Gerri Hunt — Furniture Today
\nSeeks more hotel rooms for buyers<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
TUPELO, Miss.\u00c2\u00a0— The folks at the Tupelo Furniture Market have gotten creative in their efforts to draw a larger retail crowd.<\/p>\n
One innovative approach involves asking exhibitors and sales representatives to give up their Tupelo hotel rooms.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The demand for hotel rooms is so great, and there are several buyers who want to come but want to be closer to the market,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Bill Cleveland, market president.<\/p>\n
As an incentive for giving up the rooms, market officials are offering to pay for new rooms that are 20 to 30 minutes from the market, and will provide shuttle service. Signs are posted in the Tupelo hotel rooms to let the new guest \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the buyer \u00e2\u20ac\u201d know the name and company of the person who gave up the room.<\/p>\n
By early February, a couple of reps had given up their rooms.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We all win if we get the retail buyer here and he shops the market. And that chance is greater if reps give up their rooms,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Cleveland said.<\/p>\n
He said many reps stay in nearby hostess homes, which is another option for those who give up their hotel rooms.<\/p>\n
In another effort to boost market attendance, the successful Tupelo-Only Special program is back for the second time, with more exhibitors participating.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We asked our exhibitors to come up with really significant promotions,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Cleveland. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Tupelo is a value market, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s less expensive to show here than at other markets. We asked the exhibitors to give back to the retailers, and offer promotions they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make available at other markets.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Once an exhibitor signs up for the program, the market staff asks to review the promotions.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We look at them so retailers will have a great value, and not just regular market specials,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Cleveland.
\nParticipating exhibitors can be identified with a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153$\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by their company name in the market\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Preview magazine, Buyer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Guide & Directory, and Pocket Guide. Exhibitors\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 specials also will be shown on big-screen TVs in all nine registration lobbies.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cleveland said 20% of the market\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exhibitors are taking part in the Tupelo-Only Special program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gerri Hunt — Furniture Today Seeks more hotel rooms for buyers TUPELO, Miss.\u00c2\u00a0— The folks at the Tupelo Furniture Market have gotten creative in their efforts to draw a larger retail crowd. One innovative approach involves asking exhibitors and sales representatives to give up their Tupelo hotel rooms. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The demand for hotel rooms is so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-furniture-world-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}