BUYERS COMING TO MARKET READY TO RIDE WAVE OF BETTER BUSINESS.

HFN: The Weekly Newspaper for the Home Furnishing Network, April, 2004 by Report, HFN Staff

HIGH POINT, N.C.-Vendors may be wringing their hands over reports of a hot-and-cold retail climate, but many buyers coming to market this week say that positive sales trends so far this year make 2003 seem like a bad memory.

Even economic trouble spots have seen an uptick this year. "We're in the Silicon Valley, and we have been decimated in the last three-and-a-half years," said Mark Lasecke, president of Eastern-The Furniture Company in Santa Clara, Calif.

"But we've finally seen a trend in the last five months. Every month we've had double-digit increases, ...