New York Tabletop: A Productive Market… Written in Pencil

It might have been a dream. But it wasn’t. I was back at market… just like I’ve been craving, no, needing. It was opening day at the Fall New York Tabletop Show at 41 Madison, and there were people, a lot of people.  

And then there was the part I’d missed most — the hum and chatter in the halls, the lively exchange of ideas and intel. Then I noticed something a bit… off. First at one showroom, then another, then many… next to placards touting new introductions, two critical elements were missing: pricing and delivery dates. Some were written in pencil and some were absent altogether. Clearly, this was not a dream.  

Not surprisingly, indeterminate delivery dates and costs were readily explained as symptoms of a destabilized supply chain: Unpredictable transportation costs and accessibility, lack of materials, labor shortages. Having worked on both sides of the equation, I worried how the instability in these fundamentals — pricing and delivery — would play out over the coming months. And yet, over the next two days of watching and listening, my confidence was restored.  

These typically vital concerns, now penciled-in, were met with surprising calm. Major and independent retailers alike quickly shifted focus to partnership and problem-solving. Even the sharing of manufacturing resources was raised as an option to improve supply stability. Agreement terms and boundaries, which might have taken weeks or months pre-pandemic, were being negotiated in a single sitting. In fact, the speed and ease with which some of these new agreements were ratified, anchored with trust and reputation, was inspiring. 

And throughout, those recording these arrangements crossed out and over-wrote the plans in real-time evolution, the smartest among them writing in pencil, and changing as they went. All operating on the tacit understanding that moving forward depended on new definitions of partnership. 

In those instances where in-stock was, literally, the order of the day, many suppliers echoed the sentiment that retailers were “more than fair” in price negotiations, with minimal leveraging of suppliers’ desire to move on-hand inventory.  Still more encouraging was retailers’ visible interest in new suppliers. Many showrooms preened at unexpected visits from the majors, telling me that these retailers were most often looking to shore up in-stock positions or create more varied regional assortments. 

The physical experience of the New York Tabletop Show reveals in-person markets as fundamental components of the modern market renaissance. In it, we see in action the core social nature of our business community: traders, creators, and analysts among them. In these markets, we prove that face-to-face, not screen-to-screen, we understand and experience at an essential level. We negotiate smarter, listen closer, fight fairer and imagine bigger.  

In person, every sense is at the ready, every skill brought to bear in an environment of perception and collaboration. This does not dim the radiance of the digital marketplace; these will continue to speed our evolution, enable new efficiencies and expand our markets. 

So, if at times we are discomforted by elements of uncertainty, visionaries among us will remember that great realizations of our imagination began with the flexibility of a sketch, an outline, an intention… written in pencil.