Mochmcry, tool», toy*, textiles — oil the products of the two Carolines ore deployed ond olfered for
sole ot morkets held the ycor around in Charlotte's huge Merchandise Mort. Two such displays ore
shown in these pictures.
Rial!
«»/
HEWITT
С АННОМ
Motorists on Charlotte's East Inde¬
pendence Boulevard pass a building
unique in the Southeast, an increas¬
ingly powerful economic force in North
Carolina and the entire region.
The Charlotte Merchandise Mart
opened less than two years ago, but it
has already become the nation’s
fourth largest apparel mart. It is now-
right behind San Francisco, Chicago
and Dallas, with 90,000 buyers and
store owners registering for apparel
shows annually. Since one registrant
may attend as many as nine shows a
year, this figure is but a fraction of the
real total.
Registrants for other shows total 83,-
000, and these may attend from one
to three trade shows a year. The com¬
bined 173,000 registrants do not in¬
clude the thousands who attend the
N. C. International Trade Fair.
Dwight Phillips, owner and builder
of the Mart, foresaw a need for the
structure in the late 1950’s, opened it
1 1 years later. The $4,500,000 struc¬
ture has 240,000 square feet of space.
The first floor is the versatile third
of the Mart. The Trade Fair occupied
this floor (as well as the nearby Coli¬
seum and Auditorium) last spring. Dis¬
plays on this floor range from fragile
orchids to heavy machinery. The 30
shows booked for 1963 include such a
variety as apparel, shoes, jewelry, flow¬
ers and gardens, gifts, toys and hobbies,
graphic arts, textiles, packaging, hard¬
ware, business machines and automo¬
tive supplies.
Second and third floors of the Mart
are devoted to permanent showrooms,
primarily for apparel, with 196 show¬
rooms on each of these floors. Here
manufacturers’ representatives show
the nation’s top lines of clothing and
accessories. All of them are open for
apparel shows. 50 per cent of them
are open for Wednesday market days,
and many are manned all the time.
At present, over 375 salesmen rep¬
resent more than 425 lines in perma¬
nent showrooms, and when a show is
20
THE state. December 7. 1963
