Atlanta Gift & Home Market Breaks Records
The Atlanta International Gift & Home Furnishings Market at AmericasMart moved into its fifth consecutive day of record-breaking buyer traffic with soaring registrations, non-stop order-writing and exclusive product introductions setting the pace for projected double-digit growth when the final Market bell rings on Wednesday, according to Jeffrey L. Portman, Sr., president and chief operating officer.
At close of Market business on Saturday, Atlanta’s January traffic was posting high double-digit growth reflecting surging southeastern traffic gains and large increases in a national buyer population representing top Northeastern, Midwestern, Pacific and Southwestern specialty-store retailers, plus a large and growing international buyer contingent.
Packed hallways, showrooms, booths and elevators, and standing-room-only seminars, events and demonstrations across AmericasMart’s more than seven million square feet of space capture the business vibrancy that has marked the Market from its inception.
Matching the strength and performance of the Home and Gift Market is the Atlanta International Area Rug Market, co-sponsored by the ORIA, which continues to see strong traffic and order writing in the vast showrooms and temporaries housing the world’s single-largest collection of area rug product. Marking the area rug show’s resurgent strength and vitality were the America’s Magnificent Carpets® Awards, which played to a capacity audience at the Georgia Aquarium Oceans Ballroom Friday with the area rug industry’s newest designs and creations, plus the nation’s top retailers, honored in the area rug industry’s most important and anticipated night.
“This Market will go on record as defining the renewal and recovery of global retailing as buyers and sellers vote with their feet, and their order writing, in an event destined to help restore hope and promise to retailers and manufacturers everywhere,” adds Portman.
A renewed confidence and optimism among retailers, who’ve come to Market ready to buy in large quantities, and a marketplace full of new lines, designs and introductions—many making their exclusive U.S. debut—continues to fuel robust buying at levels not seen in five years. Record sales reported by showrooms and temporary exhibitors alike—with many sales goals reached and doubled in the Market’s opening days—give evidence to the Market’s vitality across all product lines.
