ALEXANDRIA, Va.-The September level of U.S. wholesale sales of mattresses dropped 3.5 percent from September 2008, to $224.6 million, according to the latest Bedding Barometer from the International Sleep Products Association.
On a unit basis, mattress sales actually gained 7.9 percent over September 2008, totaling 699,195, in the industry’s best monthly performance for all of 2009. The industry had been suffering from double-digit falloffs in both dollars and units throughout the first eight months of the year. In September, the average unit selling price for the mattresses sold finished at $321.27, down 10.6 percent from September of last year.
For the year to date, mattress sales on a dollar basis were $1.9 billion, off 13.7 percent from the January-September period of last year. Unit sales fell 9.6 percent to 6.1 million, and the average unit selling price dropped 4.5 percent to $308.13.
ISPA derived its sales data from a survey of 18 U.S. mattress producers, who together accounted for 56.3 percent of all mattress sales in September.