Furniture Industry Lures International Shoppers
Published Jul 03, 2008
Studio 70 sells contemporary furniture at Catawba Furniture Mall.
The Hickory area’s fame as a furniture-shopping destination grows year after year, as Americans strive to add luxury, style and comfort to their homes.
With more than 2 million square feet of retail space devoted to furniture and home accessories, the thousands of shoppers who flock here each year discover variety, quality and value all in one place.
“A lot of people are ‘nesting,’ making their homes more desirable places to be,” says Betty Ikerd, owner and chief operations officer at Catawba Furniture Mall. “The trends do change, and we try to stay up with whatever is going on.”
The mall is arranged in galleries to help customers visualize how to put together a game room, home theater, or a super luxurious bedroom and bath.
“We’ve seen a lot of people over the last two or three years who want to expand their homes to the outside, so we’ve introduced a lot of indoor/outdoor wicker and rattan for them to choose from,” Ikerd adds.
With 350,000 square feet of showrooms, Catawba Furniture Mall has something for every corner of the house. And if that’s not enough, try the Hickory Furniture Mart, which houses more than 100 factory outlets, shops, galleries and restaurants, plus a motel in a 1 million-square-foot space.
“We truly are a retail destination,” says Tracey Trimble, marketing director for the Hickory Furniture Mart. “People from about 38 states visit the mart every week. It’s a mixture of freestanding showrooms, where you can come in and custom-order furniture, along with a variety of outlets, where you can buy whatever is in the showroom, as is.”
Some 500,000 shoppers visit the mart each year. These “destination shoppers” typically spend two to four days in the Hickory area, visiting showrooms and refining their furniture selections, Trimble says. “A good majority of our shoppers own more than one home,” she adds.
Benefits of furniture shopping in Hickory include not only good prices but also the expert advice of designers and staff at the mall, the mart and many independent shops.
“What’s really amazing is that so much of the community here and our work base has been born and raised in the furniture industry,” Trimble says. “They have a lot of furniture knowledge.”
This furniture-shopping paradise got its start almost a century ago, when the area became a hotbed of furniture manufacturing. More than half of the country’s tables, beds and chairs once were made within a 250-mile radius of Hickory. Numerous factories still operate nearby, turning out products known worldwide for their quality and style.
A number of nationally known manufacturers, such as Bernhardt, Mitchell-Gold and Henkel-Harris, lease showroom space at the mart, as do dozens of upscale furniture retailers.
Betty and Steve Ikerd own and operate the mall, selling a wide variety of furniture lines direct to customers.
Customers have the opportunity to preview offerings at the mall or the mart by visiting their Web sites: www.hickoryfurniture.com and www.catawbafurniture.com.
Story by Renee Elder
Photo by Ian Curcio
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