Economic Recovery and the Furniture Industry

A recent article over at Furniture Today about economic recovery characterizes recent developments in the market (particularly at High Point) as an upswing. One quote from Kevin O'Connor, president of Samson Marketing and chairman of the High Point Market Authority, reads, "I think attendance probably was flat, but in this economy, I consider that pretty good." I would emphasize the words in this economy.

It is true that most of the opinions offered in the article are positive, but many are qualified with sentiments like the above: people are just glad that things don't look flat out apocalyptic these days, but I would argue that although things don't look as grim as they did back in the beginning of summer, the economy is still losing jobs on the whole (only at a slower pace), so the economy may not be necessarily on the upswing, just less fatal.

Besides, Fall tends to be the best season for furniture and antiques, since people want to stock their homes with new dining furniture and other domestic trophies before the relatives show up on Thanksgiving and Christmas. After that, things usually start to slow down again for most shows and dealers alike. Still, I hesitate to put a damper on the positive mood, so while I remain optimistic, and while we do seem to have weathered the worst of the storm, I foresee more hardship ahead before we resume pushing antiques by the container load as we saw back in 2007.

As for Atlanta, I think we'll keep our title for the East's biggest antique importer. But as every dealer, designer and investor knows, only time will tell.