Tupelo Furniture Market is underway, with some changes

Optimism prevails at first market in two years

TUPELO, MISS. (WCBI) – The bi-annual Tupelo Furniture Market is underway for the first time since 2020 and there are some changes.

“We did a smaller version of the big furniture market, ” said V.M. Cleveland, founder of the Market.

The Winter Furniture Market is scaled down, running from Wednesday through Friday. Last year, supply chain disruptions meant longer shipping times for manufacturers, which would have made it tough for vendors to show a new product, that might take up to six months to arrive at a retailer.

Shane Spiller, the owner of Spiller Furniture, says he is finding vendors at the Tupelo market who are ready to ship merchandise pretty quickly.

“We have found plenty of product here in Tupelo to take back to our stores and to put into action, hopefully, give a great value for our customers and we’re just excited about it,” Spiller said.

Ronald Carrozza is with California based American Cover Design-Persian Weavers.  He was taking orders for rugs, and other accessories.

“It’s been good in some facets, as far as coming back to the show, we’ve seen some new business, new dealers, of course, we want this market to do well, this company goes to markets all over the country, they do a lot of shows and we would love to see this grow and get back to more what it used to be,” Carrozza said.

Another big impact for the furniture industry is the increased costs of shipping containers of parts from China to the U.S.  Furniture Market owner V M Cleveland says it affects the entire industry.

“Containers used to cost three and four thousand dollars a container to ship a load from China, now it costs twenty thousand, maybe twenty-five thousand a container.  So the cost of that put into the cost of making becomes now, where states can compete,” Cleveland said.

Cleveland and others in the industry also say the extended unemployment benefits meant fewer workers at furniture plants, making it even tougher to fill and ship orders, although demand for American-made products has increased.

The Tupelo Furniture Market is not open to the public.  Cleveland says the next market will take place in August.