Buyers take the escalator in Showplace during the High Point Market.
HIGH POINT — Uncertain macroeconomic conditions and ever-changing tariff guidelines could have torpedoed attendance at the just concluded High Point Market.
Instead, the head count was close compared with April’s market, which came as a relief to leadership, and that was expressed during the Oct. 29 meeting of the High Point Market Authority.
“A lot of folks were pleasantly surprised by attendance this market,” said Tammy Covington, HPMA president and CEO. “I think with all the macroeconomic issues we’re all facing, we were all scratching our heads as to what we would see this market. I’m very happy to report as of this morning, we’re less than 1% down compared with the spring market.”
See also:
Going inside the numbers, Covington noted that attendance from large retailers (which HPMA categorizes as the top 300) was up 6.9%, while new companies showed a 2.9% gain over the spring.
“If we can qualify four more new buyers before the end of the day, we can actually match our fall 2024 numbers in new buyers,” Covington said on Wednesday morning.
Additionally, non-stocking buyers, the Market Authority’s classification for designers, was up by about a point.
However, international traffic was down 10% compared with spring, although that gap closed dramatically over the past three weeks and during on-site registration. “That number was considerably higher a month ago,” Covington said.
Covington said in 24 years, she couldn’t remember a later registration cycle. “Those last three weeks, we were all answering calls,” she said.
Board member Kevin Baker, who is also executive director of the Piedmont Triad International Airport Authority, backed up some of those attendance figures. He noted that Oct. 27 was the largest day in PTI’s passenger traffic since 2007, and four days this month have been the largest this year.
Terry Venable, senior vice president of operations and finance, noted that the single park-and-ride area proved to be successful, as staff helped park more than 1,000 cars per day. Venable also said calls for Go Anywhere shuttle rides in the market district were up 10% vs. last market, with a 23% jump on Monday and Tuesday, due to rain.
