High Point Furniture Buying on a Budget

High Point furniture buying on a budget in North Carolina, is there such a thing? I heard from family and friends: " Get rid of your Interior Designer and don't over spend."

Naturally, I was very worried since in our older age we are spending far more on furniture than we have in our life; and considering where we started from:

When I joined the Air Force and had my first real job, I saved as much as I could, so by the time I met my husband 2 months later, I had $600 saved. I didn't have a car expense like he did, so I gave him $300 dollars with a marriage license attached, so he could buy a stereo. There were many times he didn't think it was a fair deal...for him.

We must have been on the same page when we married because we saved my paycheck and lived like paupers. People were always making fun of us, but we were young and had a goal. I drove around in a beat up old VW that needed paint.

I can't imagine what our friends thought, especially the Colonel and Captain who came to our first rental home for dinner. A beat up old trailer in a white-trash trailer park. Climbing up the metal steps into a small living room displaying a banged up metal military chest placed in the middle of the floor with a tablecloth draped over it.  A WWII chest that belonged to my father.  My mother's bargain fines, from off road antique shops, of sterling silver servers. Her fine crystal glasses filled with cheap wine and her antique Wedgwood dishes. I prepared, what I considered, a gourmet meal taken from my Bon Appetite magazines. We had no chairs. 

A year later, we purchased a new brick home with 3 bedroom and 3 full bathrooms.

Today, we use the same philosophy.  We saved all of our life and now we are trying to reap the benefits by spending what little the government doesn't tax away.

What we learned along the way while in High Point, NC.

The whole point of going to the early April Merchant and Interior Designer wholesale furniture shows in High Point, NC is to buy furniture at discounted prices. There are antique, reclaimed wood, reproduced, and the latest furniture at low prices. 

This week, April 2-8, 2011, of wholesale buyers was an opportunity that our designer offered to us and we were too unknowledgeable to know what to expect, until we got there.

Our designer had been there a few days before we arrived, to select furniture that she thought we might like, as there were too many showcase rooms to see; in fact, she had forgotten, half the time, where some of the furniture she had seen, was displayed.  After running through 13 floors of furniture in one of the buildings; getting lost with her, we decided to stop following her, until she found the furniture first.  

We told her, "You go ahead and when you find it, we will be waiting here for you." She laughed.

This was the only way we could keep from getting completely worn out. We ran around High Point from 8:40 AM until 7:30 PM; stopping to eat only briefly, the catered food and wine.

We did this from Monday through Thursday morning until we flew back to California.

We each had to have a Buyer's badge with a bar code which she gave us; to get into all of the furniture showcase buildings. We were scanned into every building and through every showroom; and then, escorted throughout the room by a representative from that product line. 

We had to 'pretend' we were assistants to our Interior Designer who had the business license; and she was the only one who could purchase any item on the floor with her business Tax I.D. number. The rules are that clients should not be present, but if we are discreet, we will not be thrown out by security.

We did not know the full extent of the savings until we looked at the differences between wholesale and retail prices which were given on each item. 

For example, our Great Room rug which is 9' x 12' was listed at $1999 wholesale. The retail price was listed at over $5400.  In this particular room, this Rep knew we were clients because he knew our designer.

The Rep wrote up the purchase for our designer and she paid for it out of her account since we had already sent her our furniture deposit for this item in advance.

In one of the showrooms, where the representative didn't know our designer or us, he discussed the prices as if we were all buyers.  

Leaning over to whisper in our ear, he said, "go to our website for retail prices and take off  50%; that is your price; I should not be saying this within earshot...."

We were able to get 40% to 60% discounts with a 5% markup from our Interior Designer.  Originally, I thought she said 10%, but the bill stated otherwise. 

In spite, of all the savings we could get on furniture and accessories, we held back buying items too expensive or unnecessary which left us with over half of our allowance still in the bank; although, our designer kept telling us that we were still under budget. I said that there are many things we need later that are unforeseen and some foreseen:  Mattresses, sheets, window treatment which I am sure we could have bought at this show but there was no time left. The wholesale show only lasted one week and all the furniture rooms were spread out so far that it would have been impossible to visit them all. Most the people there were exhausted from the experience, including us.