As the road back to in-person trade shows widens, last week’s Atlanta Market provided another key milepost for the home and housewares business.
This time it was not just about independent retailers, who once again demonstrated, as they did at last month’s Dallas Total Home & Gift Market, their re-commitment to travel and renewing show connections with vendors.
Atlanta presented signs of larger retailers being released from long lockdowns to get back on the road to face-to-face planning and buying. Several such retailers were reported to be shopping the showrooms and temporary exhibits of AmericasMart. These include Macy’s (yes, Macy’s), Sharper Image, Food 52, Harris Teeter, Tuesday Morning and Hobby Lobby.
And then there is Buc-ee’s, the expanding, Texas-based chain of super-sized highway travel centers sporting expansive impulse and gift-oriented housewares presentations. Let Bu-cee’s—and the appearance in Atlanta of its housewares buyer—serve as a metaphor for how delightful surprises often occur when you’re on the road.
Attendance by such retailers hardly would have turned heads a year and a half ago at an Atlanta Market that ordinarily has attracted its share of bigger retailers. But at a time when no one can be certain about what constitutes ordinary, the presence of these and other retailers from outside of the normal drive-in distance is a positive indicator that more retailers are ready to renew the type of personal B2B engagement that can reveal difference-making opportunities.
All retailers should take a cue from independent store owners and their convergence on the summer markets. Some 45 independent gourmet housewares retailers participated in a pre-market buying event at the AmericasMart hosted by Atlanta-area reps Kitchen2Table, Ben Tally & Associates and The Ryan Group. These retailers got an earlier taste of new products and programs inside the reps’ showrooms. They also got a jump on placing orders and securing inventory ahead of tightening back-half supply.
Prior to the summer home and gift markets, the word was Williams-Sonoma merchants had already begun visiting key suppliers across the country. There probably were others.
Looking ahead, Labor Day is often cited as another key milepost after which many national and larger regional retailers are expected to begin returning to offices, welcoming vendors and opening up their B2B travel plans.
This is a time for all retailers to seek and secure every opportunity and every advantage available to them. Getting back on the road to trade shows is a good place to start.
