home remodeling expo

Feature Story

Ordinarily, TEMA Contemporary Furniture is not able to participate in the various home shows that sprout up around the Albuquerque metro area during the springtime.

But this year, the stars aligned just right to allow the Albuquerquebased company to have a slot in this weekend’s Albuquerque Home Remodeling & Lifestyle Show at EXPO New Mexico on the New Mexico State Fairgrounds.

“We pack a lot into 13 hours,” said ABQ Home Shows owner Bill Lescure.

TEMA owners Soren and Barbara Thomsen visited the show last year, Barbara Thomsen said, and were impressed.

“It takes a lot of work and the timing has to be right for us,” she said. “A lot of times, our markets are happening or are real close so it makes it really rough on the help. But this year we’ve got the help, it’s the right time and it seemed like it went really well last year.”

Lescure was quite pleased with the way the spring show turned out and hopes to build on that success this year.

“One of the things we’re excited about, coming off spring 2017 that was an enormous success is that many people came up to me and said there’s a new enthusiasm for home remodeling because the economy is improving,” he said. “I heard that from the vendors and the people who were attending. We had a very exciting show last February and we hope that the momentum will continue in the upcoming shows.”

Last year’s show drew about 7,000 attendees, Lescure said, who visited some 200 different exhibitors.

“We’re looking forward to a similar audience this year,” he said. “With all the enthusiasm out there in the market, more and more businesses are taking the opportunity to exhibit and show their wares.”

Exhibitors this year range from ABC Seamless to Xfinity and beyond.

“We have over 200 booths, mostly local,” Lescure said. “You

basically name the category of home improvement and we have somebody there for it.”

As a matter of fact, exhibitors even include some peripheral services.

“We have insurance and financial services, even some lifestyle things like how to live a healthier life,” he said. “We have a few purveyors of local foods, jewelry and local arts and crafts.”

The resurgent economy and consumer confidence is leading more businesses to seek out the show, Lescure said, and TEMA is just one of this year’s newcomers.

Big box retailer Lowe’s home improvement store is also one of the participants, he said.

“Lowes is in in a big way with all of its local stores,” Lescure said. “They’ll be talking about their service divisions. They hire contractors to go out and do home remodeling. And a lot of people aren’t aware of that.”

In its 25th year, the idea behind the show is to give consumers the chance to get face to face with businesses that can provide the specific service the consumer needs, he said.

“It’s a great venue to meet the people who actually do the work on your house,” Lescure said. “These days, you can go to a lot of websites and they give you referrals about people who do home remodeling work, but you don’t really know them until you meet them.”

At the show, however, consumers can get a good feel for the businesses by meeting with the owners or employees on the spot.

“Here is a great opportunity to, say you’re doing a kitchen remodel, and meet three-four-five kitchen remodelers and do it one place,” Lescure said. “That’s the big advantage of face-to-face marketing as opposed to responding to an ad or finding somebody on the web. There’s nothing that really takes the place of meeting and talking and asking questions in a nonthreatening environment with a company that can do work for you at your house.”

Thomsen said that was one of the things that encouraged TEMA about being a part of the show.

“I think we can reach an audience that we wouldn’t normally,” she said. “We’re a destination store in that we’re not in a mall. You don’t happen on us. This will get us in front of people that might not necessarily go see a store like this. It gives us an opportunity to get in front of people that normally wouldn’t get to see us.”

With a variety of means of reaching out to people, this is another way to have a presence, Thomsen said.

“It’s really hard to know where our sales come from,” she said. “We send out mailers, do TV, Facebook, digital advertising so it’s hard to know where people find us. I think we try to stay out there enough so that when people are looking for furniture, hopefully TEMA is going to be one of those stops.

But shopping has changed in the internet era, Thomsen said.

“People used to go to four or five stores before making a decision,” she said. “Now they’re actually seeing 1.6 stores that they’re visiting. People are doing much more of their research on line, but furniture is still one of those things people want to see and feel.”

With the approach of spring, TEMA plans to highlight its outdoor line, Thomsen said.

“We’re bringing outdoor furniture, an umbrella, sofa, chair, a lounge, a big tent that’s not really a tent but is a cool piece that’s something different to look at,” she said. “We’re showing different types of things. When we look at outdoor furniture, we try not to carry the same stuff that everybody else has.”

The show will even include some demonstrations, Lescure said.

“Sit Means Sit, which is a dog training business, will give a demonstration,” he said. “That’s always a very popular demonstration.”