Hickory Furniture Mart, a discount home furnishing center in Hickory, N.C., has become a destination spot, drawing approximately 500,000 visitors annually. The former wholesale facility was established approximately 40 years ago as more manufacturing and wholesale furniture business moved to the High Point, N.C., area. “This building sat empty after that process,” Executive Vice President Tracey Trimble says.
“The owners decided that the best transition for the space would be to offer discount home furnishings on the retail side and serve as a distribution network for wholesalers. Now, we’re a retail facility offering wholesale discounts and open Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. for the average customer.”
The company owns the on-site Holiday Inn Express at the Mart hotel and partners with five other local hotels to offer shop-and-stay packages for out-of-town shoppers, Trimble says. Approximately 500,000 people visit the mart annually, traveling from 38 states and several countries on a weekly basis. She says the company regularly advertises locally, regionally and nationally to reach people who are willing to travel for heavily discounted furniture.
With 100 factory outlets, galleries and showrooms, nearly 1,000 premier manufacturers are represented, including Baker, Century and C.R. Laine. Many showrooms offer complimentary design services. Several of the manufacturers located inside the mart continue to produce furniture within a 250-mile radius of the facility.
“People travel to North Carolina based on the quality of the manufacturers here,” Trimble says. “We have a lot of American-made furniture that is available here in the building, which is appealing to people.”
When it comes to pricing, the mart offers discounts up to 65% off normal retail prices,” she says. “Customers can travel here and buy furniture, have it shipped back home and still save money over what they’d pay at home.”
The average trip to the mart lasts two to four days and many customers furnish entire homes – many of them are second homes – in one trip. “The majority of our customers have two or more homes, many of them in the mountains,” she says. “We are so close to Asheville and Banner Elk and many people have second homes along the coast. Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, D.C./Maryland, New York, New Jersey and even Texas and portions of the Midwest are a large part of our traveling demographic.”
With many customers coming from the Southeast, Trimble says, the Mart has noticed an influx of outdoor furniture requests. “The weather here is nice for so long, and so many people are staying home with the increased price of gas and continuousrestrictions with air travel,” she explains. “People are upgrading their outdoor entertainment areas and we do very well with that segment.”
Home office is another large segment, which is becoming increasingly more popular, also tied to increased gas prices and workers eschewing long commutes for telecommuting and flex time.
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