DALLAS — Responding to retailers’ wishes, FashionCenterDallas on Tuesday announced a new market schedule for the five apparel and accessories shows it stages each year that allows merchants to be at their stores on the key selling days of Friday and Saturday.
The shift to a Sunday-through-Wednesday schedule from the existing Thursday-through-Sunday dates will begin in January. It came after a study by FCD parent Dallas Market Center, the world’s largest wholesale merchandise resource with more than $7.5 billion in annual transactions, showed that 83 percent of retailers surveyed wanted the switch.
“We have consistently challenged the status quo in order to add energy and keep market fresh,” said Cindy Morris, chief operating officer at the Dallas Market Center. “In this case, buyers have increasingly requested a shift to weekday markets, allowing them to spend time in their stores during the busy weekends.
“Working together with the manufacturers and sales reps, our shared goal is to bring more retail buyers through the front doors and make their trip to market more efficient,” she said.
Dallas market dates for next year are Jan. 28-31, March 18-21; June 3-6; Aug. 19-22 and Oct. 14-17.
The schedule change is “a great idea, especially in light of some of the conflicts that took place this year in regional market scheduling,” said Ruth Finley, owner and publisher of the Fashion Calendar in New York. “It’s a change that’s been talked about for 10 years and it’s finally happening with Dallas taking the first step.”
No major scheduling changes are planned at AmericasMart, Atlanta, said Tara Tuschinski, a spokeswoman. “We have no intention of shifting our market calendar,” she said.
Ethan Eller, general manager of the New Mart wholesale complex in Los Angeles, applauded the shift, but said such a change would take a while to implement at the New Mart, if at all.
“It’s a great idea to focus on weekday markets,” he said. “I wish we could be so enlightened out here in Los Angeles. It would make it easier for some buyers and exhibitors and give them more time between the Dallas show and the Los Angeles shows. The problem … is that people are somewhat resistant to change and are ingrained in their current market pattern.”
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No market date changes are planned in 2007 at the California Mart in Los Angeles, said spokeswoman Karli Heineman.
Susan McCullough, vice president of apparel, Merchandise Mart Properties Inc., Chicago, parent of the Chicago Merchandise Mart, was traveling and unavailable for comment.
Fashion Industry Gallery, the boutique-style wholesale mart in downtown Dallas that accents contemporary, bridge and designer apparel and accessories, said it also will switch to a Sunday-through-Wednesday format starting in January and on the same dates as FashionCenterDallas.
“Our first priority is the buyer and making their market experiences as easy and accessible as possible,” said sales manager Kate Wynne.
Allen Sealove, president of the New York Fashion Council and chief executive officer at Hayden, a division of Victoria Royal, New York, said, “Change is good, and this change will make it easier and more convenient for stores to do business while being able to stay more in touch with what’s going on back at their stores. It’s a win-win.”
Sales representatives said keeping buyers happy and coming back to market is what drives the shows.
“Buyers are the ones who keep the wholesale marketplaces in business,” said Michael Singer, a partner at multiline showroom Brad Hughes & Associates at FashionCenterDallas. “We say that if the stores want it, then we want it. Yes, it will require some logistics changes from staffing to delivery issues, but we will make it happen.”