Market Report: New York
By Caroline Kennedy -- Gifts & Decorative Accessories, 9/1/2006
One of the advantages of covering our hometown gift market is that we're able to experience the more of the show from opening to closing. The NYIGF was a strong show — perhaps the strongest of the summer shows — and the energy was palpable wherever we went. And the people, both buyers and exhibitors, were upbeat. Everywhere we went, exhibitors were saying, “We're having a great show” or “This is our best show ever!” or “Business is very good.” Even those who weren't quite as enthusiastic remarked that though they hadn't written as many orders as they'd have like, they made a lot of good contacts. Said one exhibitor: “This is New York. We need to be here, and we know that many customers walk the show and send in the orders later. We can always count on that.”
As noted in earlier reports, we heard a lot of people say that traffic at the show was is down. Nevertheless, there was a steady flow of buyers in the aisles, and new ones were still arriving at the show as late as Wednesday, a day on which several of the show's divisions closed. One such buyer, who'd just come up from Philadelphia, was hurrying to make the rounds before exhibitors began breaking down their displays.
With three venues for the Gift Fair — Javits, the Passenger Ship Terminal Show Piers and the Metropolitan Pavilion — as well as the permanent showrooms at 7W New York, 230 Fifth Avenue, and a number of independent locations, buyers were spread out over a large area of Manhattan. This probably contributed to the perception that traffic was down. The show management team at George Little Management also made a big effort to re-qualify retailers attending the market, in order to better ensure that they were quality buyers there to do business. And do business they did.
Gold award winners included Bizarre, Omaha, NE, in the Store Design category; Sweet Charity Gift Boutique, Austin, TX, in the Promotion cateogory; and Kate's Floral & Gifts, Billings, MT, in the Visual Merchandising category. Silver awards went to Rustique, Antioch, IL, and the Yankee Candle store, Marlton, NJ, for Store Design; and The Little House, Vashon, WA, and Pomegranate Home & Garden, Bend, OR for Promotion.
The 2006 Industry Achievement Award was presented to Vera Bradley founder Barbara Bradley Baekgaard for her leadership in bringing fashion accents into the gift market, and for her tireless support of breast cancer research.
A special Cross Channel Creativity Award was also given to bookseller Barnes & Noble, which has led the way in creating distinct, diverse shopping destinations offering a broad selection of merchandise across product categories.
Each REA winner was presented with an 18” charger designed specially for the awards by Italian ceramic manufacturer and award sponsor Deruta.
