The town of High Point, North Carolina, has a population of about 115,000 people. At one time it was at the center of US furniture manufacturing. Now most of the manufacturing is gone but somehow High Point has retained a role in the center of the furniture through the High Point Market.
The evolution of the market, its extraordinary ability to fend off competitors like Chicago and Las Vegas and what it means to have a town so dependent on four weeks of economic activity a year is laid out in John Schlictman’s new book “Showroom City: Real Estate and Resistance in the Furniture Capital of the World.”
Held twice a year, it is the largest home furnishings industry trade show in the world, with over 10 million square feet by roughly 2,000 exhibitors throughout about 180 buildings.
We here in Park City are used to the disruption that can be caused by a major event through our Sundance Film Festival experience. But what the market has done to downtown High Point is extraordinary.
John Schlitman is an associate professor in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois.