Top story of decade: FR standard
The adoption of stringent new fire-resistant standards for mattresses was the story of the decade in the bedding industry.
That’s what I’m thinking as we get back to business in the new year. I saw several lists of top stories of the decade over the holidays, and that made me think about bedding’s major stories. And my quick look back over the last 10 years, most of which I observed as your trusty bedding editor, leads me to conclude that the FR issue was the most significant mattress story of the decade.
As an industry, we spent much of that decade working on the issue, from testing to see how sleep sets responded to the introduction of open flames, to developing a range of new FR materials to protect sleep sets, to experimenting with new bed designs that would pass the federal FR standard, which went into effect in July of 2007, and then to making FR a part of our daily life.
That standard gives consumers time to escape from a fire. It will, its supporters say, save lives.
Other important stories of the decade: The switch from two- to one-sided mattresses, the rise of specialty sleep, and the deepening involvement in our industry of private equity players.
Now it’s your turn. Do you agree with me that the FR issue was the story of the decade? If not, what’s your vote?
amazing commented:
I wondering if any geniuses in the industry thought about actually educated the public about the FR issue and exactly how it will and will not save lives in fire. Then poll them to see if they want these chemicals added to their mattresses.
Amazed commented:
Absolutely, FR is the story of the decade, and the industry should be proud in realizing that its interest and the public's coincided on this issue. One-sided proves the genius of advertising. You reduce the utility of a product by half and charge more for it.
KL commented:
From different vantage points are different stories:
Operationally---- Yes, from a mattress operators standpoint, FR was a big issue. Lots of time devoted to it. And many, many dollars in development and dollars ongoing forever.
At Retail-----No Flip certainly was the product change that effected every product on every floor and really was the matching of product design and unmet consumer needs. It was easy to sell and RSAs loved it. It was controversial in the beginning too, fun to watch the industry play.
Game Changer Overall---- I think it is Tempure's decade. They changed the landscape of mattress brands. Period. S Brands became second tier brands people had only heard of. Tempure spent money and created a reason for a consumer to WALK in a store and WANT to spend $2000. We can only talk about the swing to specialty bedding because of Tempure's strategy and money. Hats off to them. They are good for dealers and they are good for the industry. For context, in 1999 they sold Brookstone and were on TV. Not in a single mattress store in the country.
Ganja Garry commented:
BORING!
Warren Littrell commented:
I would say at Point of Sale there are more questions asked as to why mattresses are one-sided rather than the Fire Retardancy aspect. Of the two issues, the FT issue is much more important in the big scheme of things to the customer but the Never-Turn aspect is easier to understand for the purchaser of a new sleep set. In all fainess, both issues were important in the mattress industry.
Roger commented:
Sure I agree, is if we take one step forward and 2 steps back. It may give consumers time to escape a fire but does it give consumers any chance to escape from environmentally born diseases caused by FR chemicals or a mixture of these and other chemicals in producing todays mattresses?
Lisa Stansbury commented:
I agree. The funny thing is, how we never really fully grasped it. (At least I didn't). Once we all had our legal documents drawn up, we sort of forgot about it. It was a mess in the beginning, but now it is what it is. I had a customer yesterday who was looking for something with natural FR. We'll be finding a way to take out the chemicals next.
