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Older couples outspend for bedding

Higher plan-to-spend medians, incomes make group attractive target

By Vicky Jarrett -- Furniture Today, September 23, 2001

They plan to buy at a rate lower than their percentage of the population. They usually have well-established homes and no children living at home to wear out the boxsprings.

So what makes working older couples and retired older couples worth noting as good prospects for purchasing mattresses and boxsprings?

Two things come to mind: First, these two demographic groups have the highest plan-to-spend median dollar amounts for mattresses of any surveyed in Furniture/Today's Consumer Buying Trends 2001 survey. Second, their incomes are generally higher — 61% of working older couples have annual household incomes of $50,000 or more, and 38% of retired older couples have incomes above $50,000.

It would be a mistake to suppose households in these two groups are only interested in bedding designed to relieve bad backs. Rather, older couples have a variety of bedding needs on their shopping lists — guest bedrooms for visiting family and friends, special bedding accommodations for grandchildren and more luxurious bedding for themselves — and the pocketbooks to buy them.

Working and retired older couples far outpace their younger counterparts in other areas besides incomes and age. More than 80% of these two groups are now married; more than 80% live in a house; and nearly 90% own or are buying their homes.

Still in the workforce

A majority of both men and women in the working older couple households (defined as over age 45 with no children at home) go to work and draw a paycheck: 67% of the women work full or part time, and 89% of the men are employed on either a full- or part-time basis.

About half of the women are either in managerial/professional occupations or in technical/sales/administrative jobs, while more than 56% of the men are in those occupations.

Incomes for this demographic group are fairly evenly distributed in the top three income brackets: 19% in the $50,000-$74,999 range, 21% in $75,000-$99,999, and 21% in the $100,000 or more bracket.

Retired and yet…

Retired older couples — defined as over age 45, no children at home and head of household not employed — actually draw some income other than pensions, IRAs and Social Security. Although 100% of the men in the retired older couples are, in fact, retired, not all the women are. Fifteen percent of the women in this group are still working full-time jobs, and 7% are in part-time jobs.

Incomes for this group reflect the mostly fixed income status: 20% are in the $50,000-$74,999 range, 7% in the $75,000-$99,999 category, and 11% at $100,000 or more.

SAYING 'I DO': A whopping 83% of working older couples and 87% of retired older couples that plan to buy bedding are now married.
BIG SPENDERS: Working and retired older couples top the list for median dollars spent ($600) and planned to spend ($500) on each bedding purchase.
MONEY TALKS: Although those working and retired older couples planning to buy bedding this year are less than 2 million households strong, they account for nearly $1 billion in planned bedding sales.

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