It was April 1987. The hair was large, the music loud, and the internet still a dream.
I tenuously opened the door to my bedroom, not sure of what I’d find exactly upon my return, when it hit me:
The perfume.
A thick fragrant haze that lingered for days and remained the only evidence that my room (our home and the entire city even!) had been taken over by furniture market people—a local colloquialism that all High Pointers know, and use, at least twice per year.
Did your furniture market people arrive yet?
Need to go anywhere downtown past the Krispy Kreme? Forget it! It’s full of furniture market people and you’ll never find parking anywhere.
You’re not going to believe what my furniture market people left in our house…..
-High Pointers every spring and fall
Despite their mysterious perfume trails, out-of-state license plates, and big city hustlebustle, the energy the furniture market people brought to town every April and October was ALWAYS welcome at the bi-annual High Point Market (HPMKT).
A city of industry
High Point’s role in the home furnishings industry is significant and distinct; it has endured over a century of both exodus and revitalization, as the pendulum of industry and manufacturing swings sending waves of abundance back and forth across the globe from the US to Asia and back again.
Yet somehow High Point always stayed relevant, essential even, to an industry that had—since hosting its first Southern Furniture Exposition in 1909—grown reliant on a global system of manufacturing, design, distribution, and logistics.
And I would say the same is true for High Pointers.
Maybe it’s our Southern manners or our sense of adventure.
Or our sense of pride.
Or maybe we just love making money.
No matter the reason, the entire town rallies to transform during Market season, united in solidarity, pride, and support for an industry that has put food on the table for families here since the first furniture factory was established here in 1889. People do what they need to do to support the economy and to ensure that businesses here stay in business. That jobs remain here.
In fact, the furniture industry in High Point maintains two impressive titles, including “the world’s largest home furnishings trade show in the world” for the HPMKT and the city itself as the “furniture capital of the world”, bringing in nearly $7 BILLION* dollars annually to the local economy.
Compare that number with other leading state economies like the auto industry in Michigan ($7.6B), agriculture ($5.7B) and information technology ($7.3B) in California, oil and gas in Texas ($7.7B), and tourism in Florida ($5.5B) and you’ll get a sense of its staggering impact and importance.
So when the furniture market people arrive, everyone is happy to see them (despite their grumblings about traffic and parking and lines at the Biscuit Factory).
Even when some furniture manufacturing shifted overseas, there were still many small businesses and independent mills that stayed in the area, each supporting the industry with the production of textiles and fabric, furniture components, and other critical infrastructure like shipping and showroom management.
It means a lot to the generations of families that continuously rely on this surge for their livelihood to host HPMKT each year, and it’s no secret that the vibe completely shifts in High Point every April and October as a result.
But High Point holds another tradition nearly as old as its mills and factories
Long before the Sheraton and Days Inn made their moves to downtown High Point, something far more interesting was happening to host the swell of buyers and exhibitors every spring and fall.
There was (and still is) a lack of hotel room inventory in the city of High Point required to accommodate the 80,000+ furniture market people each year, and because of the long days spent at Market itself, most prefer to stay as much within the city’s limits as possible to reduce driving time even to an outlier hotel room.
Booking an accommodation in a local home during HPMKT prior to 2011 required multiple phone calls and a handshake agreement made every six months with a check in the mail to seal the deal.
Maybe in the early 2000’s you might find a post on a chat board, but the majority of accommodations were found entirely by word of mouth.
The way it worked was this: Everybody knew somebody in the furniture business….even a casual mention amongst friends or colleagues looking for a place to stay during the market yielded success.
A serious search could be drawn out over a few stress-inducing weeks, with your request ping ponging through a phone tree of hosts and homes until your criteria were met.
From the High Point Historical Society archives
The rise of home rentals
As far back as 1961 my mom remembers my grandmother renting rooms in her house once she and my uncle had moved out, and I remember my grandmother fondly speaking about her furniture market people — a legion of buyers from a Canadian furniture company she rented her entire home to every year at every market for over 20 years beginning in the late 1980s.
If you were a good guest, you could consider yourself welcome to return again and again, you knew the keys were waiting for you under the mat, and many homeowners in High Point found the business of renting their home each market to be quite lucrative—using the money to fund summer holidays or supplement their mortgages.
But they did it for other reasons too.
Pride. Tradition. Connection.
The same reasons that hosts around the world open their homes today to guests eager to live like locals and immerse themselves in a new community.
High Point just did it first, excited to welcome its furniture market people again and again.
Becoming a Furniture Market Person
Travel has always been a part of my life—shaping my career as a designer living for many years in Asia and Europe—and I intentionally seek out the most unique (unconventional, even) places to reside wherever I go.
Like so many of my fellow travelers (for work and play), it’s important to me that I nurture my own experience of belonging. To understand the personality of the city and the people who call it home. To position myself as a local, even if only for a few days (and even if those days often turn to years as they did for me in China, Argentina, and now France).
To really get a sense of place.
Prior to starting my own boutique marketing agency, Saurit Creative, I worked for Airbnb in San Francisco. With my unique background in interior design, marketing, and home furnishings, It was my job to lead a team to build out a whole new tier of homes for the platform that would be designed by interior professionals specialized in short term rental design.
During my interview for this role, I kicked off my presentation to a table of executives with a story about growing up in High Point and experiencing personally so many factors that have led to the success of short term rentals as a viable business for so many in our industry (both as hosts and guests).
I think I might have even said:
“Did you know High Point was doing Airbnb before Airbnb was doing Airbnb” ?
(I’m known for saying quirky things when I’m nervous, but I presume they thought it was charming.)
What I eventually came back to was this: Design can be a powerful sales tool.
Good interior design can make us feel welcome, comfortable, at ease.
It can make us feel like we’re in a home away from home.
It can influence our purchase decisions to return to a place again, and again.
When we travel and choose to stay in a home vs a hotel we do more than just live like a local—we become part, even if for a moment—of that place.
We embed ourselves into more than just a superficial layer of encounter, we experience a layer of existence that leaves an impression on ourselves and the places we visit.
Pages from my sketchbook while living in Ireland like a local throughout 2001.
It’s a reciprocal arrangement that is at once both modern, and traditional at the same time. It’s one that’s been playing out since the first room in the first home was rented to the first traveler…offering more than just a transaction, but an experience.
Many buyers and exhibitors who come to High Point don’t realize how much they themselves are impacting both the economy and the culture here, and how much people (like an entire freaking city of people ya’ll!) are preparing for their arrival…and often I wonder if this is the sentiment shared in larger commercial centers like Atlanta or Las Vegas, where people pass through year-round.
What’s so special about High Point, whether you’re a furniture market person or a resident, is that feeling of being part of something bigger—bigger than just the orders you place, the trends and insight you take home, or the digital handshake you make with your local host to return again for the next market.
It’s knowing how much your visit here continues to shape the High Point experience and the industry as a whole, one furniture market person at a time.
__________________________
I wrote this essay specifically for the inaugural Vacation Rental Design Summit held in High Point, NC in April 2023. An abbreviated version appears in the Summit’s program guide and on the TouchStay app.
With what began as a quick editorial for the program guide to connect the Summit location with High Point’s legacy of short term home rentals, eventually turned into this love letter to my experience growing up on the fringes of an industry I now call my own.
Thanks for reading until the end 🙂
I guess I’ve come full circle, traveling each spring and fall back to my hometown as a furniture market person too.
*According to the High Point Economic Development Corporation, the furniture industry in High Point generates an estimated $6.73 billion in economic activity annually and supports over 30,000 jobs.
_____
If you’re interested in learning more about High Point, or the HPMKT, here are a few additional resources:
- High Point Historical Society
- High Point Museum
- Visit High Point
- Bienenstock Furniture Library
- Showroom City by John Joe Schlichtman
- Business of Home’s coverage of High Point here, here, here, and here
- High Point by Design (HPxD)
- High Point Market Authority (HPMKT)
👉 And if you’d like to chat more about marketing, design, brand messaging, or investing in High Point….you can schedule time with me here or follow me on Instagram @sauritcreative
_________
Thanks for reading. Want to take a deeper dive into the possibilities of your brand marketing? I’ve created this Brand Audit Workbook and video to guide you through the process for evaluating your current brand marketing efforts! See immediately where your current brand message might be confusing or inconsistent, and learn exactly what to do to get your story straight.
____________
💥 Or, maybe you’re ready to learn what the best brands know about marketing that you don’t? Watch our free marketing masterclass right here.