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Unveil the insider experience of attending the High Point Furniture Show with Jon Macklin, owner of Original Home Furniture.

<img alt="High Point Market Trade Show" src="https://d6y5eqdcxq8w3.cloudfront.net/assets/blog/blog_canada/CN0117/CN0117_Trade-Show_1.jpg" title="CN0117_Trade-Show_1.jpg" width="700" />
Jon Macklin has developed a bit of a soft spot for the town of High Point, North Carolina. The owner of Guelph&rsquo;s <a href="https://www.originalhomefurniture.com/" title="Homepage" target="_blank">Original Home Furniture</a> takes two trips down to High Point in April and October every year. Macklin and his wife Emily have a fun time on the 12-hour trek and the subsequent stay, but there is a distinct purpose for this visit &ndash; attending the High Point Furniture Show.
Trade shows are an integral part of many retail businesses. For Macklin, it&rsquo;s an opportunity to get the jump on some of the most interesting and innovative pieces that are due to hit the market. There is a popular show in Las Vegas and some excellent events closer to home in Toronto. But High Point has become a clear family favorite.
&ldquo;There is some pre-planning involved,&rdquo; says Macklin, who admits he loves the drive down to North Carolina. &ldquo;We pick times that we want to meet with our manufacturers, with most of them all there in one place.
&ldquo;We go to see the new lines, new trends, and new marketing material. The importance of it is that you get to view it all firsthand. We order and are among the first receivers of the products. If you don&rsquo;t go, you could get the printed information within a month, or a traveling sales rep might come by six weeks later.&rdquo;
You can only see so much from a picture. Macklin says that being present to see the new big thing offers so much more when it comes to making smart choices for what he wants to feature on the Original Home Furniture floor.
He finds the experience itself just fun, particularly at High Point. The trade show is located at a permanent site, one chosen by a group of furniture manufacturers for an annual event meant to give the town an injection on the commerce front. Macklin says that the physical space utilized for the show is just incredible. You could walk through the various buildings and warehouses for a week and not cover it all.
The real value of the High Point Furniture Show for Macklin is invaluable information.&nbsp;&ldquo;It reveals the heartbeat of the broader industry,&rdquo; says Macklin. &ldquo;It allows us to see what manufacturers are doing and how they&rsquo;re presenting. We see the new fabrics, the new colours, and we buy there so we&rsquo;re not back home relying on our memories, did you like this or like that? We put it together immediately so we know what brands we will represent.
&ldquo;People come to a store like ours because they want to touch the furniture; they want to feel it. So the High Point show not only tells us about new trends and colours, but it&rsquo;s also about sitting in it and seeing exactly how it&rsquo;s built. What&rsquo;s the feel? Is it shallow, or is it deep? It&rsquo;s as much about the feel of the furniture as the fabric or colours.&rdquo;
Macklin and Emily have made the trip to High Point enough that they have some good friends whenever they visit. They talk with these friends and exchange thoughts on some of the better parts of the trade show.
&ldquo;Our buying group is also there for the High Point show,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;We usually have a dinner where we all discuss what everybody has seen and what they thought about the products. So, while you&rsquo;re down there, you&rsquo;re also picking everyone&rsquo;s brain to get better ideas and throw your ideas out to them to see what they think. It&rsquo;s great when you have a team down there that you can talk to. We try to do that mid-show, so we have a couple of days to go back to the show and find that specific manufacturer.
&ldquo;We obviously take a lot of pictures. For me, it&rsquo;s important to be as up-to-date as possible.&rdquo;

Inside the High Point Furniture Show: A Retailer's Journey

There's many reasons to love Palliser Furniture - from the many styles, finishes, and fabrics, to their innovative technologies to keep you comfortable. 

<h2>Original Home Furniture Palliser Blog</h2>
There is no substitute for quality. When Jon Macklin decides on suppliers to showcase in Original Home Furniture, he wants companies that make the best products. That&rsquo;s why <a href="https://www.originalhomefurniture.com/brands/ct/Palliser%20Furniture" title="Palliser Furniture" target="_blank">Palliser furniture</a> is front and centre in the popular Woodlawn Road store.
Macklin loves many things about Palliser&rsquo;s pieces, including the unmatched craftsmanship among the broad range of items. If his customers&rsquo; reviews of their purchases are any indication, then it&rsquo;s clear that Palliser is a leader when it comes to high-quality furniture.
&ldquo;They love the way it looks and how it&rsquo;s made,&rdquo; Macklin says about the responses he typically gets from his clientele. &ldquo;Palliser has also introduced a lot of cutting-edge technologies into the marketplace, and customers really appreciate that about the brand.
&ldquo;The company offers a more modern style than many suppliers. They have done a lot to grow their marketplace and be engaged with clients.&rdquo;
Quality? Check. Look? Check. That translates to value when a customer is on the hunt for a special piece to help personalize their home.
But the advantages of Palliser furniture hardly stop there.
<h2>Flexibility</h2>
One of the many characteristics that Macklin prioritizes is Palliser&rsquo;s variety when it comes to styles, leathers, fabrics, and colours.
&ldquo;Palliser furniture is refined and stylish,&rdquo; Macklin says of his excellent supplier, which makes it a point to think outside of the box. &ldquo;There are so many different looks and Palliser is very flexible when it comes to making requested changes. Their approach is to say, &lsquo;Here is this great product &ndash; do whatever you want with it. A lot of companies have limitations regarding customizing a piece unless the price is astronomically expensive.&rdquo;
<img alt="different fabric materials" height="400" src="https://d6y5eqdcxq8w3.cloudfront.net/assets/blog/blog_canada/CN0117/CN0117_quality-style-more_1.jpg" width="700" />
<h2>O Canada</h2>
Palliser is based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. That carries a lot of sway for Macklin&rsquo;s consumers in Guelph and the surrounding areas. There is a trend to spend a little more on a trusted Canadian brand that will be durable, as opposed to cutting corners and sinking money into inferior pieces cheaply-made abroad.
<h2>High-tech</h2>
In addition to Canadian-made quality, comfort, and flexibility in style, Palliser is also innovative with the functional aspects of its furniture. Do you need storage space or phone-charging stations? Palliser offers that. Macklin was at a trade show when he saw a unique Palliser sectional that had a particularly eye-popping price tag. But it was for a good reason. The piece was loaded with all sorts of gadgets &ndash; and when combined with the superior workmanship, customers absolutely loved it.
&ldquo;We want to show the latest technology,&rdquo; Macklin says of the kinds of products he wants available in Original Home Furniture. &ldquo;And we&rsquo;re not afraid of the price point if there is value. I could not believe the number of those sectionals we sold. We have found a new customer who wants that. They wanted cutting-edge technology and the ability to customize it how they pleased.
&ldquo;There are so many neat things you can do with products like that.&rdquo;
<img alt="high tech sofa with usb plug" height="400" src="https://d6y5eqdcxq8w3.cloudfront.net/assets/blog/blog_canada/CN0117/CN0117_quality-style-more_2.jpg" width="700" />
<h2>The Studio Concept</h2>
Simply offering great products isn&rsquo;t always enough to meet clients&rsquo; needs. The manner in which they are presented inside Original Home Furniture is critical to showing precisely why <a href="https://www.originalhomefurniture.com/brands/ct/Palliser%20Furniture" title="Palliser Furniture" target="_blank">Palliser furniture</a> can be a special addition to a home.
Macklin had a rare opportunity for his business &ndash; to be one of the few stores across Canada that had a full-scale Palliser studio within its walls. Palliser came up with the studio concept for their best partners, a dedicated space of approximately 5,000 square feet to replicate the inside of a home. Macklin is no stranger to showcasing his products in this manner, but Palliser&rsquo;s vision takes it a step further.
&ldquo;Palliser provides these assets and accompanying imagery for our area to stand out in exchange for a specific amount of area,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;We were looking to do something different. We want to display items the best we can. The space will feature customized d&eacute;cor, like beautiful millwork that makes it unique to the rest of the store. The idea is to continue to step it up and spend on the accessories and lamps to tailor it so the Palliser products look as good as they can.&rdquo;
The "new" Palliser 2.0 studio concept was installed in May and was the first of its kind in Ontario! A dedicated team flew in from Winnipeg for the 2 day install to make sure all aspects of this amazing space were perfectly attended to.
&ldquo;This new concept is the nicest the industry has seen,&rdquo; says Macklin. &ldquo;It will feature that stunning millwork, large samples that you can take off of the wall and drape over a chair or couch to see what it would like, and just beautiful styling.
&ldquo;The Palliser studio comes with a big-screen presentation. It enables us to comfortably sit at a table with stools and design products for our clients digitally. You put a sectional together on the screen piece by piece, with whatever the customer wants, like chargers and consoles. You can literally assemble the piece in about 60 seconds.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s unbelievable. Not every store can do that.&rdquo;

Palliser Furniture: Quality, Style, and So Much More! 

<img alt="A logo sits on a white background. The number 75 is in orange around the store's name." src="https://d6y5eqdcxq8w3.cloudfront.net/assets/blog/blog_canada/CN0117/CN0117_75thanniversary_2.jpg" />
Every established business faces the challenge of balancing tradition while incorporating fresh&nbsp;ideas. Original Home Furniture on Woodlawn Road in Guelph is no exception. The renowned&nbsp;<a href="https://www.originalhomefurniture.com/catalog/furniture">furniture</a> showroom has always enjoyed great success since its doors opened back in 1948 to&nbsp;serve the residents of Guelph and the surrounding communities.
That excellent run is one of the reasons current owner Jon Macklin wanted to be a part of&nbsp;Original Home Furniture&rsquo;s history. As the store celebrates its 75th anniversary, Macklin has&nbsp;found that groove that both celebrates a wonderful past and ushers in a new era.
It&rsquo;s captured perfectly in the most recent company slogan &ndash; &ldquo;An old name you can trust. With a&nbsp;new look you&rsquo;ll love!&rdquo;
&ldquo;Original Home Furniture is a well-established, well-liked business in the community,&rdquo; says&nbsp;Macklin, who took over the operation in 2016. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got this great clientele with excellent&nbsp;reviews. It&rsquo;s about taking that foundation and asking what we can do to make it the best&nbsp;business possible.
&ldquo;Some of those systems are now in place. We&rsquo;re in the process of writing a store charter, which&nbsp;is our beliefs to live by. We&rsquo;re also trying to be more embedded in the community and be that&nbsp;place where if someone wants to buy a sofa, they will come to us because they like what we do&nbsp;and what we stand for.&rdquo;
Macklin knows his predecessors set the bar high. Original Home Furniture was founded back in&nbsp;1948 by Max and Bess Rosenberg, who opened the shop downtown on MacDonell. The&nbsp;Rosenbergs eventually sold to Monty Albert, who moved the location to Victoria Road. In 1989,&nbsp;ownership changed hands again when Lynn and Darlene McClellan purchased the business&nbsp;from Albert. They, too, opted for a move, this time to the current location on Woodlawn.
Twenty-seven years later, Macklin got an insider tip from a colleague of his at La-Z-Boy &ndash; the&nbsp;McClellans were getting ready to retire and looking to sell. A native of Brantford, Macklin had&nbsp;extensive retail experience in the consumer electronics industry. Though the products are&nbsp;different, the idea of creating a top-notch experience for the customer is universal. Macklin, who&nbsp;also worked in the <a href="https://www.originalhomefurniture.com/catalog/furniture">furniture</a> industry for a few years after leaving the electronics world,&nbsp;embraced the idea of taking stores to new heights.
&ldquo;I love marketing,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I love the challenge of taking something and trying to grow it to its&nbsp;potential. It was a perfect fit for me.&rdquo;
While in the process of making a deal with the McClellans, Macklin also happened to fall for&nbsp;their daughter Emily. After having to postpone their wedding a few times during the pandemic,&nbsp;they were finally married on June 4th and now run Original Home Furniture as husband and&nbsp;wife, with five adult kids between them.
&ldquo;It was a dream come true,&rdquo; Macklin says with a smile about finding both a new partner and&nbsp;career.
The business he took over had an exceptional base. Macklin has made lots of changes to&nbsp;improve the customer experience, especially through the trials of the pandemic. One of the first&nbsp;moves was to streamline the number of suppliers. They also hired more staff and trained the&nbsp;new members well, so they could pass on their expertise in products and prices to customers&nbsp;efficiently. Among the new hires are three design specialists who can speak the language and&nbsp;even visit clients for free in-home consultations.
Macklin notes that 75 percent of the business is custom, so there are fabric walls and wood&nbsp;samples readily available on the sales floor. Original Home Furniture also has an in-store digital&nbsp;program provided by suppliers that enable the staff to create a customized visual presentation&nbsp;for prospective buyers.
&ldquo;It allows you to go in and create a visual rendering of what the customer is looking for.&nbsp;Imagine seeing the fabric, leather, or wood on your custom piece and all the accents&nbsp;before you order it on a huge TV screen,&rdquo; says Macklin. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s about investing in our business&nbsp;to continue to give the customer the best experience.&rdquo;
The business has a tradition of being community-minded. And Macklin has expanded on that,&nbsp;as well. He has been a longtime Rotary Club member in both Brantford and Guelph, so he&nbsp;understands the importance of reaching out to help others.&nbsp;One example is Emily&rsquo;s work with Food4Kids. She is a driver for the organization, dropping off&nbsp;packages to schools. Original Home Furniture also actively raises funds for this important local&nbsp;charity. They do this through a program called Maureen&rsquo;s Marvelous Bags. Macklin&rsquo;s Rotary&nbsp;friend Maureen Smith and her sister made bags from the store&rsquo;s unused upholstery samples&nbsp;that were sold to raise money for Food4Kids.
In December, at the end of their bag sale, Jon and Emily helped raise $3,500 for&nbsp;Food4Kids by purchasing 70 of the bags that were left and donating them to Jon&rsquo;s Rotary&nbsp;Club. Who in turn filled them with goodies and delivered them to local seniors in need for&nbsp;Christmas. Maureen sadly passed away in January after a battle with cancer.
Despite the pain of her loss, Jon, Emily, and Food4Kids are determined to keep the legacy&nbsp;going. &ldquo;A little birdie tells me Maureen's sister has 70 bags made,&rdquo; says Macklin. Plus, &ldquo;Maureen&rsquo;s best friend Sylvia was in recently, and it sounds like we have found someone&nbsp;local as well to keep making the bags." Stay Tuned!
&ldquo;We have this vehicle, this great furniture store, that has grown exponentially. It&rsquo;s the right thing&nbsp;to do.&rdquo;
<img alt="Team members smile at the camera in a showroom" src="https://d6y5eqdcxq8w3.cloudfront.net/assets/blog/blog_canada/CN0117/CN0117_75thanniversary_1.jpg" />
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Original Home Furniture 75th Anniversary

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Inside the High Point Furniture Show: A Retailer's Journey

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Original Home Furniture 75th Anniversary

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