You might think that Tom Conley, the recently named president/CEO of the High Point Market Authority, has seen it all.
As the former president of both the National Housewares Manufacturing Association and the Toy Industry Association, Conley has been around the block, as they say. But in his...
It’s nothing new to say that to succeed in business, a company needs to change with the times.
But it seems that the rate of change today is so head-spinningly fast, it’s nearly impossible to keep up.
The current state of metamorphosis occurred to me last month when I read “20/20: Vision for the...
Bob Maricich just may be the busiest man in the home furnishings industry.
Maricich was already overseeing the mammoth World Market Center in Las Vegas, when its owners bought the major showrooms in High Point, N.C., in May, creating the umbrella entity International Market Centers. As the head of...
Mouth-watering smells of Spanish-influenced food filled the kitchen theater as chef Hector Santiago prepared a rice dish. Complete with luscious-looking, lime-colored fava beans, the spicy meal could be viewed bigger than life on large screens throughout the demonstration area.
Audience...
American industry has been on a cost-cutting craze over the last couple of years, laying off employees to save money.
Some companies that have trimmed their payrolls were surely loaded with bloat and prime candidates for some strategic chopping. No harm, no foul, as they say.
But with continued...
Remember the old saying, “Go west young man”?
Perhaps that impression should be altered to “go east,” as far east as you can get. In other words, head to China and take advantage of the nation’s rapidly expanding consumer market.
I was an eyewitness to the voracity and power of the Chinese consumer...
My hometown was replaced by a Walmart—seriously.
While critics have complained for years that the nation’s largest retailer ruins town centers, my hometown of Grundy, Va., pinned its economic future on a much-hoped-for Walmart store. After a long wait—I initially wrote about Grundy’s attempts to...
By Duke Ratliff
Despite my rapidly graying hair, I don’t usually think of myself as particularly old.
The annual trek to Chicago for the International Home + Housewares Show, however, makes me acutely aware of the passage of time.
I attended my first housewares show nearly 20 years ago, and the...
Over the last month or so, home furnishings industry members have crisscrossed the country flying to trade shows in Atlanta, Dallas, Las Vegas and New York. Travelers looking out their plane windows saw a mostly frozen, snowed-over continent, then were greeted with colder-than-usual weather at...
“Go ahead, bite the Big Apple—don’t mind the maggots!” is a memorable line from a Rolling Stones song “Shattered,” from way back in the ’70s. Walmart might want to make it its theme song as it moves to open its first New York City store.The world’s largest retailer is once again eyeing the nation’s...