How North Carolina's Furniture Industry Is Still Changing

WUNC | By Will Michaels,

Published August 13, 2014 at 11:14 AM EDT

Stanley Furniture manufactured its Young America line at the Robbinsville, NC plant, which shut down this summer.

An expert panel talks about the state of North Carolina's Furniture manufacturing

North Carolina has a rich history of producing furniture. High Point has been at the center of the market for more than a century.

But the industry looks much different than it did just a few decades ago. Globalization caused many companies to send manufacturing overseas. Most recently, Stanley Furniture Company closed its plant in Robbinsville.

Some large companies are trying to reverse that trend, while small custom furniture shops pop up across the state.

Host Frank Stasio talks with Asheville Citizen-Times reporter Dale Neal about the latest in the furniture industry. He also talks with Giulio Buciuni, visiting scholar at Duke University's Center on Globalization, Governance, and Competitiveness; Beth Macy, author of Factory Man (Little, Brown and Company/2014) which traces the history of the Bassett Furniture Company; and Scott Meguid, owner of Bull City Designs.

The North Carolina Rural Center featured the Robbinsville Stanley Furniture plant in a 2013 video about bringing manufacturing back to the U.S.