Open Source: Not Milan. Not Vegas. The world’s biggest furniture show is in North Carolina.
I’m Brian Gordon, tech reporter for The News & Observer, and this is Open Source, a weekly newsletter on business, labor and technology in North Carolina.
Twice a year, once in April and once in October, the North Carolina city of High Point rivals Milan, Italy, as host of the world’s most prestigious furniture trade show. High Point certainly has the largest.
Starting Saturday, the High Point Market will bring tens of thousands of designers, manufacturers, interior decorators, buyers, sellers, and influencers to the self-proclaimed “Home Furnishings Capital of the World.”
Anchored around two large, labyrinthine buildings, the market contains 11.5 million square feet of showrooms displaying beds, credenzas, linens, paintings, sculptures, tables, rugs, bookcases, wallpaper, recliners, love seats, ottomans, settees, swivel chairs, and at least one $36,000 leather sofa.
“This is a big deal,” said Jerry Epperson, a longtime furniture consultant and member of the American Home Furnishings Hall of Fame. “What these people are buying is for the remainder of the year and in October, for the following calendar year. It’s a lot of new merchandise completely new to consumers. I go to the smaller showrooms and see things I’ve never seen before.”
Epperson attended his first market fresh out of graduate school in 1971. Back then, only about 10% of furniture sold in the United States was imported. And North Carolina was the nation’s largest producer, with manufacturing centered around High Point, a city that straddles four different counties about 90 miles west of Raleigh.
Today, Epperson estimates 90% of our wood and metal furniture is imported while nearly half of upholstered furniture comes from abroad — mostly Asia. Many jobs were lost in this outsourcing. But the industry endures, and in areas of the Tar Heel State, thrives. For example, experts note North Carolina has retained its edge in high-end custom furniture.
“This is a product that China and other countries really don’t want to compete on,” said Andy Counts, CEO of the High Point-based American Home Furnishings Alliance.
“North Carolina is blessed with a lot of literally the world’s best manufacturers,” Epperson said.
And the state still has the Market. The first event was held in 1909. It is now managed by the High Point Market Authority, a nonprofit funded by both exhibitors and the public dollars. Though some worried an upstart Las Vegas furniture event that launched in 2005 would threaten its relevance, the multi-day Triad event remains the industry’s domestic crown jewel.
In April, I attended the multi-day market to glimpse the excitement. I missed the Goo Goo Dolls concert and exclusive night-time parties but did speak to plenty of furniture lovers. One notable conversation was with two women from Minnesota who have a business furnishing Saudi palaces.
During the day, shuttles dropped off attendees at a modern bus terminal downtown. On either side of the street were the market’s two main hubs — multi-story centers owned by the asset management firm Blackstone. Exhibitors rent out rooms in these buildings for 12-months just to present their furnishings for one week in the fall and another in the spring. Some spent weeks or even months arranging their spaces ahead of the market.
Several described the industry struggling with bloated inventories left over from the pandemic years when spikes in consumer demand prompted sellers to order more items. But challenges are par for the course in an industry where, if the builders do it right, customers won’t have to buy replacement furniture items for decades.
Perhaps that’s part of the reason that one sofa was listed for a retail price of $36,105. Then again, it was very comfortable:
Maddening Helene misinformation
Four weeks since Tropical Storm Helene hit Western North Carolina, 26 people remain missing.
That shouldn’t be phrased as only 26 people; not accounting for that many missing nearly a month after a natural disaster is tragic. But given the unsubstantiated rumors I saw on social media this week decryingthousands whose whereabouts remain unknown, I found myself arguing that it’s only, in fact, 26 verified missing people.
I also took a few hours to debunk a specific missing persons rumor spreading on TikTok and X. It centered on a spreadsheet called Hurricane Helene People Finder, which displayed hundreds of people as “missing.” In comment sections, people asked with understandable fury why no government or media outlet was telling this story.
But it wasn’t hard to confirm the unofficial Google Doc was outdated: Its creator made that possibility clear at the very top. I spoke to a “missing” person on the list who was never missing. Her concerned cousin in New York had entered her name after the storm. Cell service was down for days and loved ones couldn’t connect. It all made sense.
I also confirmed the safety of another “missing” person and feel confident I could account for more if I had endless time. But no one does. And the misinformation keeps coming.
Clearing my cache
- OpenAI hired its first chief economist and it’s Duke University professor and former White House adviser Ronnie Chatterji.
- It’s been five years since IBM bought the Raleigh open source software giant Red Hat, and the decision continues to benefit Big Blue. On Wednesday, IBM announced Red Hat revenue rose 14% on the quarter — a return to double-digit increases after a period of slower expansion. Noting the 5-year anniversary during an investors call, IBM said Red Hat’s revenue has doubled since 2019, to $6.5 billion.
- Inside a former cigarette factory in the Granville County town of Oxford, the fast-growing startup Plantd is making home panels out of not trees, but grass. The company just announced a 10-million panel order from the nation’s largest homebuilder.
Durham semiconductor chipmaker Wolfspeed confirmed it has suspended plans to build a silicon carbide device factory in Ensdorf, Germany. The company initially delayed this $3 billion project in June, citing weakening electric vehicles demand. In an email Thursday, Wolfspeed left the door open for European expansion down the line, saying Ensdorf remained the company’s “preferred site” if/when EV demand rebounds.
- The Quartz Corp has begun a phased reopening of its Spruce Pine, North Carolina mine. Along with Sibelco, both Spruce Pine quartz mining companies are at least partially operating after Helene demolished parts of the Western North Carolina town. Experts say Spruce Pine quartz is very special and very important.
National Tech Happenings
- Elon Musk’s $1 million giveaways to registered voters in swing states may be illegal, the Department of Justice warns.
- Sad story. The mother of a 14-year-old who committed suicide has sued the artificial intelligence app Character.AI, alleging her son became obsessed with a role-playing chatbot.
- Calling up U.S. tech reserves? The Department of Defense is considering recruiting top technology professionals to join its reserves, as the government seeks civilian data analysts and cybersecurity experts.
Thanks for reading!
This story was originally published October 25, 2024 at 10:45 AM.
