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Judy Mendenhall
International Home Furnishings Market Authority |
Mitch Lewis:
You touched on it earlier-what impact does the market have on-say-the
workforce in general? ?
Judy Mendenhall:
There are probably thousands of job opportunities that are in
this area and in North Carolina because the market is here. Each
year, twice a year, all three thousand, basically, of those exhibitors
completely redo their showrooms. For example, the largest single
showroom building, the International Home Furnishings Center, will
tell you that they have 30 contractors who are licensed to come
into their building to work in those showrooms to remodel them.
We're talking painters and carpet layers, wallpaper hangers, electricians,
general contractors, sub contractors who come into these buildings
twice a year just to redo the showrooms. That says nothing about
what happens when Market is actually going on. And we need transportation
and we have florists bringing in fresh flowers everyday. And we
have caterers providing food. One of the exhibitors, for example,
in IHFC alone feeds 15 hundred people a day in his showroom. There
are photographers, professional photography studios that are in
this area because Market is here because they come in during market
in the middle of the night when the buildings are closed for business
and take pictures for catalogs and advertisements for these manufacturers.
We probably have more professional photographer studios per capita
than any other city in this country. And it's totally because Market
is here. We have ad agencies that are here because the Market is
here. People who make supplies for the industry itself are here
because they can go to Market and show the exhibitors their hardware,
their upholstery, their springs, their foam products. We have huge
numbers of carriers, over the road carriers who are here to transport
product to and from this, these buildings and wherever it's manufactured.
And I can go on and on and on.
Mitch Lewis:
Although the International Home Furnishings Market is not directly
impacted by what has been going on with the textiles and as well
as the furniture industry, are there any concerns as far as those
industries as far as the situation that they're in?
Judy Mendenhall:
Well, as the manufacturers move into a different way of doing
business, for example, if they consolidate their manufacturing here
and start doing a lot of it overseas or start importing product
from other countries, then it could have an impact on Market. We
saw the strike out in California, for example, at the ports which
had a direct impact on Market because we couldn't get product here.
We had to delay our closing time for unloading product if you will,
because people were bringing product in right up until the day that
we opened Market. So, closing down plants in this area, importing
product from overseas, consolidating production offshore and importing
it will from time to time have an impact on this market. Also, as
we move to a more global way of doing business, it impacts the way
we do business here because we have people coming in who don't speak
English very well who need interpreters, who are used to a different
way of doing business. So, while it doesn't directly affect us,
unless that manufacturer totally closes his door-there are some
ancillary ways that it impacts Market.
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