An elusive mattress showroom. A thorny new business challenge. The power of group therapy. And a category that’s good for consumers’ health — and retailers’ health, too.
Those were some of the takeaways of my High Point Market, a journey that began on the Wednesday before the market’s official start and ended on Tuesday, the day before the market’s official end.
In that week, I had dozens of conversations with bedding exhibitors, suppliers and retailers, filling half of a legal pad with notes. I got business insights at breakfasts, lunches and dinners that stretched from the heart of the International Home Furnishings Center to the venerable String & Splinter Club in Market Square, and from my secret breakfast hangout in High Point to a top steakhouse in Greensboro.
And, as usual, I learned a lot about the changing nature of the mattress business, now facing a tariff onslaught that presents unique challenges and, yes, opportunities.
But let’s start with that elusive mattress showroom. I heard that Tempur Sealy International was showing at the High Point Market, which would be notable. There is a beautiful TSI showroom at the company’s nearby Trinity campus, just a short drive from market, but a showroom in downtown High Point would put those brands at the very center of the market, making them more accessible to buyers.
The Spring Market Pocket Guide identified a Sealy Home showroom in Furniture Plaza, but mattresses were not displayed there. (Yes, I checked.) The Tempur Sealy International listing in the guide carried the Trinity address, with no mention of a High Point showroom. The online market guide also directed me to the Trinity location. This was becoming a mattress mystery.
Then a media report pointed me to the ninth floor of the IHFC, where, on my final day at market, I finally found the TSI mattresses, nestled safely in a locked showroom. I took a few photos of the showroom from the hallway so that I could document its existence.
TSI’s Tempur-Pedic, Stearns & Foster and Sealy brands were listed under an Ashley banner on the wall outside the showroom, and that was the key to this TSI showroom, my sources informed me. TSI, along with Purple and Serta Simmons Bedding, was showing in the IHFC near Ashley’s massive IHFC showroom to support Ashley retailers shopping the market, sources said.
And a closer look at the pocket guide made the Ashley-TSI connection clear. The entry directly under the Ashley Furniture Industries listing said: “Ashley Furniture – TSI.” The location was M930 in the IHFC — just down the hall from the Ashley showroom. I didn’t find that listing until I studied the guide again just before I wrote this column.
While those new mattress showrooms were targeted to Ashley retailers, they still added some excitement to the bedding market, which continues to attract new exhibitors, thus burnishing the category’s appeal in High Point.
As you might imagine, tariffs were a major topic of conversation in mattress showrooms, but, perhaps surprisingly, they didn’t put a damper on showroom activity.
“The biggest surprise of market was how positive the buyers were,” Bill Hammer, president of Shifman Mattresses, told me after he wrapped up his High Point showing. “They were far more positive about the uncertain economic climate than I expected them to be.”
Why?
Hammer had a few thoughts on that. First, some of the retailers who weren’t positive about the economy may have skipped the market entirely. Second was what he aptly called the “group therapy” nature of market.
“It’s nice to come here and to discuss what we can do together to move forward despite what’s going on around us,” he said.
That’s what I said to a group of finance executives that I met with during market. We all feel better about things, I told that group, when we sit down together at market and talk about where we are and how we can move forward.
Jonah Nelson, Bedgear’s senior director of brand experience, was operating from a similar playbook.
“The customers coming into our showroom are trying to drive their business,” he told me. “They are looking for solutions. We are having meaningful conversations with them.”
Tariffs present an opportunity for Bedgear, he said.
“We see the chaos as an opportunity,” Nelson said. “That is the innovator’s mindset. This is just another challenge. We will innovate to drive our business.”
Bedding veteran Jim Nation, recently named vice president of national sales at South Bay International, shared an encouraging overview of the mattress category.
“This industry does a lot of good things,” said Nation, who was back in High Point after a seven-year absence. “We make great products for consumers that benefit their health and wellness. Our products are also very good for retailers’ economic health. And our mattress manufacturing infrastructure is healthy, probably more so than any other category.”
Thanks for that overview, Jim. Welcome back to High Point.
Tariffs present real challenges for the home furnishings industry. But together we will get through these uncertain times.
