RALEIGH, N.C. — Melissa McClintock and her husband have been shopping for a living room rug, mirrors, accent chairs and a sofa to put in the 1960s ranch home they’re expanding with a new bathroom, bedroom and windows.
But after her husband was laid off a few months ago, the couple got a lot more choosy.
“We want to make a decision for something we really like because it’s a want and not a need. It’s got to be a good value,” said McClintock, a procurement officer for a financial services firm in Decatur, Ga.
As U.S. consumers increasingly zip up their wallets in the face of economic troubles, people like McClintock will be on the minds of residential furniture manufacturers and retailers as they mount the industry’s major trade show this week.
About 85,000 industry insiders typically descend on the week-long High Point Market twice a year. More than 2,000 exhibitors display thousands of new home furnishings that consumers could see in stores in a few months.
The gathering, held in High Point, N.C., will confront one of the worst business environments facing the furniture industry in decades.
Sales at furniture stores fell by 2.3 percent in September, nearly twice the sharp 1.2 percent dip for retail stores overall, the Commerce Department reported last week. And that slide was before stock markets in every corner of the globe tanked.
Consumers are spooked by rising joblessness, falling home values, tougher credit and crashing confidence about their economic futures. Reluctance to spend on nonessential items may make November and December one of the weakest holiday shopping seasons in six years, the National Retail Federation said last month.
With foreclosures climbing and builders cutting new construction by two-thirds since 2006, Americans aren’t decorating new homes with new furniture.
The drop is on top of years during which the furniture industry just treaded water. Households spent $85 billion on furniture, including mattresses and bedsprings, in 2007, up 2 percent from 2006, according to Commerce Department figures.
Jackie Hirschhaut of the American Home Furnishings Alliance pegs the start of the industry’s doldrums to the sudden slump that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“We’ve kind of hummed along,” said Hirschhaut, the High Point-based trade group’s vice president for marketing. “but we’ve never really returned to the glory days of the 1990s.”
