High Point Market returns to April and October dates

This year’s fall market will keep its previously announced dates of Oct. 1-7

-- Casual Living, 5/21/2007 6:41:00 AM

The High Point Market Authority’s board of directors will return to its former April and October schedule next year, reversing a controversial decision reached nearly two years ago. But the event will keep the new Monday-through-Sunday format, rather than revert to its old Thursday official opening, the board said.

Board members said they based the decision on results of a new survey conducted by research firm Exhibit Surveys Inc. The company questioned 2,068 marketgoers — 1,652 buyers, 202 exhibitors and 214 sales representatives — and found a majority favored the April and October dates, Market Authority President Brian Casey said. No survey results were reported on the Monday-through-Sunday schedule, although Casey said he believed all but a “vocal minority” of marketgoers preferred the Monday start. Results of the new survey are different from one the Market Authority conducted two years ago, which the board at that time used as a basis for changing the dates to March and September in most years. Casey said he did not know how that survey was conducted, since it took place before he arrived on the job, but that the preference in the new survey was clear. This year’s fall market will keep its previously announced dates of Oct. 1-7.