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As the mattress industry lurches through unusually trying times, we’ve got a formula for retail success: 

* Learn from bedding retailers with a proven track record of growth. 

* Add more high-end beds to your floor to boost your average unit selling price and generate a buzz with consumers. 

* Make sleep accessories a more important part of your product mix. The most successful bedding retailers are already doing a nice job with accessories. It’s high time other bedding retailers got on the accessories bandwagon. 

* Refine your advertising strategies. This is a good time to make some adjustments, but you’ve got to keep promoting. 

* Surround yourself with people dedicated to your success. 

That’s the winning formula that we will be featuring at o...Read More

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Well, spring has sprung and here we are at another April market. Our topic this week is the mattresses on display at the High Point Market, with some thoughts on how to approach this market. 

We all know that business is challenging these days. Alas, that is a fact that we cannot escape or deny. But we do have the power to make plans for growth. 

And that’s one of the reasons why it is so important for us to come to markets and to meetings like the upcoming Bedding Conference. (Quick promo: Our third annual Bedding Conference will be held May 14-16 at the Ritz-Carlton golf resort in Naples, Fla. We’ve got a great retail-oriented program planned. Go to http://www.furnituretoday.com/info/CA...Read More

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Before the month gets away from us, it’s time to share some thoughts on what we saw (and heard) at the big International Sleep Products Assn. Expo in Baltimore a few weeks ago: 

Springs were singing. Leggett & Platt unveiled a number of new innerspring units and asserted that it is innersprings, not specialty sleep foams, that are the most advanced technology on the market today. And L&P also unveiled marketing messages and materials to support its innerspring lines. It was an impressive showing.
The band was singing. We’re talking about the Insomniaczzz, a band of industry veterans. They were a grand slam in the baseball terminology that marked this Expo, held in the shadow of Camden Yard. The industry loved seeing this unexpec...Read More

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The calls to my cell phone and my business phone started coming in mid-afternoon on a sunny day in Baltimore, where much of the bedding world was gathered for the International Sleep Products Assn. Expo. 

Those insistent calls signaled a major development in the mattress industry, one that had been speculated about for months. Funny thing about speculation: It means nothing until it yields to reality. 

At 4:20 p.m. on March 12, Sealy issued a press release that said the Dave McIlquham Era at the company had come to an end. His resignation as Sealy’s chairman, president and CEO was effective immediately, the release said. His 18-year career at Sealy, one that I witnessed from the beginning, was over. I can’t say the development ...Read More