For your humble consideration, your humble bedding writer offers this helpful Top 10 list. We will call it: 10 Must-See Bedding Lines and Showrooms in Las Vegas.

1. Sealy’s new promotional brand, shown in the producer’s new World Market Center B-800 showroom. The line has a three-year warranty. Hey, I like that. I hope it sparks similar moves by other bedding producers. Retailers: Tell your bedding vendors you’d like to see shorter warranties.

2. The Beautyrest line Simmons is unveiling. The company is expanding its commitment to Vegas with a second WMC showroom, A-946. (The original showroom is A-525.) That will make for a "huge display...Read More

The problem: We’re selling bedding for thousands of dollars, but we don’t want to scare consumers off by touting four-figure prices in newspaper ads.

The solution: Find creative ways to break down those prices to more manageable levels.

Houston-based sleep shop Mattress Firm did just that in a recent finance-offer promotion with zero interest for up to three years, taking some high-end bedding prices and turning them into much more attractive prices.

How about $67 for a Simmons Beautyrest Allercare bed? Or $63 for a silk- and wool-cushioned Stearns & Foster model? Or $67 for a ...Read More

Some of my friends in the industry have asked me in recent weeks: What do you think of Sealy’s move to shorten warranties on its new promotional Sealy brand line?

I think it’s a most welcome move by the industry’s sales leader. It’s a step in the right direction, a logical and important step. Sealy hails it as "an industry-leading move." I agree.

But having said that, I must emphasize that there is much more work to be done. I would love to see three-year warranties on all the flagship bedding lines — Sealy’s Posturepedic, Simmons’ Beautyrest, Serta’s Perfect Sleeper and ...Read More

The presidents of two Top 15 bedding producers were talking the other day, wondering which one of them might be getting the ax. Someone had to go. Who would it be? Well, it turned out to be someone else. Those two presidents are still in their current jobs. They can breathe a sigh of relief.

The Rule of Threes, as we will call it, spared them. The third president of a Top 15 bedding producer to exit was Chris Henning, who left Tempur-Pedic at the end of 2006 to spend more time with his family. Henning, whom I've known and liked for years, was president of Tempur-Pedic's retail unit.

His departure capped a tumultuous year for bedding presidents. In October, we learned that Larry McKay, president of ...Read More