Americans are Sleeping Better

I am making that bold statement based on sleep industry figures showing sales of mattresses up 17% in March this year over last year. This was the seventh straight month of increases. Some financial analysis take heart in that this is another small sign the economy is coming back. I’m not a financial analyst so I’ll just take these facts lying down. Mattresses are one of those home items that are not inexpensive and are viewed by many consumers as a luxury item whose purchase can be postponed until better times. So they are buying mattresses, great!

Two of the industry leaders Temper-pedic and Select Comfort, who makes the sleep number bed, reported growth in unit sales. This was echoed by some of the other industry leaders, so if a better night’s sleep is in your future here are a couple of major decision points.

Inner Spring vs Foam –

If you are a inner spring (traditional) person there are a few different kinds. These are my two favorite choices if you have a budget for the higher end mattresses. The blog My Foam Mattress provides these descriptions of the Open-ended and Pocket spring models.

Open-ended springs – all joined together by a wire network set up in the middle of each spring, thus leaving the top and bottom of each spring to move freely in order to independently adjust to the specific weight placed on it
Pocket springs – each spring is placed in its own separate fabric pocket and not connected in any way with the other springs, which allows independent compression of the springs, even if the mattress covering does limit some of the springs’ freedom of movement (these are the most expensive models and are said to be the most comfortable)

Springs do give a familiar feel with ample support in these models above. Many experts say a mattress should last at least 10 years, so divide that out by the number of nights used and you have a pretty sound, reasonable investment.

The Foam Memory mattress is a completely different feel than an inner-spring mattress. it is comprised of billions of cells of air which respond to the body weight. Many say to look for closed cells which provide slightly more support than open cells. This is called Visco-Elastic Memory Foam. Another type of mattress is made of Talalay Latex, this is a closed cell process and produces a different feel from an open cell process.

A popular type of bed for certain segments of the population are adjustable beds. Sleep Comfort is a leading manufacturer of adjustable beds with a variety of mattress types. You can put any mattress style on the frame. Adjustable beds can be positioned to accommodate comfort or sleeping maladies like excessive snoring (guilty). It’s interesting that some of physical symptoms such as lethargy, lack of focus, or chronic pain may have their cause in a poor mattress. At medical sleep centers around the country such as the Health East Sleep facilities in Minnesota, they examine mechanical devices to prevent sleeping on your back where appropriate

So if fatigue is a symptom then a mattress may well be the solution.

Modular Furniture Saves Space, Looks Great

The Design Blog comes up with some wild furnishings. Taking a page from Legos, modular furnishings blend style with function, especially in space conscious apartment living. You can essential have 4 or 5 chairs, a bed, a chaise lounge, or one chair for a very tall person.

Modular furniture that saves space while looking marvelous

Climb on the CaseChair

Here’s another piece that incorporates thoughtful design while saving space. A book case and reading chair combination. You have to love the Chaircase piece by Gail Peter Borden. It comes in walnut, birch and CDX ply. There is a shelf on the back for a, what else, reading lamp. Around the perimeter is designed shelving as part of the chair that can hold up to 400 paperbacks. This will be a collector’s item for sure. I may be the last Chaircase made. If iPad sales continue the way they are, you’ll use those shelves for out-of-print books or nicknacks, power plug ins for your ear buds, wireless printers, keyboard, mouse, speakers. You get the idea. Where there is a shelf there is an item for it.

Is High Speed Delivery A Selling Point? Quick – The Answer is Yes

It’s interesting that some industries are debating the issue of speed of delivery when we live in a world of instant everything. Now at 51 years old I’m not a zealot for how fast society moves, I’ve lost a step or two directly proportional to my gaining a pound or 10, but it is what it is. Speed, whether it’s speed of information, speed of nutrition, or speed of consumer product delivery, is now the norm. Customer satisfaction increases the sooner they get a purchased product in the home. Manna’s experience shows customers are also more satisfied when they know the progress of their delivery.

The issue of whether organizations have a digital presence or even the ability to make a transaction online is not an issue for consumers. They expect rich websites and the ability to purchase. I’m not saying here that generations of relationships should be terminated just to satisfy a clamoring consumer, but their desires can not be ignored. This article about Manna distribution’s high speed delivery in Stores Magazine gets to the heart of this issue of speed as a high ranking customer desire when shopping for consumer products. This demand is proven in sectors like electronics and appliances. The furniture industry is a bit different, but not unique in this regard. Publisher of Hearth & Home magazine, Richard Wright writes a thoughtful editorial highlighting the dilemma the furniture industry faces reconciling a productive system of distributor/dealer with a growing desire to purchase online and get the product in their home hassle free. (This editorial is not available on the web which is why I don’t have a link, ironic isn’t it? )

One of the unique characteristics of the furniture industry is the little-known, but greatly valued function of deluxing which my colleague Linda wrote about last year on this blog. Deluxing is that final inspection and detailing on the delivery dock to make sure that everything in the piece is perfect. Then getting it that last mile with a smile is critical to customer satisfaction. In fact, it’s because of this unique characteristic of the furniture industry that should make most furniture retailers rush to implement nationwide High-Speed, White Glove delivery in conjunction with some web strategy. That strategy can be their own site or plugged into a manufacturers, there are plenty of ways to achieve that web presence.

Given the changes and customer demands in the last few years, some furniture stores are moving to satisfy their

Gloster High End Casual Furniture

The Gloster site is a good example of where the furniture industry may move.

Books Can Be Deceiving

These are cool ways to jazz up a wall. Combination optical illusion and space savers, this selection of bookcases found by Will Maak, co-founder and editor of Fashion Furniture is a blast to look at. Below are a couple of my favorites, check out the rest at the Fashion Furniture site.

Above is the Pyramid bookcase by Fitting

For a slightly different play on triangles, try this

This one is call make/shift designed by Peter Marigold. It’s interlocking pieces are cleverly made so you can create a different look by arranging each separate section together with the others.

Books afterall are square or rectangles, and this one below incorporates those shapes with an eye toward an urban skyline.

And it’s appropriately named, this Skyline Bookcase is the work of Italian designer Vincenzo De Cotiis

Give Your Spouse a Good Night’s Sleep for Christmas and Beyond

As we continue to pursue a holiday season full of practical gifts a mattress has so many wonderful benefits.

1. It’s a gift that keeps on giving long after the holidays


A gift built for two

2. You use it everyday
3. Immediate relief from some common back pains and even restless sleep
4. Mutual benefits by taking care of two people with one present (yeah ok I’m a little selfish so at least I admit it)

Plenty of choices in mattresses these days– the major one between foam and inner spring. In general, inner spring mattresses are the traditional foundation for sleeping. They tend to be less in price and come in a wide variety of prices with the primary differences being the fillings and tops layers. There is also usually a box spring to be purchased.

Sixty-one percent of consumers on SleepLiketheDead.com say their inner spring mattresses are comfortable compared to 81% of memory foam mattresses owners.

On the foam side there are considerations for those with allergies and potentially those who are significantly overweight. Foam, however has grown tremendously in popularly since coming to the US from Europe. Tempur-Pedic is a leader in memory foam mattresses and has a wonderful holiday gift guide and mattress selection on its website

A couple of excellent review sites for mattress products include Consumer Research and The Mattress Reports

Believe me, if you need a mattress, it’s a better practical holiday gift idea than what my wife needs: snow tires. Yeah, try convincing your spouse that giving them snow tires is a great gift! Wish me luck.

Furniture Through the Chimney This Year?

Dana French, respected researcher and writer from Furniture Today, releases the latest survey on furniture buying trends in the print edition of Furniture Today Magazine. In the exclusive survey done in collaboration with HGTV, one of the findings was how consumers look for quality when buying furniture. These home items are more often than not viewed as an investment with an eye toward longevity. More of the details of this survey at Furniture Today.

Consumers are becoming more comfortable with online purchases of furniture. U.S. Department of Commerce statistics and comScore show furniture and bedding’s 2008 online sales at about $4.6 billion or 3.5% of all e-commerce retail sales.

Shopping the world you’ll find the unique and eye-popping accents for your home. Here are a couple I found intriguing. Those Scandinavians sure have a way with design like this OPPO chair from Blastation.

Dazzle your guests, or make them dizzy with this coffee table that doubles as an optical illusion

Coffee table that & optical illusion all in one

http://www.opulentitems.com/

These above examples I picked up from the Furniture Store Blog

Here are a couple of excellent resources for great furniture values with high-speed, white-glove delivery by Manna.

Bassett Furniture

Advance Furniture

Only the Furniture is Casual – Profits are Not

I’ve been watching our distribution services at Manna grow over the last few years. Before the summer of 2008, you might say the economy and consumer buying was responsible for a major part of the growth, but certainly since that time, delivering on the promise of efficiencies is the key to growing in the economic downturn.

I’ve seen the logistics best practices of a number of industries, electronics, furniture, appliances, and others keep the price to consumers in check while still generating profits for retailers. The most profitable and competitive retailers are on a continuous pursuit to improve efficiencies. I have spent more time lately in the casual furniture space and I am intrigued by the opportunities to improve distribution practices in some portions of the industry.

Casual Furniture

I consider casual or seasonal furniture almost like perishable goods. The product needs to be to the final destination quickly because the consumer wants to enjoy it.

The retailer needs to move it quickly or the season’s gone. The more times the product is handled the most it costs.

Economic cycles are part of life, this one is no different. During these times profits may be easier to find in the business process and not just the product sales. I’m looking forward to talking about this issue with retailers at the Casual Furniture and Accessories Market on September 21-24 in Chicago.

Yes, I think I’ll wear my Jimmy Buffet shirt.

Bob is definitely fun at trade shows - Stop by the Manna Booth

Yes, Virginia, furniture does grow on trees

Your brand new table, buffet, and chairs are to-die-for-gorgeous in your dining room. Gleaming wood, subtly glistening hardware, and those sparkling glass inserts—breathtaking.

Up to 40 percent of all furniture requires touch-ups before it reaches your home.

Chances are your beautiful, pristine furniture arrived from the factory with perhaps a scratch, or a loose hinge, or possibly broken glass, or a crack in the wood, and wobbly legs. It’s worth remembering that furniture does, in fact, grow on trees. Wood, even hard woods like oak, maple, and cherry will scratch, dent and crack. Quite often furniture will need minor restoration before it ever gets to your home. When this happens it is no less new. It is repaired to new quality by technicians, using the same standards as were used when it was first built.

We don’t mean to burst your bubble but damage may happen to furniture before it reaches your home. You just don’t have to see it. Because furniture is often manufactured across the globe and then travels great distances to the customer, dozens of opportunities to disappoint the customer exist. These opportunities can happen at the manufacturing operation with defects and quality issues, through the supply chain and in the home stretch during the final mile preparation and delivery.

In fact, up to 40 percent of all furniture traveling from the manufacturer through the supply chain to the home delivery operation will need some level of “touch-up” before being delivered to the customer’s home, according to Steve Anderson, Vice President of Furniture Operations at Williams-Sonoma, Inc., the highly regarded furniture retailer that is home to such brands as Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, West Elm and Williams-Sonoma Home. Of the merchandise requiring touch-up, 80% is due to manufacturing standards acceptable in other parts of the world, but that are not at the level of expectation of the US customer. The other 20% is due to damage sustained in the supply chain in support of a global supply business model.

“When the furniture is unveiled in our customer’s home is what we call the moment of truth,” Anderson says. Delivering furniture that is damaged is completely unacceptable. So what does a retailer do faced with the reality of damage upon its product leaving the factory?

The best retailers know that damage is inevitable and they take pains to perform what is known in the industry as “deluxing” to each piece before it gets delivered to your home. Deluxing is the art of restoring a piece to its pristine condition: polishing out minor scratches, tightening loose parts, filling holes, performing stain or sealant touch-ups.

We talked to Anderson because Williams-Sonoma has a reputation for excellence. He threw some light on furniture damage and what steps retailers and delivery suppliers take to mitigate it so that when those pieces arrive in your home, you can experience the thrill of having made a great choice.

Anderson, a former U.S. Marine, has the two critical traits necessary to insure customer satisfaction in this final leg of your furniture’s journey to your home: 1) attention to detail and 2) responsibility for the product.
“Our mission is to make that moment one of total satisfaction for our customer.” The Williams-Sonoma team makes that a reality by inspecting and correcting any errors in the product before it goes on the delivery truck. “What might be considered acceptable to get out of the factory door, may not be acceptable to be in Mrs. Jones’ home,” he says.

That’s where deluxing adds great value. Getting the product perfect before it goes on the truck insures the merchandise will be welcomed into the customer’s home. “We go through every piece, and assembly,” he says, looking for those cracks, scratches and dents incurred during the process. “Then our drivers and loading dock team members inspect the piece and sign off before placing it on the truck,” he says. Each piece gets polished and restored to perfection before loading—whatever it takes. The driver that brings the furniture to your home must accept full responsibility for your furniture while it is in transit, Anderson adds. This mentality ensures careful, professional handling.

Putting in this extra effort before it leaves his facilities greatly reduces the chances of the product being rejected and the customer being disappointed. And that’s our goal: to ensure that you and your furniture live happily ever after.

Geeky Throw Pillows Get Conversations Started

Express your geekiness or just have conversation pieces to throw out (or at) your visitors with Throwboy Pillows. This hot property is starting to catch up with the non-technorati as well as with one of the royalty of the tech world Chris Pirillo who interviewed the founder of Throwboy Pillows Roberto Hoyos.

Roberto, the grandson of a Peruvian seamstress, came up with the idea a year ago to sew MAC computer icons on small pillows. He and his family are still sewing 100 them a month in their home and the growth in demand is forcing Roberto to look for outside production resources. Throwboy Pillows are proving to be conversation starters, or enders depending on the acronym you use. (AFN – all for now)

Last weekend Throwboy Pillows got the Twitterverse buzzing with their new line of Chat acronym pillows. Chat abbreviations are used in text messages or online like LOL (Lots of Laughs), OMG (Oh My God, or Gosh depending on your interpretation) and many others.

Perfect timing to send along with your Facebook profiled, Twitter Tweeting, teenager off to college. YA Rly! (Yeah Really) Yes, the digital age has a language all its own, you might need a text slang dictionary

Trends in Wood Furniture

Wood furniture is always in style. Sturdy, timeless, and (usually) eco-friendly (because trees ARE renewable), wood furniture has now moved beyond dining room tables and chairs. Below are some of the more notable trends:

Recycled wood – Unlike synthetics, wood can be re-purposed. An old couch can become a new coffee table, or even vice versa. One enterprising North Dakota businessman is even recycling old barns into furniture and signs.

Contemporary flair – This is not your grandfather’s wood furniture. Designers are incorporating a variety of woods to craft very modern looks for your living space.

Sustainability – It’s not just a buzz word anymore. Consumers want to limit their impact on the environment, and designers are starting to catch on. Visit the Sustainable Furnishings Council to find a designer near you.

Of course, before you buy any wood furniture, it is worth determining which wood, um, would look best in your home. You can look here for a complete summary , and below are some of the more popular options in contemporary furniture:

Oak: One of the strongest woods commonly available, oak has long been a fixture in solid furniture and for veneers (shielding weaker particle board or other compressed woods in less expensive furniture).

Teak: A contemporary staple of Danish furniture. Admired for its color contrasts, it tends to be quite expensive, and is especially popular in modern style furniture.

Poplar: Lightweight and not at all durable, poplar is better left to kitchen utensils.

Cherry: Another wood that has seen resurgence of late. Its deep color is often used for accent pieces and frames, but also for showpiece furniture. It ain’t cheap, but the high quality and resonant beauty make for a lasting piece of furniture.

What trends have you noticed of late? Feel free to share.

Eco-Friendly Furniture

For someone who is concerned about the environment, the decision to purchase new furniture can be difficult. After all, what’s wrong with that old hand-me-down you had in college? Sure, a couple of springs are broken, and it doesn’t match the décor, and it has plenty of cup stains on it… Okay, maybe it’s time to bite the bullet.

Fortunately, there are plenty of eco-friendly furniture options available. The theme for the Thailand International Furniture Fair is “Imagine Green Living.” Long lasting, sustainable products are en vogue, and even offices and businesses are getting into the act.

There are eco-friendly options in virtually any style and at any price point . There’s even green furniture available for babies, which is fortunate, since baby probably won’t sleep too well in your living room.

If you’re not sure how to start your hunt, HGTV has you covered . If you’re worried about what to do with Grandma’s old couch, you can always donate it to Goodwill. You’ll be doing a favor for a good organization and, likely, a poor college student.