Why does furniture market fall durning fall break?
September 26, 2023
Anyone who lives in High Point, North Carolina knows that High Point
Market is the biggest event of the year. It's a time when the city,
the university, and the outside world gather together for one purpose:
to admire furniture.
The massive stone and brick buildings that cluster together in the city of High Point are filled with a warm glow as furniture is moved inside. Interior designers and well known furnishing companies come together to put on a memorable show. It is a week of creativity, brainstorming, teamwork, and most importantly togetherness.
High Point Market, also referred to as Market, is the biggest furniture market in the United States, and High Point is considered the furniture capital of the world.
Market is hosted every year during one week in the spring and one in the fall. According to High Point Market’s website, Market spans across 11,500,000 square feet. This space is utilized to showcase the newest home furnishings, products and the hottest trends in the industry.
Market also hosts events and seminars with some of the biggest names in home design. This year’s keynote speakers include interior designer and Emmy-nominated host of Queer Eye, Bobby Berk. Along with Berk is Jessica Bantom, author of Design for Identity: How to Design Authentically for a Diverse World.
Market requires extensive preparation, which also requires loads of help to assemble showrooms and overall keep the function flowing smoothly.
When it comes to contracting outside help, High Point University students are usually the first choice. Every year, having students around to assist not only helps the furniture sales representatives and interior designers, but it is also a great opportunity and experience for the students themselves.
Many furniture sales reps and interior designers enjoy having students help because of their enthusiasm, work ethic and willingness to help out whenever and wherever necessary.
However, this year High Point Market will have less help than usual.
High Point University’s fall break and High Point Market have overlapping schedules this year, meaning that HPU students will not be available for the majority of Market.
High Point University’s provost, Daniel Erb, is in charge of creating HPU’s academic calendar. He explained how these dates coincided.
“Fall break is scheduled to accommodate the course schedule for the fall semester,” Erb said. “Generally, but not always, fall break coincides with the eighth week of the semester, approximately halfway through the semester. This year's fall break coincided with Furniture Market.”
HPU students have been forced to make a choice between sacrificing their fall break to work at Market, or giving up the opportunity to be able to go home or travel for the break.
Considering that fall break is the best chance at going home before the stress of the holidays and exams, many students have decided to skip out on Market and opt for going home.
Historically, the Saturday and Sunday of Market are the busiest days of the event, and both of those days occur over HPU’s fall break where students will be away for the break.
This has resulted in a shortage of extra help to keep Market running and many Market sales reps and designers have resorted to paying people outside of High Point University to help.
“It removes a valuable resource for furniture manufacturers to find qualified help,” A furniture manufacturer sales representative said. “It’s inconvenient to everyone involved.”
While the overlapping schedules were coincidental and while Market will certainly manage without having students around to help out, it’s going to cost the sales reps and designers and it will hurt the students who rely on Market to strengthen their resume, obtain connections and those who need that extra paycheck.
