High Point Market Weathers Las Vegas Threat

The semi-annual High Point Furniture Market returns Saturday. This year marks a decade since High Point's market first faced competition from another market in Las Vegas.Paul Johnson is a reporter for The High Point Enterprise. In an interview with WFDD's Paul Garber, Johnson talks about changes in the market over the last ten years and the high stakes in showroom showdown.

In 2013, a study by Duke University researchers determined that the High Point market has an economic impact of more than $5 billion in a 22-county area.

He says local market leaders took steps to boost the High Point market including increased oversight, improved transportation, and better entertainment offerings.

"High Point did a pretty effective job during the first five years of the opening of the Las Vegas market of shoring up its base to where it didn't lose some of its key players," he says.

Johnson says those changes helped keep the High Point Market alive. The Las Vegas market is also still running but it no longer coincides with the market here. 

“Is there another furniture market on the horizon that would compete with both of these? I don't see it in the near future,” Johnson says.