Fresh look at ticking reveals a White World
David Perry, Executive editor -- Furniture Today, February 1, 2004
Everyone has a pet peeve or two. One of mine is the vast sea of white, offwhite, eggshell, ivory and ecru mattress ticking on retail sales floors.
I lamented this immense sea of sameness in a column last year, drawing a supportive comment here and there but sparking no groundswell for change. The parade of white marches on.
So this week I'm trying a different strategy. I hereby offer you some insightful comments from a former bedding insider who recently took a close look at some retail bedding floors on the West Coast.
Here was his report to me:
"I looked at bedding last night and noticed an overwhelming dominance of white or nearly white ticking. I would guess somewhere between 75%-90% of the mattresses fell into this category.
"There were two unfortunate results, in my mind. First was the utter lack of differentiation. It really was a sea of sameness. Second was that white soaks up dirt and grime like a sponge and displays both prominently.
"I'm sure these mattresses hadn't been sitting there long, but many if not most of them were beginning to look a bit grimy, and almost none of them were the pristine white that the vendors thought would be so appealing to consumers.
"These issues are probably only marginally apparent in stores with low to moderate traffic and only a couple of bedding lines. To see the full implications, go to a heavily trafficked store or department store that has most of the 'S' brands."
I think that former bedding guy is right on target. He's been away from the category for several years, so he brought "fresh eyes" to those retail bedding floors. He even used the same phrase — "a sea of sameness" — that I've heard used by bedding observers in recent years to describe the white phenomenon, and that I myself used at the beginning of this column.
So why, if we all know about this World of White, doesn't someone break with the pack?
I think it's kind of like the arms race: Producers have neutralized each other's White Weapons with their own White Weapons. To actually offer strikingly different ticking colors would be to risk doomsday, they believe.
To be fair, my producer friends do have a strong response when I whine about too much white. Hey, they say, consumers like it.
That's an excellent point. But can't we just stretch the color envelope a bit?
Maybe consumers would like some stronger colors too.
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