Summer furniture market kicks off Tuesday
Aug. 15—TUPELO — Seventeen months ago, Hector Mustafa purchased Magnolia Upholstery Designs.
Despite the pandemic, business was exceptional, as consumers who were stuck at home began to upgrade the furniture with which they were spending so much time. That led to a boom in home furnishing sales.
The Pontotoc company hopes this week's summer market at the Tupelo Furniture Market will bring back some of the luster.
The market begins Tuesday and wraps up Thursday.
"Our expectations aren't too high right now because of how business is going," Mustafa said. "We're dealing with a lot of inventory so I figure if people come we can give them some discounts so we can pay our bills."
About 70 vendors have committed to this market, a slightly higher number than the February Winter Market.
A year and a half ago Magnolia, like so many of its fellow manufacturers, couldn't make furniture fast enough. Supply chain backups were exacerbated further as demand boomed, and customer wait times stretched not only weeks, but months.
All that is a fond, distant memory.
Magnolia, which employed 140 people last year, is now down to 32 as more layoffs have occurred this year.
"Retail right now is really difficult all over the country, although there are a few bright spots here and there," he said. "People are not spending right now... you're living it, I'm living it."
Mustafa does expect to write a few orders, which would keep his remaining workers busy.
"We had some people in the last market, locals and people from all the surrounding states looking for product," he said. "We saw some small retailers and it was good. What I heard that it wasn't advertised enough; we heard from some people who didn't know we were open. That was the only thing. We had some business and we hope to do the same for the market."
Jim Sneed, the CEO of Affordable Furniture in Houlka, is feeling confident despite inflation and recession talks. The Winter Market wasn't a smashing success, but it was better than expected, he said. This market could be surprising as well.
"But it is August in Mississippi," he said.
Still, Sneed said some major accounts came to the last market, and he expects the same this week.
"We had local retailers, and many from the contiguous states at the market, so we had no real complaints," he said.
Larry Cofield of Rustic East in Albertville, Alabama is attending his 16th market, and he has high expectations this week.
Rustic East imports rustic-style furniture from Mexico, which arrives at the company's Alabama facilities and goes out to customers from that point.
"Retail business is down a bit but we can't complain really," he said. "Everybody else seems to be dealing with so I'm pretty thankful."
Traffic is key to writing orders at this week's market which will be contained mainly to Building V, but also some spillover into Buildings IV and VI.
Getting the attention of as many of those attendees as possible could mean the difference for some vendors.
"It's a fight, especially after the last couple of years," Mustafa said. "It was fun and it was easy. We all made money, and now it's just the opposite. We've given everything back and then some. We're just trying to keep the people employed."
