We just moved to a small town where there are no high end furniture stores. The closest quasi decent furniture store is maybe an hour away. I am debating between going to Hickory (at least to look to see a variety of items) versus going to the Mechandise Mart in Chicago. Either way I would have to go overnight but Chicago is 2-3 hrs drive so I wouldn't have the airfare. With the mart, apparently you have to have a designer to go through. Supposedly they are 100-200/hr, from what I hear. With Hickory, there are many manufacturers but I really want quality and high design and don't want to be going through a sea of furniture that is just average design etc. I guess my goal really is to see a variety of products and hopefully I'll see things that catch my eye and then I can decide what I want to buy. I just don't want to waste my time or the time of the sales people. I really want to do my own looking. I usually know what I like when I see it. It's just I have trouble finding it.

Any thoughts?