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Retail Bedding Playbook - Massachussets retailer rebounds

Mattress sales strong at Paul Rich & Sons

David Perry -- Furniture Today, January 3, 2011

Retail Bedding Playbook PITTSFIELD, Mass. - There's a bedding rebound under way at Paul Rich & Sons, a full-service home furnishings and design store nestled in the heart of this historic New England town.
In this picturesque setting, where Herman Melville wrote "Moby-Dick" and other works, Paul Rich & Sons is writing its own story, a story of bedding success.
"Our business has been stronger in volume than it has in years, especially our bedding segment," said Tom Rich, one of the founders of Paul Rich & Sons. "Our mattress business is currently doing better than most of the other product segments at Paul Rich & Sons.
"During the past couple of years, consumers have really held back from purchasing mattresses. However, consumers are now ready to purchase and we find that they are looking for quality, high-end products," he said.
That return of bedding consumers to the market has been good news for Paul Rich - and for other bedding retailers around the country - as the industry is rebounding from years of declines.
High-end bedding is leading the sales renaissance at Paul Rich, and two-sided beds from Shifman Mattresses are key performers. The retailer also carries bedding by Tempur-Pedic and Englander.
"Shifman offers high quality, hand-crafted mattresses and is one of the only manufacturers out there who still makes two-sided mattresses," Rich said. "One-sided mattresses have become a phenomenon, and everyone has hopped on the bandwagon. And we sell some one-sided mattresses ourselves."
But, Rich contends, two sides are often better than one.
"Consumers aren't usually aware of the benefits of two-sided mattresses, or that they exist in the marketplace until they go out to purchase one," he said. "I think the two-sided mattress story is even more important now because of the value it offers. People expect quality and longevity, and the benefits of being able to flip a mattress are endless. It is similar to flipping couch cushions. After you flip them, it's almost like you have a brand new couch."
A Shifman gallery uses special lighting and point-of-purchase materials to highlight the beds. Special signage helps tell the Shifman story, as does a video of the factory floor at Shifman. "People think it is pretty cool to see how their mattress is being made," Rich said.
The Shifman line is doing particularly well, accounting for more than two-thirds of all bedding sales at the store, he said.
Paul Rich also carries beds by Tempur-Pedic, a producer that "does a great job advertising their own products, and therefore we don't need to advertise them much, but we do sell a lot of them," Tom Rich said.
He said that the Englander beds "come at a great price." The Englander models supplement the high-end Shifman line, he said, "with a great price range of $599 to $999 for queen-size innerspring beds. Additionally, the Englander line provides a good choice of comfort levels."
Meet consumers' varying needs when it comes to sleep sets is a key to success at Paul Rich & Sons.

Next week: How Paul Rich & Sons advertises and displays its mattresses.

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Mass. retailer rebounds

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