Sep 9, 2014

AmericasMart Atlanta September Markets Encourage Fourth Quarter Success

Retailers and designers preparing to optimize fourth-quarter business prospects will tap the power of AmericasMart’s® comprehensive world of home, gift and rug product at the Atlanta Fall Gift & Home Furnishings Market® and The Atlanta Gourmet Market®, Tuesday September 16 – Thursday, September 18, 2014.

All of AmericasMart’s trend-making permanent collections will be open for the Atlanta Fall Gift & Home Furnishings Market®, the last major buying opportunity of 2014. Building 1 showcases design-driven furniture, home decor, lighting, linens and area rugs, as well as industry-leading holiday and floral collections. Must-have gift products, home accents, table top, gourmet food and products, outdoor living and casual furniture are featured in Building 2.

Joining the 1,400 permanent showrooms is a carefully curated temporary collection featuring buyers’ favorite home and gift exhibitors alongside up-and-coming and artisan lines.

“Our buyers love the September Market because it allows them to see their trusted vendors again before the holiday season as well as discover new lines they might not have seen at the July Market,” says Jo Ann Miller Marshall, executive vice president of Tradeshows for AmericasMart.

The Atlanta Gourmet Market showcases top gourmet producers from across the United States offering a variety of food products ranging from jams and preserves to candy, drinks, dips and soups in both permanent showrooms and temporaries.

The gourmet food purveyors compete in the beloved Best of Atlanta competition held during the Market. Judged by a panel of food and lifestyle experts, the Best of Atlanta awards are given for Best Chocolate, Best Jam/Preserves, Best Candy, Best Snack, Best Condiment, Best Beverage, Best Dessert and Best Soup. The new Wild Card category celebrates culinary ingenuity and recognizes products that do not fit into traditional categories while the new Best Lifestyle/Natural/Gluten-Free category features health-conscious goods. Best of Atlanta entry forms will be accepted until 5 p.m. on September 12, 2014. Online entry forms can be completed at http://go.americasmart.com/bestofatlanta.

“The Atlanta Gourmet Market is a great opportunity for gift and home décor buyers to expand their merchandise offerings and learn more about gourmet products,” says Marshall. “The intimate nature of the Market allows them to really get to know the passionate artisans who create these celebrated epicurean delights.”

AmericasMart partners with Atlanta’s sustainable living community, Serenbe for an exclusive seminar series focusing on eco-friendly living and entertaining. “From Farm to Table with Serenbe” showcases tasty dishes featuring locally grown, sustainable meats and produce on Tuesday, September 16 at Noon. Incorporating sustainable products to reach a larger audience is discussed in “Selling Sustainables” on Wednesday, September 17 at 2 p.m. The convergence of design and eco-friendliness is the topic for “Designing for Your Sustainable Client” on Thursday, September 18 at 11 a.m.

Retail expert and owner of Burlap Horse Melissa Haberstroh teaches how to build retail-tainment into stores’ offerings by designing in-store events for the holiday season in her seminar “Retail by Design: A Blueprint to Store Event Success.” Attendees will learn how to create an event calendar, plan and execute an event, adapt inspiration for events to a store’s style and customer base, as well as secrets of promotion at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, September 17.

For more information and a full list of Market events, please visit www.AmericasaMart.com/September.

ABOUT AMERICASMART

AmericasMart Atlanta is the nation’s only global wholesale marketplace housing the world’s single-largest collection of home, gift, area rug and apparel merchandise. The largest of AmericasMart’s 14 annual Markets and shows, The Atlanta International Gift & Home Furnishings Market and The Atlanta International Area Rug Market in January and July are the ignition switch for global retailing with buyers from every U.S. state and more than 90 countries discovering product in more than 1,400 showrooms and more than 2,500 temporary exhibiting companies. ICON HONORS, the home and gift industry’s most celebrated recognition program, is produced and staged annually by AmericasMart.

Located in downtown Atlanta, the AmericasMart complex contains more than seven million square feet of space. It’s a huge global stage on which manufacturers, designers and sales representatives unveil new lines, launch new designs and introduce new categories – all for the benefit of buyers seeking all that is fresh and first in the home, rug, gift and apparel arenas. For more information, please visitwww.AmericasMart.com. Follow us @AmericasMartATL or @AtlantaApparel.