Funny thing about the retail business: If business is good, you tend to sell more stuff. And that means you have to go out and buy new stuff to replace it.

So it was for the winter show circuit for the furniture, home and gift sectors at the season’s major trade events in Dallas, Atlanta, Las Vegas and New York. Attendance numbers across the board were generally strong, perhaps the best post-Covid numbers the industry has seen. Buying activity was healthy, driven by a better-than-expected 2024 holiday season that saw inventory levels depleted at the retail level, but also some proactive buying driven by nagging concerns about tariffs, trade barriers, freight rates and port shutdowns.

Finally, there was a sense that whatever your politics (and that was certainly a hot topic), there was both a sense of relief that the election is over along with fresh uncertainties about how the new administration might mess with the economic status quo.

Here’s what happened at the major stops along the winter show circuit, in chronological order:

Dallas: The continued strength of the regional economy in Texas helped make for another round of strong market activity. Population gains in Texas are increasing the consumer base there, and that means more people buying more things. The Dallas Market Center continued to build out its Interior Home + Design Center catering to the interior designer trade, with several new showrooms and the regional debut of the revived Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams furniture collection from its new owners, Surya. There was also a substantial increase in the number of temporary exhibitors in reformatted exhibition spaces.

Atlanta: The largest show of the winter season, the AndMore Atlanta Market, said it kicked off its market week with an 8 percent boost in attendance over the year before, an impressive achievement. And while some of that foot traffic may have been front-loaded to avoid an overlap with the college football final in Atlanta on Monday night (driving up weekend hotel prices), it was nonetheless a busy start throughout the AmericasMart complex. It too reconfigured some footprints with several key showroom additions and expansions.

Las Vegas: Perhaps one of the more unanticipated outcomes on the show circuit was a better-than-expected Las Vegas Market, highlighted by the industry’s largest showcase for the mattress sector, which continues to be an anchor at the World Market Center. But there were also new faces on the furniture side of the center, including the debut of Bernhardt Furniture and Rock House Farm, the parent of high-end resources such as Century, Hickory Chair and Highland House. On the gift side, a key returning brand was Mud Pie, the Atlanta-based home and lifestyle brand that had pulled out of the show several years ago as part of the departure of the OneCoast rep agency.

New York: With two simultaneous shows that have established a tenuous détente, NYNOW and Shoppe Object wrapped up the winter circuit in competing fashion. For Shoppe Object, it was the premiere of its new home at the Starrett-Lehigh Building that allowed for a dramatic expansion of its exhibitor base to more than 800 companies across the gift, home decor, jewelry and fashion accessories sectors. With a more convenient location, traffic was particularly robust and the show seems to have taken the top rung on the New York calendar. Ten blocks uptown, NYNOW held down its usual home at the Javits Center, its exhibitor base stabilizing from several years of attrition that has shifted its focus to fashion accessories, stationery and gift, and away from home. Both shows clearly would benefit from a more integrated footprint, but that is unlikely to happen anytime soon.

All of this good news is not to say the concerns for the overall business in 2025 have abated. The impact of tariff increases from China but also from Europe, Canada and Mexico certainly spooked many companies on both the supply and buy side of the business. More than a few companies advertised that they would protect any orders written at the winter shows from potential tariff hikes, but that hardly soothed troubled brows. As was the case under the first Trump presidency, it’s the uncertainty of what might happen that kept the industry up at night…and walking around these winter shows during the day with one hand outreached to greet people and the other behind their backs with their fingers crossed.

____________

Warren Shoulberg is the former editor in chief for several leading B2B publications. He has been a guest lecturer at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business; received honors from the International Furnishings and Design Association and the Fashion Institute of Technology; and been cited by The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and other media as a leading industry expert. His Retail Watch columns offer deep industry insights on major markets and product categories.