MAYOR OF MAIN STREET: Affable, well-informed Charles Simmons deserves the attention he receives, especially in evocative News & Record story

Most people outside the Piedmont, North Carolina, will not see the deserved and evocative profile of Mayor of Main Street Charles Simmons. Written by friend and former colleague Joe Carroll, publisher of Furniture|Today, the Simmons profile captures the cheerleading and joyful demeanor of a fine person.

Unfortunately, the profile is not online, so I have presented most of it below, without intending to violate the copyrights of the News & Record, which published the profile in the HomeLife Section D on February 25. That’s where Joe Carroll’s Furniture Marketplace column usually appears. 

More than most High Pointers, Charles Simmons is well-informed. He’s a voracious reader and, as Joe rightly declares, SeeMore is a self-appointed ambassador to his beloved High Point. He’s never met a stranger.   

Too many people might view SeeMore as just a gadfly. Don’t dismiss him. He is a storehouse of insight and knowledge that more people should adopt and honor. 

Call him, he’ll be glad to speak with you, 336-886-4602. 

Meanwhile, savor the excellent profile that Joe wrote: 

At home, in Vegas or overseas, he watches out for High Point

High Point has its own self-proclaimed fan and goodwill ambassador.

Charles Simmons celebrated his 76th birthday last month during the market inLas Vegas because, like Everest, "it was there."    

In truth, he went to Vegas because he wanted to see for him-self what competition his beloved High Point is going to face.   

I ran into him last week at String & Splinter, a private club inHigh ^point, so named because its original member-ship was largely made up of textile and furniture execu­tives. 

When not at the club, Simmons is often seen walking up and downMain Street inspect­ing some of the buildings he owns — that's why friends call him See-More — to market to tenants as permanent showrooms. 

Ever since he was "down-sized," as he calls it, from United Merchants 26 years ago, the former fabric sales-man has bought and rented property in downtown High Point, becoming a highly vis­ible and permanent fixture of the city.   

It had been 14 years since Simmons last visited Europe to attend the furniture and fabric shows in Cologne, Frankfurt and elsewhere.

A recent widower, he felt this was a good time to see how business overseas has changed and just how exhibi­tors at these shows felt about High Point.

First stop: Paris. Simmons saw very few American buy­ers and found the furniture too "continental" and "dressy."

He noticed exhibitors from countries he had never seen in High Point, such as Tuni­sia, and wondered if there was some way we could attract them.

At the textile show in Frank­furt, he was impressed by how U.S. and European fabric mills have been replaced with new players from India, Pakistan, and China. It occurred to him that High Point would be a less expen­sive venue for them to exhibit sheets and towels than New York.

Last stop: Cologne, Germany, where Simmons saw a lot of contemporary furniture.

The market hasn't changed that much in styles, but the buyer mix is different. Cologne used to be the world's largest furniture mar­ket before High Point captured that title in the '90s.

It attracted buyers from every major country, includ­ing the United States. The big spenders were the Saudis and the Japanese.

Now, those buyers prefer to shop at shows in Dubai and Shanghai.  

The exhibitors in Cologne now look to the Russians to ex­pand their distribution.

One exhibitor told me the Russian buyers come with "suitcases full of cash, looking for a deal," and will pay on the spot.

Simmons sees High Point's size as both a strength and weakness.

The downtown market area has 10 big buildings and 250 small ones — more than 11 million square feet. These showrooms are not bankable assets, however, particularly if the market were to move away. 

Our exhibitors need more traffic and access to capital. 

Simmons suggests we work to attract more manufacturers, both foreign and domestic, to build warehouses in the Triad. 

We are located in an ideal part of the country to serve the entire eastern United   States.   

One person in Cologne told Simmons that if the best of the 5,000 furniture reps who come to High Point would bring just one buyer to market, we would have a quantum leap in attendance.  

I told Simmons that when I came to High Point almost 30 years ago, I never dreamed it would surpass Cologne and Milan to become the largest furniture market in the world.     

He thought for a moment and said, "You never know when Mickey Mouse is going to become Disneyworld."