Coming off of a steamy week in Las Vegas, we sat down with Jeff Rose and Chad Fischer of NMG’s Furniture, Bedding & Outdoor team to recap their experience at the Summer edition of Las Vegas Market. From meetings with new and longstanding vendors to catching up with a number of Members, Markets are always jam-packed with news and updates.
Rob Stott: All right, we are back on The Independent Thinking podcast and I don’t know why we didn’t just do this in Vegas y’all. This would’ve been so much easier than waking up early on a Thursday morning after getting back from Las Vegas Market. Wouldn’t it have?
Jeff Rose: Yeah, I’m asking myself that. I flew in last night and you had me getting up at, what is it, 6:30 or whatever it is, and give me a little bit of sleep there, Rob. So how you feel, Chad?
Chad Fischer: Same, but I was fortunate enough, I came home a day earlier. Jeff was nice enough to stick around the last day while I got to come home. So I’m a little bit more rested up, but I’m still on that Vegas hangover.
Rob Stott: Yeah, I hear you. Oh, man. Mr. Jeff Rose and Mr. Chad Fischer, members of our furniture, bedding, and outdoor team here at Nationwide Marketing Group. I appreciate it, as much as I’m sad about it that we have to be up this early, but coming off of you said it, I like how you coined that, right, the Vegas hangover. Because we’re certainly feeling it, but at least we can kind of just let it roll right into a week or so from now, we’ll be back there. So we’ll just get to rinse and repeat, do that whole thing. But no, guys, appreciate you.
Jeff Rose: It’ll be a little bit different though there, Rob.
Rob Stott: It will be.
Jeff Rose: There’s nothing like a good Nationwide PrimeTime.
Rob Stott: Absolutely. The get up and rally, we’ll call it. How about that for PrimeTime? Awesome.
Jeff Rose: How do you feel? You were out there, you had a good time.
Rob Stott: It was good. I know you guys certainly run around a lot more than I do, but you aren’t lugging around camera equipment. Really, we should be asking Glenn how he’s feeling, lugging the camera around and all the equipment, but it was great to connect with the vendor partners as always.
Jeff Rose: Y’all really do. It’s just such a great job with Las Vegas Market live, man. We really do.
Rob Stott: Thank you.
Jeff Rose: Appreciate you and Glenn very much.
Rob Stott: Yeah, appreciate you having us out there. We got a little corner of the showroom as well where we get the, well at least Kev gets the post up and do his thing while he’s sitting there editing those videos at a fast clip so we can get them out there. But no, just an awesome all around time and nice to see we’re all rested and recovered, but let’s dive into this market. How was July Las Vegas Market for the both of you?
Jeff Rose: Yeah, so it was an interesting market, Rob, to be quite honest, didn’t really know what to expect. Heard rumblings it was going to be was soft, and it was soft. The traffic was down. It was 115 degrees and we feel like we’ve been in Vegas 20 times this year. But there was a lot of, I would say enterprise dealers out there, a lot of large dealers working with some great vendors, but you could definitely tell that the traffic was down. But the dealers that we were talking to and the vendors, their spirits were up. I mean it has been a challenging first half of the year, but there was some optimism for the back half and some really good optimism for 2025.
And so I don’t want to say they’re holding on until the back half because they are hoping that Labor Day is going to be good as we move into Q4, but all in all, glad to be out there, met some great retailers, and Chad and I were running around, I think we saw close to 50 vendors in four and a half days and saw some really, really great things and just solidifying partnerships. But how about you Mr. Fisch? How did you see it?
Chad Fischer: I think you hit it right on the head. We didn’t know what we were going to get, but the members that were out there, we did have an opportunity to sit down and chat with them. The optimism is high going into 2025, even with some of our vendors. We had some vendors that were giving us a sneak peek of what they got going on into 2025, including Sealy. We got a chance to look at what they’ve got going on, and I’m excited for it. The good thing about a little slower market as far as members go, Rob, is that it did give us a little bit more time with our vendors. We weren’t as rushed walking in and saying, “Hey, how are you? Have a great market,” walking out. We were able to get a little bit more face time with the management teams over there. So that was a good thing. So overall, I would say it was successful for us as a team for sure.
Rob Stott: That’s awesome. The vendors are chomping at the bit to talk to you, right? Monday traffic’s down a little bit, so they’re excited to get you in the room and I’m sure that helps as well. You mentioned members and vendors, so talk about that because I’m running around so I know we bump into each other on escalators, like two ships passing in the middle of the day in Vegas instead of at night. But the focus for you guys, you got obviously a lot of vendor interaction, the members too, you see a lot of members while you’re out there?
Jeff Rose: We see them in passing as well. But we do have a lot of members that reach out and want to sit down and talk to us, look at what industry’s doing, what the back half of the year is doing. Nationwide has a booth out there. We bring our field team in and they set appointments and they’re sitting there like, “Hey Jeff, Chad, you mind coming to sit down with some of these great members of ours?” Then we’re on an escalator, and members coming down and we’re going up and they’re like, “Rose, Fischer, turn around, we got to talk for a second.”
But Chad and I and David, our furniture director, he and Chad and I, our main goal while we’re there, obviously we do want to talk to memories and things, but it is our super goal for vendors. I mean it is three huge buildings, 16 stories high with just so many vendors that are there that are in our portfolio or vendors that want to talk to us. And so we need to go and do our due diligence and make sure the product’s right, sit down with our leadership team and see if it’s a good fit for us.
Chad and I and David, we get calls every single week about vendors wanting to be a part of the Nationwide family. And one thing that I’m proud about what our team does is we do our homework, we do our due diligence. And then once we do all the prep work and make sure that we feel that vendor is good enough for us to at least go look at market, then we’re running around going and just doing our due diligence on the product to make sure it’s up to the standards that we feel as a Nationwide vendor partner.
Rob Stott: Oh, that’s awesome. And you mentioned getting around a lot of these showrooms and talking with vendors and would-be vendors. From the product side or even just what they’re telling you, do you get a lot of aspect around the trends that are happening or what’s going on in the space, and how much is that a part of the conversations or what you’re noticing while you’re at these events? Chad?
Jeff Rose: You want to take that Fisch?
Chad Fischer: So to paraphrase Rob, you’re wanting to know as far as when we’re talking to vendors, what kind of trends that we’re seeing?
Rob Stott: Yeah, exactly.
Chad Fischer: Yeah, I think it’s very helpful for us. It’s one thing to have a conversation and be like, “I like the color green, Rob, so I think I’ll go with that,” but to actually be inside the space and see what they’ve got going on and to see the excitement that is centered around it from the members and the retailers that are in there. So it’s a huge advantage for us to be able to be in the spaces, seeing, touching, feeling, because you can’t get that stuff by looking at a PowerPoint or talking to somebody directly about it.
Rob Stott: Sounds very similar to the retail experience. You can shop a website, but to be in store looking at the product feeling, touching it, very similar for you guys.
Chad Fischer: Yeah, absolutely.
Jeff Rose: I am very proud of the team once we get there because we just don’t fly out to Vegas and say, “All right, where do we want to go?” I mean the prep work that the team does before each of these markets, I mean it starts months in advance. I mean, if I was to show you what our schedule looks like on paper and the notes that are behind each vendor that we’re going in and the prep work that we do, talking to members, just researching what are the trends, what is important to that consumer out there, and then are the vendors translating that into their product? Because if we see vendors that are constantly doing that, that shows us that they are forward-thinking, they are looking at different ways to reach consumers, and if they’re reaching consumers, that means our members, the retailers, are going to have a better experience for that consumer because the product’s right.
And when it gets down to it, if it’s great product, great ideas, innovative thinking, the retailer is going to win, the RSA is going to win, because everyone’s making money and the consumer’s happy, and it all goes full circle. And so it all starts with the prep work. And I couldn’t begin to say how proud I am of Fischer and David for all the work that they do on the front end to make sure it’s a successful market for not only us but for the Nationwide vendor partners and the members.
Rob Stott: If I know what my own schedule looked like and the work we did, putting just 14, 15 video interviews together, I can only imagine the spreadsheet and the notes and what it must have looked like for you guys. So more power to you.
Jeff Rose: Yeah, I’m going to tell you this. We’re going to have a meeting with Melissa and Stinson and the leadership team because these markets and then having PrimeTime 3, 4, 5 days after markets, I mean, what are we doing here team, help us out?
Rob Stott: It’s incredible. It’s a good time. We love doing this to ourselves. What are you talking about?
Jeff Rose: I get home last night and I’m already kind of starting putting things in order for next week when we leave for PrimeTime and my wife’s like, “Yeah, going back to Vegas next week, right?”
Rob Stott: “Do some laundry.” And I am telling you one of these times, well hopefully, Vegas is what it is from the PrimeTime perspective, we should have all the prep work we did none to make sure we had at least the showroom set up to stay in there and just spend the week. I don’t know, the flights back and forth. I don’t know, man.
Chad Fischer: Yeah, it’s funny, Rob, we talk about Vegas and I’m sure you guys hear it too, but my buddies were always like, “Dude, Vegas…”
Rob Stott: “What a great time.”
Chad Fischer: “Must be rough.” I’m like, “Okay, you come out, I promise you.” Fortunately, my wife is very supportive, as is Beth for Jeff, and they get it, right? So when we do come home, my wife says to me, she’s like, “You relax, I’ll come supper. You just sit out.” Because she knows how grueling it is, but we absolutely love it. I’m excited every time we go at the end of every day when we walk 25,000 steps, my feet aren’t as excited, but I’m excited to go back to Vegas again next week.
Rob Stott: Absolutely. Well, I want to talk too, you mentioned Vegas is its own animal in terms of market. I know you guys also attend High Point and we don’t necessarily have as much of a presence at them or go to them, but other markets around the country, Dallas and Atlanta come to mind. I think I heard someone say, I didn’t know this, New Jersey might have a market. Is that right? It could be.
Jeff Rose: I believe it’s probably more of a regional market, Rob.
Rob Stott: Gotcha.
Jeff Rose: Markets have been around forever since… I mean, I’m going to tell you a city that you probably have never heard of, Tupelo, Mississippi. I mean that was the Mecca Center back in the ’80s and the ’90s for a furniture market. And then Vegas was built and it spread out. And so with High Point, North Carolina, High Point, North Carolina is more centered around furniture. I mean that is a furniture market. Vegas is more geared towards bedding. Not to say that furniture is not out in Vegas, because it’s got a great representation, and bedding’s not represented in High Point, that they both are. But you’ve got High Point that, I mean, there’s a ton of furniture manufacturers that are there and a lot of those don’t show out in Vegas.
And so when a calendar year comes up, the furniture and bedding team knows that six weeks of the year, no matter what, before we do anything, our schedule is at furniture markets. You have to be there. You have to meet with these vendors, you have to see the trends, you have to make sure that the vendors that you’re going to bring into the Nationwide portfolio meet the criteria to be a Nationwide vendor partner, the standards of a Nationwide vendor partner. And the only way to do that is to sit down with that exec team in front of their product at these shows and talk about how can this be a great fit for the Nationwide membership?
Rob Stott: The vendors that are at both, how do you see them differentiate themselves from… I imagine too, West Coast, East Coast, a little bit easier for the dealers that are on either side of the country to get to certain ones, but how does the vendor set themselves apart for those that are at both, or do they try to?
Jeff Rose: Yeah, on the furniture, Chad, I’ll let you speak on the bedding side, but definitely on the furniture side, just like you were talking about earlier, trends and stuff, I mean, there’s West Coast trends and there’s East Coast trends, and so obviously, the Vegas furniture market, they gear it towards West Coast distribution. High Point is more East Coast and you can see that into their product mix. I would also say in High Point, showrooms are a little bit bigger, I would say, and so there’s a lot more product that they show.
Rob Stott: Buildings, right? Is that right?
Jeff Rose: Yeah, so I mean it is crazy to think about, but in Vegas, there’s three buildings, 16 stories high and everything’s crammed in these three buildings. High Point furniture market in High Point, North Carolina, it truly is a city. The market is a city, and the navigation is not the easiest to be quite honest with you. Over in High Point, I think we probably walk 50,000 steps in High Point. And so there’s buildings. I mean in Vegas showrooms could be a couple hundred thousand square feet. In High Point, you could be 200,000, 300,000 square feet. So there’s just a lot more product that can be shown in the High Point area.
Rob Stott: Same on the bedding side between the two?
Chad Fischer: So when you look at the bedding side, when you look at High Point, our largest bedding vendors typically don’t show there. I mean, we do have Serta that shows there, the licensee does, but a lot of regional players might show there, Rob. But as far as the trends between West Coast, East Coast, there’s really not a huge difference on the bedding side because most of these bedding vendors are incorporating the entire country. So no matter where they’re at, they are figuring out a way how to shop it or ship it to everybody. But it’s not a huge bedding aspect at High Point.
Rob Stott: I imagine if there’s any bedding trends, it feels like the cooling mattresses might have more of interest in the Southwest as opposed to… I don’t need that in Philly necessarily all year, but-
Chad Fischer: You’d be surprised, Rob, because we are hot sleepers. So whether you’re in Philly or Mississippi, it’s nice to have, and it is actually one of the number one causes of sleep problems. When you start asking consumers, “Why aren’t you getting a good night’s sleep?” Sleeping hot is the number one answer.
Rob Stott: Callback, we learned that Mr. Jonathan Scott doesn’t like to sleep hot, so he said it’s the worst thing as far as sleep goes, he hates it.
Jeff Rose: Is that a plug there for your Scott Living podcast?
Rob Stott: I feel like I had to, I’m sorry. I know I got to stop, but I got to capture it.
Jeff Rose: It was such a great podcast, Rob –
Rob Stott: Appreciate you guys. I need to capture it in here talking to you. I know I’ve said it, but thank you again for setting that up, just to keep it rolling.
Chad Fischer: And Rob, to get to the Scott brothers, I am taller than you.
Rob Stott: We did.
Chad Fischer: We figured that out.
Rob Stott: I know, let’s capture that too. Yes, we stood back to back. You got like half an inch.
Jeff Rose: Shots fired on this early morning podcast, wow. I know I’m in the middle right now. I’m going to keep y’all apart, so-
Rob Stott: Oh no, I love it. Hey guys, before we wrap it up, I want to give the chance to… I know the markets, you said this is your twice-a-year Superbowl in Vegas, four times a year really, two High Point’s as well, but there’s PrimeTime going on and then you guys have lots of a new initiative that I want to give you the chance to talk about too. So the webinar series, I’m very excited that we’re a part of it and get the help with that. And so for those that may not know, give them a little overview on what that’s about and what you’re trying to accomplish there.
Jeff Rose: So I’ll just kind of touch on a little bit because Chad had a great idea and so this will be the direction that we’re going to move forward. So we’re always wanting to get the vendors in front of our membership as best as we can. And so we launched a webinar series at the beginning of the year. We had three vendors come on, and it was just basically an infomercial just about emerging brands, just what could be out for people that may not go to market, always wanting to get our vendors in front. And so Chad last month, he’s like, “You know what’d be awesome? What we’re doing is great, the information’s great,” but Chad was like, “Let’s make it a little bit more personable.” And so Chad, if you want to tell him your idea, I think just awesome. I can’t wait for us to launch it after PrimeTime.
Chad Fischer: Yeah, and I can’t take all the credit. It was actually Rob and I, we got on a call and started pumping ideas back and forth. So what we came up with is let’s get a couple of vendors every month. So the second Thursday of every month we’re going to invite two vendor partners on and we’re kind of going to have a fireside chat with them, take 15 minutes to talk with them to figure out what’s going on, what are the trends, what are they seeing going on with the industry, just anything that we think is going to be relevant information with our member partners.
And one of the cool things is that when we started this, we had asked the vendors to bring on a special offer. So for those of our retailers that take the time to sign up and to join the calls, we’re going to give them a special offer that they cannot get if they don’t join, we’re still going to have that. Our vendors are still going to offer a carrot, if you will, come on, listen to them, and then we’ll present an offer that they can take advantage of.
Rob Stott: That’s awesome.
Chad Fischer: So we’re looking forward to it. I’m pretty excited for it.
Rob Stott: And to tie it into PrimeTime a little bit, those that’ll be at Mattress University and the conversation that’s going to happen there, it’s kind of like an extension of that almost. I know we’ve already talked about some of the questions you guys are thinking about asking and the direction of some of these chats, it extends the high value conversations that go down at an event like that during PrimeTime.
Chad Fischer: Yeah, absolutely.
Rob Stott: Cool. Awesome. Well, I took more time than I intended. I wanted this to be a quick like, hey, hop in, hop out, get back to bed, kind of thing so that we can really be recovered by PrimeTime. But here we are, a good half hour later, and I just appreciate the time. Again, appreciate the hospitality out in Vegas and diving deep into what market’s like from your seat and your perspective. So this was a lot of fun.
Jeff Rose: Yeah, appreciate it, Rob. It’s awesome to just be a little part of the Nationwide family and just trying to continue to bring value to the membership and being able to go out to Vegas with a great team and really bring back some actionable items to the membership and different ideas and different ways to help drive traffic, it’s just awesome. So Chad, it was great to be out there with you for almost a week. I know we missed David, but we’ll all be back together in a couple of days, but just really appreciate all the hard work the whole team did.
Rob Stott: Don’t miss him too much because you’re going to see him again real soon.
Jeff Rose: Yeah, I know.
Chad Fischer: We tend to spend more time together during July and August than we do with our own families.
Rob Stott: No, that’s incredible. Cool. Well, thank you guys. And hey, we’ll see you real soon.
Chad Fischer: Thanks Rob. See you.
