I was just your everyday furniture buyer.

He was the host last week of a support group for out-of-work designers and furniture buyers in his company's Manhattan showroom.

Asking information technology buyers to make joint decisions with furniture buyers could similarly strain corporate cultures and pecking orders.

Designers, manufacturers and retailers agree that the audience is growing, with a new generation of furniture buyers.

Don Massey, furniture buyer at the Stanway store, said the company was 'not unhappy' about stocking mahogany goods.

But the company quickly learned that "furniture buyers don't shop for brand," but for style, Mr. Brooks said.

The skin-deep appeal of a recognizable name does not address the deeper desires of furniture buyers conditioned to nearly instant gratification.

Consumers age 35-44 make up the largest segment of American furniture buyers, according to Wheat, First Securities, a Richmond-based investment banking and brokerage firm.

On Saturday, the environmental campaigners will be taking to the streets of Colchester to urge furniture buyers to boycott stores which stock products made of mahogany.

But for now, furniture buyers and sellers had reason to feel on top of the world.