The news is not good but, to cite that oft-heard saying, "It is what it is." And what it is is a forecast for a year of shrinking unit volume and only modest gains in the dollar volume of bedding shipments.

That's a summary of Furniture|Today's 2007 Bedding Consensus Forecast, which is hot off the press. You'll find the details of our forecast in the Dec. 18 print issue. An electronic copy can be purchased by clicking here.

In this space, where I can add my o...Read More

Seena Magowitz believed that one person could make a difference in the fight against cancer. She raised money to fight the disease, something her son, Roger, witnessed at an early age.

Her presence loomed large at the latest pancreatic cancer fundraiser hosted in Phoenix by Roger Magowitz. The event is named after her — the Seena Magowitz Golf Classic. And the foundation that bears her name sponsored a symposium that kicked off the two-day event.

The boy who watched his mother fight cancer is now the man who fights cancer to honor his mother, who succumbed to pancreatic cancer five years ago.

"There is something special about a mother and her son," Magowitz told me as the sun rose over the mountains that ring Phoenix and the golf tournament got under way. "You never forget your mother. I believe everything happens for a reason. W...Read More

It was a landmark day for Spears Mattress, a day made possible by 13 years of hard work, and a day when the future looked as bright as the past.

On that day, brothers Terry and Ed Spears hosted delegations of local and state officials who had come to Rome, Ga., to help celebrate the opening of the company's massive new bedding factory. Much of the 350,000-square-foot plant's space was reserved for future growth.

Among the guests that fine November day 20 years ago was an up-and-coming reporter from Furniture|Today.

Yes, your faithful bedding editor was in Rome to cover the festivities. And that very same editor returned to Spears Mattress almost exactly 20 years later to see what had changed with the regional bedding producer.

I wish I could tell you that I recall ...Read More