ALEXANDRIA, Va.–U.S. sales of mattresses on both a dollar and unit basis dived once again in the final month of 2008, ending a year that the industry would like to forget soon.
According to the monthly Bedding Barometer from the International Sleep Products Association, December mattress sales on a dollar basis fell 17.9 percent to $186.4 million, while unit sales dropped 12 percent to 580,649. For 2008 as a whole, dollar sales posted a 13.1 percent decrease to $2.7 billion, while unit sales lost 11.1 percent off the 2007 total, finishing at 8.4 million.
Notable among the Bedding Barometer numbers was the steep falloff in the non-innerspring mattress category, which includes the specialty bedding segment. Dollar sales in this segment dropped 36.1 percent in December and 21.2 percent for the year. Unit sales were off 30.3 percent for the month and 21.3 percent for the year. Specialty bedding had been one of the industry’s shining stars until last year.
The average unit selling price for all mattresses declined by 6.6 percent to $320.98 in December. For all of 2008, the average unit selling price was $321.53, down 2.2 percent from 2007.