ball game or simply hang out with friends. How often do we here reps complain how business is off and then when opportunities present themselves such a the largest Midwest Furniture show in The United States they need a day off?
Comment by Doug — February 28, 2008 @ 1:00 pm
First you need to tell people the real story instead of crying about your trip. As everyone knows one of the worst stroms to hit the south just missed Tupelo and caused more that a million people to lose electric. The market decided to tell the vendors that if they wanted to leave early to try to make it home before the worst of the storm hit that they could leave. What good would it do for a vendor to die because of someone who decided to wait until the last minute to show up, nexted time go early to mit just have a better trip. One vendor who left early to get home safe.
Comment by TIM — February 4, 2009 @ 5:42 am
Tim, According to Furniture Today our Industry Magazine http://www.furnituretoday.com/article/46050-Tornado_damages_Tupelo_market_building.php
The Tornado damages at the Tupelo market happened on the morning of May 8, 2008. According to them there were No injuries reported.
My blog was posted February 26, 2008 that over 3 months before the tornado occurred.
If you were talking about ice storm of 2009, that would be some great weather forecasting on the part of Tupelo Market officials considering that the ice storm happened in January 2009.
Thank you for taking the time to read the complete blog.
Since you brought it up, quite frankly I was not impressed with the January 24 – 28, 2009 Saturday – Wednesday Winter Show. Weather forecast or no weather forecast, not only were there a small number of permanent vendors not at the Tupelo market , but also there were a lot of permanent and temporary spaces that had not been leased. Weather had nothing to do with that.
Photo of the Tupelo Market Building
http://www.alabamawx.com/?p=6771
Comment by Doug — February 5, 2009 @ 8:16 am