Due to the Coronavirus crisis, the High Point Market that was set to run end of April has been cancelled with talk of perhaps doing it in June. This is going to pose a significant hardship on furniture companies, as they have already finished up their new items, planned their showrooms and put in many hours of work into this structure. The High Point Market is a big deal. They get hundreds of orders from dealers who buy their floor stock at Market after seeing the new items. That's all evaporating as well. With the stock market gyrations and Covid-19 fears, most people are not anxious to buy non-essentials right now such as new sofas / recliners, etc. and dealers will not be buying new inventory. We in the industry experienced this after 09/11 and also the 2007/08 Recession and it was hard times. The fact it's also a Presidential election year doesn't help, either. Uncertainty affects consumer spending. Many dealers went under, and several manufacturers as well.

I've been doing this a long time, since 1986. Thirty-four years. To that end I have sent out suggestions to some of the manufacturers I represent to see if they will consider a temporary price reduction in their products during this pandemic. A lot of people will be staying at home the next several weeks and it's pretty easy to shop from home on a lot of these pieces with samples sent to your home via mail, and delivery companies will bring your new furniture to you. With the loss of orders from the Market being closed, I am hoping they will consider it to keep their people working. We saw layoffs before, would be nice to avoid that.

We all know you need and incentive to make a purchase right now - I'm trying to work on that for everyone. Stay tuned.