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HIGH POINT, N.C.-Move over, ready-to-assemble. Hello, easy-to-assemble. This category has quietly been evolving from the RTA of yore's lengthy instructions, multitude of nuts, cams, dowels and brackets to ETA's well-designed [...]

Byline: Karl Kunkel Never underestimate the power of a name-especially that of a celebrity. Some bedding manufacturers teaming up with high-profile personalities have been enjoying positive exposure to consumers that [...]

NEW YORK- Thomas O'Brien at Target, Chris Madden for J.C. Penney, Martha Stewart at Kmart: Exclusive, licensed home brands are dominating shelf space at retail today. While the effectiveness of [...]

HIGH POINT, N.C.-Ready-to-assemble furniture manufacturers enhanced their products' styling, broadened price points and increased the range of items available at High Point's furniture market. But not everyone took advantage of [...]

Byline: Karl Kunkel HIGH POINT, N.C.-Perhaps it was the pajama-clad woman with her hair in rollers, or the flock of those cute pink Serta sheep. Either way, the bedding department [...]

HIGH POINT, N.C.-With foam prices escalating and supplies questionable, bedding exhibitors at the International Home Furnishings Market here did their best to put a happy face on the problem. 'Bedding [...]

Byline: Karl Kunkel HIGH POINT, N.C.-Manufacturers of ready-to-assemble furniture have gone out of their way to make it easy for consumers to understand their products and for retailers to sell [...]

Byline: Karl Kunkel LAS VEGAS-The Better Sleep Council has chosen a narrow approach rather than a wide-angle tactic for a five-year consumer education plan that it will formally launch in [...]

HIGH POINT, N.C.-Branding and brand loyalty among consumers are powerful incentives when it comes to purchasing mattresses. Because consumers don't buy mattresses very often, they frequently have to rely on [...]

HIGH POINT, N.C.-Capturing a consumer's attention in a retail bedding department or sleep shop has taken on a more sophisticated tone. Two glimpses at the shape of things to come [...]

The ultimate job of getting bedding merchandise out the door belongs to the retailer. But Serta International's Bob Sherman points out that help from any quarter can make the retailer's [...]

Mention Sit 'n Sleep to a Los Angelino and he'll tell you that it is an L.A.-area sleep chain known for its `happenings'. Owner Larry Miller and vice president Nelson [...]

The futon industry, eager for wider exposure in the home furnishings retail universe, has tried earnestly to embed itself with the traditional furniture categories during markets. The inaugural home furnishings [...]

HIGH POINT, N.C.-Several bedding manufacturers have seen the value of branding and the lure of celebrities and designers. In the past few months, Boyd Specialty Sleep licensed the Simmons Bedding [...]

HIGH POINT, N.C.-Both Target and Wal-Mart are growing their ready-to-assemble furniture categories. But each has its own way of achieving that growth. Target has taken the high road, with design- [...]

HIGH POINT, N.C.-White Dove Mattress Ltd., a Cleveland-based, family-owned mattress manufacturer, is taking the next logical step in its growth. The company is ditching its old image and previous licensing [...]

Drenner and Marsha Tinsley are an independent couple who run an independent furniture store. Being located just a few minutes south of bustling Charlotte, N.C., with its abundance of furniture-buying [...]

The Long Island City, N.Y.-based 1-800-Mattress retail chain did what most competitors didn't think was possible: sell mattresses over the phone. It sells direct to phone-in consumers also have also [...]

HIGH POINT, N.C.-Ready-to-assemble furniture manufacturers brought style and storage to market with an array of colors, shapes and sizes. At this month's International Home Furnishings Market, Sauder Woodworking expanded storage [...]

HIGH POINT-Chinese-made mattresses are still a drop in the bucket. But even a drop can make a splash. A few months ago, the idea of Chinese-made mattresses making an impact [...]

HIGH POINT, N.C.-Accessories can add a smooth 10 percent to a mattress store's bottom line, according to top bedding retailers. Headboards, bed frames, accent furniture, pillows -- even candles -- [...]

Joel Huseby, director of merchandising at Becker Furniture World in Becker, Minn., has noticed that some consumers buy low-priced branded mattresses from warehouse clubs and discount stores, foregoing the opportunity [...]

Mattress retailing can be one of the toughest gigs in town, but there are merchants who have found the secret to successful selling. Those are the stories we want to [...]

HIGH POINT, N.C.-The mattress industry is finding that celebrities and big-name designers can help sell sleep. Arguably the leader right now in personality-based licensing is Simmons Bedding Co., which has [...]

The bedding industry, viewed as a sleeping giant by some, may finally be waking up to the fact that consumers' attention to advertising is not limited to promotions screaming '50 [...]

HIGH POINT, N.C.-The October market here may offer hints of a symbolic changing of the guard in bedding. It will certainly be an evolutionary step. Serta Inc., on the heels [...]

HIGH POINT, N.C.-The furniture sections at the Target stores in High Point and Greensboro, N.C., have enjoyed a notable upgrade in selection, space categories, signs and promotion. Don't expect to [...]

Consumers are no longer limited to just a few sources for bedding. With some research on their part -- and some imagination from bedding manufacturers and retailers -- they are [...]

Branding has lost none of its luster, as bedding manufacturers explore new ways to connect their products to a consumer's memory. Humor opens the doors, as Sealy and Serta will [...]

The lines between traditional innerspring bedding and so-called 'specialty bedding' have blurred considerably this past year. Several major traditional manufacturers, such as Sealy, introduced all-foam beds or hybrids that employed [...]

DELRAY BEACH, Fla.-The Office Depot chain has fired its first shot in its latest battle with archrival Staples. The prize: the lucrative, high-population Northeast. At a June 30 press conference [...]

HIGH POINT, N.C.-Mattress ticking often draws criticism for its bland, vanilla appearance that contributes to the dreaded 'sea of white' on retail floors. Some suppliers argue that a ticking's color, [...]

Byline: Karl Kunkel HIGH POINT, N.C.-Ready-to-assemble furniture has been getting more respect on the retail floor. But it is respect that has been earned by RTA manufacturers determined to put [...]

HIGH POINT, N.C.-The back-to-nature trend is not limited to organic foods or Earth Shoes. Natural materials in mattress bedding are not for everyone, but they have found a healthy reception [...]

HIGH POINT, N.C.-Two specific letters -- 'S' and 'T' -- representing the Big S's and Tempur-Pedic, are in the gun sights of bedding manufacturers exhibiting during the April International Home [...]

PHILADELPHIA-Futon manufacturers continued to closely link their products to more traditional bedding during this year's 2004 Futon and Specialty Sleep Expo. This ongoing marriage may be the solution some independent [...]

PHILADELPHIA-Vendors showing at the Futon & Specialty Sleep Expo are touting the growing high end of the market in both categories, and that's welcome news for retailers like Andrew Levine, [...]

Few home categories sell across as many retail channels as ready-to-assemble furniture, a factor that bodes well for a rebound. Mass merchants, office superstores, consumer electronics chains, catalogs and the [...]

RTA furniture is on the move throughout the house, from the office to the kitchen, from the bedroom to the garage. And each RTA manufacturer is taking pains to stake [...]

NEW YORK-Office Depot officially kicked off the introduction of its Christopher Lowell Collection during a press conference here Jan. 30, with Lowell on hand for the presentation. The collection is [...]

In the new movie 'Stuck on You,' Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear play joined-at-the-hip twins, with each demanding to go his own way. The futon world could fit in that [...]

Fabric, faux leather and actual leather futon covers have often become the ace in the hole for retailers dealing with a fence-sitting consumer wondering if a futon or conventional sofa-sleeper [...]

LAS VEGAS-Those fancy, high-tech electronics for sale at the International Consumer Electronics Show here will eventually need to be placed somewhere in the home other than the dining room table. [...]

HIGH POINT, N.C.-Consumers who have just bought a fresh and clean new mattress don't want to put an old mattress pad on it. That simple gem uncovered through research by [...]

HIGH POINT, N.C.-A consumer studying a futon set -- the mattress, frame and cover -- will notice that many of the materials are now the same used in conventional bedding, [...]

The splashy ads to consumers for great deals haven't diminished, but at one level, the emphasis is growing to address the importance of healthy sleep. Women are nudging out endorser [...]

Specialty bedding, in one guise or another, continues to work its way onto the floor of mainstream bedding retailers. This alternative model, usually nestled in among the sea of innerspring [...]

Retailers are seeing that bedding continues to offer one of the most stable home furnishings categories, despite a shaky economy. Mattress sales tend to spring back quickly as pent-up demand [...]

HIGH POINT, N.C.-'We'll make it easy for you' has become the latest unofficial mantra for anyone making or selling ready-to-assemble furniture. If manufacturers can offer a retailer a point-of-purchase display [...]

HIGH POINT, N.C.-Putting a baby on a name-brand crib mattress can generate years of brand loyalty from a satisfied parent and that once-tiny consumer. Still, although this category has proven [...]