PRODUCTION: Wanted: Furniture

Into Chicago last week trooped a record number of furniture buyers. Some 30,000 so crowded the city's hotels that 200 buyers had to sleep on a steamer in the harbor. Nevertheless, they were up bright & early to look over new lines at the summer show of the International Home Furnishings Market, place an estimated $500,000,000 of orders for American householders.

There was a good chance that they would get reasonably quick delivery on their orders. Despite shortages of lumber, spring wire, skilled labor, glue and leather, furniture production was up slightly over 1941. Although manufacturers still had their customers on quotas, allotments have been upped. Prices were still steady. Many of the orders placed last week were at OPA ceilings. But many a buyer predicted a wholesale price boost of 15 to 20% within 60 to 90 days. If retailers expected to absorb this expected boost, they were saying nothing about it.

Much of the furniture at the Chicago show was transition stuff: solid but not stylish. Production of bedroom suites, the item in greatest demand, is lagging 50% behind orders. But there were plenty of lamps, end tables, and low-priced occasional pieces.

And there were also some eye-opening high-priced items. One manufacturer offered an upholstered two-piece suite at $1,000, a suite he had stopped making at the start of the depression. He sold 1,010 suites the first day. But buyers did not think the seller's market in furniture would last much beyond the year's end. Already there were signs of change. Said Wallace 0. Oilman, general manager of the Merchandise Mart: "There is no longer the hurried mad rush for 'anything at all'."