Readers share thoughts on some recent columns
David Perry, Executive editor -- Furniture Today, August 4, 2003
One of the great things about my job is the ongoing dialogue I enjoy with bedding producers, retailers and suppliers. This week I'm going to let you in on some of the things I've been hearing.
My July 21 column on the growing success of Select Comfort and Tempur-Pedic, two bright stars of specialty sleep, brought forth several interesting comments. The most curious came from a major bedding retailer who said, "We do not consider Select Comfort to be a mattress retailer, but Furniture/Today apparently does."
Hmm. While it's true that Select Comfort, unlike many retailers, makes its own bedding, there's no doubt it's also a retailer. I've been in Select Comfort stores. I've seen the product marketed on television. Trust me on this: Select Comfort is a mattress retailer.
Another reader said I missed a key to the success of Tempur-Pedic and Select Comfort: direct sales to consumers. Perhaps the reader missed this sentence: "Their marketing, which includes strong direct-sales programs, has been superb." But it's true I didn't talk much about the direct sales.
And that same reader said I should ask the question, "Should bedding companies start selling direct?" He added: "Watch the dirt fly."
I also heard from a bedding merchandiser at a major furniture retailer, who said specialty sleep's share would grow if more retailers embraced the category. "I think a lot of retailers are afraid to put a real presentation of specialty sleep on the floor," said this retailer, who isn't afraid to do so and does well with specialty sleep. "There is substantial additional training, and salesperson buy-in can be a problem. Conventional bedding retailers also will get a lot of heat from their conventional suppliers."
Sounds like some conventional suppliers are running scared if they are hassling retailers about flooring specialty sleep models.
Moving on, I got several comments on my July 7 column addressing questions from our bedding market share report. One point I tackled in that column was companies that don't provide me with the audited figures I request, but tell me my estimates are poor. That brought this comment from a producer: "Don't you love it when companies that do not give you sales figures argue about the sales figures they refuse to give you?"
Actually, I don't love it. I ended that column with a slightly tongue-in-cheek question from my critics: How do you want to die?
One reader said that shows "these mattress types need to get a life outside the mattress business." Another gave me what he called "the traditional answer" to my question: "I wish to live to be 100 and die by gunshot, killed by a jealous husband."
