(MONEY Magazine) – Last year, most of the $42.5 billion spent on furniture and bedding went to full-price retailers, such as Macy's, Ethan Allen and Levitz. Yet when you're in the market for big-ticket items, such as a dining table and chairs or living room seating, you can easily shave 30% to 80% off manufacturers' suggested list prices. How? By joining the 300,000 consumers each year who shop the hundreds of showrooms, outlets, malls and megastores clustered around High Point, Hickory and half a dozen smaller towns in central North Carolina.

"The markup at a local furniture store can be 200% to 300%," observes Kate Gladchun, publisher of The Fine Furniture and Furnishings Discount Shopping Guide ($14.95; Resources Inc., P.O. Box 973, Bloomfield Hills, Mich. 48303-0973; 800-644-3440). "But in North Carolina," she says, where 600 factories produce nearly two-thirds of America's furniture, "you're going to get the best possible deal." And ponder this: Those discounts include the cost of travel and having your purchases shipped home at average costs of 6% to 20% of your purchase price (for details, see Getting There on page 186).

You needn't be an interior designer or even know one to find startling savings-usually 30% to 50%-on new furnishings in virtually every style from Henredon, Drexel Heritage, Thomasville and hundreds of other makers. For example: A Charles X reproduction sleigh bed by Henredon sells for only $2,578 at Boyles in High Point. Full retail: $5,155. Discounts will be deeper-up to 70% or more-on discontinued and overstocked furnishings or on floor samples. Fancy that cabbage-rose chintz love seat made by Lexington at the Rose Clearance Center? Take it away for $294, nearly 80% off the manufacturer's $900 ticket price.

High Point has no fewer than 60 discounters open to the public as well as a 34-gallery mall called The Atrium. Drive 85 miles west along Interstate 40 and you'll find the Hickory Furniture Mart, a mammoth, 12-acre complex offering 500 furniture lines under one roof. (Maps and brochures are available from the High Point Convention and Visitors Bureau, 300 Main St., P.O. Box 2273, High Point, N.C. 27261, 910-884-5255; and from the Greater Hickory Convention and Visitors Bureau, 470 Hwy. 70 S.W., P.O. Box 1828, Hickory, N.C. 28603, 800-849-5093 or 704-322-1335.)

Perhaps surprisingly, it's not only bargains that draw shoppers to North Carolina. Stylish room displays make wandering the showrooms like a visit to a home decorating theme park. "People hear discount and assume we're dirty-window shops with bad lighting and no sales help," says one High Point salesman. Far from it. At the 332,000-square-foot Furnitureland South, which sells more than 400 furniture lines at discount, maps guide you through English baronial dining rooms, cozy country porches and contemporary living rooms decked out with pastel-colored leather sofas.

Surprisingly too, you'll find that service is comparable to big-city retailers'. Many North Carolina discounters throw in professional design assistance that would cost you $150 an hour elsewhere. Sales and design staff will cheerfully look at floor plans you provide and help you winnow the thousands of upholstery fabric choices-also discounted 30% to 50%. "Frankly, there's not much difference in service anymore between discounters and department stores," says Carl Levine, a New York City industry consultant who headed Bloomingdale's home furnishings department from 1957 to 1992. "Discounters have very good salespeople, and even department stores charge $20 to $50 for delivery now."

Despite the benefits, North Carolina's furniture corridor is hardly overpublicized. That's because full-price retailers across the country have put pressure on manufacturers, who in turn have made discounters keep low profiles and curtail their national advertising-easily enforced by the threat to withhold product. "We're not allowed to actively solicit business outside North Carolina," says A. Darrell Harris, owner of Furnitureland South. "We don't want to get into conflict with our suppliers."

Manufacturers have also squeezed Carolina discounters who were peddling brand-name items via toll-free telephone numbers. Some sellers, again under threat of seeing their supplies cut off, have been ordered by such high-end makers as Thomasville, Bernhardt, Leathercraft and Pennsylvania House to eliminate phone orders entirely. Others require that the buyer visit the store within 60 days prior to placing the order. Stores maintain a logbook for this purpose, and it's to your advantage to sign it in case you decide to make a purchase by phone after returning home.

Still, roughly 80% to 90% of the discounters quietly accept phone orders on some or all of their merchandise. Of course, you've got to know the exact model number of the item and any fabric that goes with it. And although you can sometimes pick up those details at local retailers, more and more full-price stores have become hip to the tactic and snipped tags. One major retailer who specializes in phone orders is Edgar B (P.O. Box 849, Clemmons, N.C. 27012; 800-255-6589), whose $25 catalogue features more than 200 top manufacturers.

On balance, if you're considering furnishing an entire room or even looking for one impressive storage unit, it's wise to shop in person, where you can see and touch, measure and sit down. Here's how to get the best deals:

- Homework. Familiarize yourself with prices and styles by comparison shopping before you leave home. It's easy to become overwhelmed with choices once you're there.

-Timing. Avoid the markets during mid-April and mid-October, when motel prices double and the region is host to 69,000 design pros at the industry's huge International Home Furnishings Market. March and September, just before and after the fair, are good times to catch new products and pick up last season's bargains, reduced even further.

- Shipping. Fees vary. Some stores calculate a percentage of the bill, depending on distance, such as 6% to Washington, D.C. or 9% to New York City and up to 20% to California. Some charge by weight: $52 per hundred pounds was quoted by several retailers as the price to New York City, $58 to Chicago, $75 to Texas or $78 to Arizona. Compare and negotiate. Make sure setup and assembly are included.

- Payment. In High Point, be prepared to make deposits of 25% to 50% by money order or personal check. The balance is generally due upon delivery. Credit cards are not widely accepted in High Point, but they are in Hickory.

- Delivery. Allow 10 to 12 weeks for pieces with custom upholstery or finish. But 20 weeks is not uncommon.

- Returns. Most stores will accept returns only if merchandise is damaged, defective or contrary to your order-and then only for exchanges. What happens if the piece won't fit through your front door? "We own the merchandise," says Furnitureland South sales associate Mark Klein, "until it's set up in your house. The only thing we don't do is take away the cardboard box."

- Sales tax. North Carolina retailers do not collect sales tax on orders shipped out of state. Customers are responsible for reporting purchases to their state sales tax authorities.

- What to pack. Bring photographs of your home and detailed floor plans, if you can, as well as paint chips and fabric swatches from furniture you already own. A Polaroid camera, tape measure, notebook and pen are all useful.

GETTING THERE. American, USAir and Delta fly into Greensboro's Piedmont Triad International Airport, 15 miles from High Point, as well as Charlotte International Airport, 54 miles from Hickory; Continental flies only into Greensboro. All major car-rental firms are located at both airports. Sample round-trip fares to Greensboro: from Chicago, about $178; from San Francisco, about $338. The Hickory Furniture Mart (800-462-6278) can arrange motel rooms ($45 to $58 for a double, including Continental breakfast) at the Holiday Inn Express, Hampton Inn and Holiday Inn Piedmont Center, all within a mile of the Mart. High Point has several budget motels along Business I-85, one full-service hotel (Holiday Inn Market Square; $60 double; 910-886-7011) and a Premier Bed & Breakfast ($65 to $80 double; 910-889-8349). Piedmont Guides (910-282-8687) plans one-day furniture-shopping bus tours for groups of at least 35 for $16 a person. - Cara Greenberg

Photographs by Patrick Harbron

BOX Dial-a-vacation package 800 ACCESS

Looking for a winter getaway? Call Sportours' fax-back system (800-375-4329) to find out about more than 300 ski or scuba-diving resorts worldwide. You'll get a recorded menu or faxed-back listing of places and interests. At no charge, you can request up to four faxed pages about the resort areas you select, such as snow conditions, equipment rental tips and accommodations. Don't want to use the fax? Telephone 800-660-2754 (7 a.m. to 6 p.m. PT) to speak with an experienced diver or skier who has tried the destination you like and to request one of two Sportours' 32-page brochures-one for snow, the other for sun locations. If you're ready to take the plunge, you can make arrangements yourself or let Sportours reserve the package at about 10% to 40% off what it costs to book on your own.

- Judy Feldman

BOX Hot Stuff Masterful message machines with microchips

Answering machines are getting smarter. Though digital message systems offering upgraded features have been around for a while, Jon Hulak, an industry analyst at the Norwell, Mass. consulting firm BIS Strategic Decisions, says: "In the past year, the performance of digital machines has significantly increased while the prices have come down." In fact, they've dropped by about 20%. As a result, sales of these $80 to $450 machines have almost doubled since 1992, from 1.4 million to a projected 2.7 million in '94.

Digital machines record messages on microchip instead of old-fashioned, fragile audiotape. Therefore, you can zip through as many as 50 or so messages; a recorded voice can announce the date and time of messages; and high-end models can even sort messages into "mailboxes" for different recipients. Right now, 40% to 50% of all answering machines on the market are digital. Hulak expects that virtually all will be digital by 1999. Top of the line? Bogen Communication's just-released Cordless Friday (about $450 at discounters; see above), a pocket-size cordless telephone combined with a digital message system. Among the features: It routes calls to six mailboxes (callers hear a menu that requests them to press a number for the person they want); provides instant call forwarding to another number for each mailbox; and, assuming you own a pager, will page you for urgent messages. In addition, three announcement-only mailboxes can play recorded messages to callers. That means you can leave a private password-protected outbound message. Says Ron Goldberg at the Electronic Industries Association, who has used the earlier Friday model, minus the phone, for a year: "It's the most user-friendly consumer electronic device I've ever seen."

If you'd rather spend less-about $210-check out AT&T's less whizzy but reliable four-mailbox 1545.

-Elizabeth Fenner

CHART Can't buy me love for less than $57

To honor the season, we tallied the cold cash needed for hot nights for you and a significant other in six cities. Results: Deep in the heart of Texas is the least expensive place to party-$57-while the Big Apple takes the biggest bite at $200-plus. On average, coast to coast, a starry night runs about $104. Dinner tabs below include two mid-price entraes, two glasses of wine and a romantic dessert that two can share. The cost of cutting a rug or tapping your feet ranges from no cover charge at a Miami club to a whopping $130 when Tony Bennett plays New York.

-Susan Berger