HIGH POINT — Buyers and sellers are arriving at a North Carolina furniture trade show like they have for more than a century.

Around 75,000 people are expected to crowd into High Point for the twice-a-year furniture market that starts Saturday and finishes Thursday. That's twice as many people in the city of 100,000 residents as the politicians, delegates and journalists who took over Charlotte in September for the Democratic Party's national convention.

There's restrained optimism in the air as industry leaders in High Point hope a slowly improving economy spurs consumers to buy a big-ticket item they've had to postpone since the recession.

The market's Made in America Pavilion is expanding to include more than 40 exhibitors.