High Point Market Draws 75,000 Industry Professionals, Fuels Guilford County Economy

Seventy-five thousand furniture industry professionals will pour into downtown High Point starting April 25, spending an estimated $96 million at local restaurants and $130 million on hotel rooms across Guilford County over five days of Spring Market.

The scale of that spending reflects what a 2018 Duke University study calculated as approximately $6.7 billion in annual economic contribution to the region, a figure the High Point Market Authority cites as $6.73 billion and describes as the single biggest economic impact of any event in North Carolina. Visitor expenditures alone account for an estimated $506 million each year, with the hotel and dining figures joined by approximately $31 million in retail purchases.

Across approximately 180 buildings covering more than 11 million square feet of showroom space, roughly one square kilometer of real estate, around 2,000 exhibitors will host buyers, designers and retailers representing all 50 U.S. states plus international delegations. More than 40,000 of those attendees are retailers and designers; the remainder includes suppliers, manufacturers, media and logistics professionals who collectively fill every hotel corridor in the county.

The influx creates concrete opportunities alongside real disruption. Downtown High Point will experience heavy pedestrian congestion throughout the five-day run, with temporary road adjustments and directional routing common during peak showroom hours. Hotels across Guilford County book up weeks in advance around Market dates; local restaurants routinely extend their hours during Market week and run promotions calibrated for the surge, making it one of the busiest service-industry stretches of the year. Temporary employment spikes across hospitality, transportation, showroom staffing and event services. Alongside the trade-only showrooms, public-facing design programming and cultural exhibits run concurrently, giving residents a window into product launches and design trends without industry credentials.

Hon. J. Carlvena Foster, Vice Chair of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners, sits on the High Point Market Authority board, a formal county-level stake in the event's governance. The Authority is led by President and CEO Tammy Covington Nagem, who has worked for the organization for more than 20 years. The board also includes Jeremy Hoff, CEO of Hooker Furnishings; Alex Shuford III, CEO of Rock House Farm Family of Brands, which includes Century and Hancock & Moore; and Doug Bassett, president of Vaughan-Bassett Furniture.

Market's roots stretch to 1905, when furniture salesman D. Ralph Parker formed the High Point Furniture Exposition Company and planned the Maddox Building as showroom space. The first formal Southern Furniture Market ran March 1-15, 1909, attracting buyers from as far as the West Coast. The 1921 Southern Furniture Exposition Building opened at a cost of approximately $1 million, offering 249,000 square feet of exhibition space, a footprint that has since expanded more than 44-fold into today's 11-million-square-foot campus. Registration is required for most Market events, and trade-only access is enforced at the majority of showrooms.