— Furniture Today,
Wednesday-through-Saturday format will continue

TUPELO, Miss. — Starting next year, the Tupelo Furniture Market will take place in mid-January and mid-June, several weeks earlier than now.

V.M. Cleveland, the market’s chairman and CEO, said the markets will continue on a Wednesday-through-Saturday format for their 2014 dates, Jan. 10-13 and June 13-16.

“The Tupelo Furniture Market surveyed retailers on the subject of market dates,” he said. “The majority favored a January market, which would allow retailers to buy product in time for tax season. Also, the June market allows time to buy for fourth-quarter sales.”

This year’s summer market will keep its dates of Aug. 16-19. Traditionally, the Tupelo markets have been held in mid-to-late August and February.

While officials didn’t say the Las Vegas market affected their thinking, the change will put Tupelo before Vegas, rather than vice versa, assuming Las Vegas sticks to its current schedule of late January and late July. The next two Las Vegas markets are set for July 24-28 and Jan. 29-Feb. 2.

Tupelo’s attendance has been down the past two markets, and a number of exhibitors said they believed that was partly because some buyers chose to go to Las Vegas instead.

With the new Tupelo schedule, there will be a five-month gap from the January to the June market, then seven months between the June and January markets.