Furniture Shopping

Hickory Furniture Mart

Furniture by the acres lures thousands of shoppers to Hickory.

When people think of Hickory, North Carolina, they usually think furniture. More than half of this country’s tables, chairs and beds once were made within a 250-mile radius of Hickory, and many in the community were born and raised in the furniture industry.

Today, the city boasts more than 2 million square feet of retail space devoted exclusively to furniture and home accessories. Hundreds of thousands of shoppers from across the country and the world come to Hickory each year to outfit their homes with the finest in quality, luxury, style and comfort.

The Hickory Furniture Mart is a one-stop retail destination with more than 100 factory outlets, stores and galleries representing 1,000 premier manufacturers. In addition to a gourmet café, there’s a coffee bar with Internet access and a hotel.

The mart alone welcomes some 500,000 shoppers annually, who typically spend two to four days visiting showrooms and refining their selections. Visitors can custom order their furniture or purchase items right off many showroom floors. However you choose to go about it, the experts at the Hickory Furniture Mart help make your furniture-buying experience fun and easy.

If you’re looking to furnish more than one room, the mart will provide a complimentary personal shopper to guide you through the four-level complex and help you find what you’re looking for. Some showrooms provide complimentary assistance from professional decorators and designers. The marketing department recommends making appointments for these services in advance of your visit.

The pros at Hickory Furniture Mart also know how overwhelming their 1 million square feet of furniture can be. When you’ve shopped until you’re ready to drop, refresh yourself with a drink at the on-site lounge, sit down and get new ideas from the decorating books and magazines in the reading room or meander through the furniture museum and check out the historic pieces on display. The visitor center is full of helpful information about all of the Hickory-area attractions.

In fact, the Hickory Furniture Mart works with a number of area hotels to offer “Shop and Stay” packages that include discounted room rates, breakfast, shuttle service to and from the mart and a goodie bag. The on-site Girls’ Getaway package, for groups of five or more, includes two nights’ hotel accommodations, breakfast, lunch, YMCA access, a spa treatment, a tour of the mart and a personal shopper for the group – all for only $125 per person.

The mart is open Monday through Saturday from 9 am to 6 pm. For more information or to reserve services, visit their website. 

By Carol Cowan, courtesy of Journal Communications

added: December 15, 2008

updated: February 1, 2010