Retail Observer

RETAILOBSERVER.COM NOVEMBER 2021 52 I n the four and a half decades that I've been driving, I've owned 22 vehicles. I bought each of those vehicles because they fit my needs at the time. My first car was a bucket of bolts held together with spit and bailing wire. Along the way, I owned a cool sports car, a family grocery-getter van, a comfy four-door, a gas-sipping hybrid, a classic coupe from 1956, and a couple of four-wheel SUVs. As my vehicle history and car leasing deals might suggest, we the people seem comfortable with changing our rides every two to four years. Yet we endure being uncomfortable by waiting a decade or longer before we change our sleep systems. It's a natural fact. Changing a mattress as your life cycle changes will ensure complete restorative sleep and a restful recovery through varying combinations of comfort and support layers. Yet we often need to remind our customers of a 60-year cycle that works out to one change every eight years. LIFE CYCLE • Ages 6-18, Youth: Superior support for good spinal development. Size appropriate for the individual child. Twin or Full. • Ages 19-25, Young Adult: Move up to a larger-size bed. Requires active support for an active lifestyle. Full or Queen. • Ages 26-34, Newlywed Bed: Isolate motion through enhanced foams, wrapped coils or both. Provide comfort and security with durability and value. Queen or King. • Ages 35-42, Family and Career Time: Pressure relief, comfort to promote deeper sleep, isolate motion. Queen or King. • Ages 43-49, Young Mature: Restorative sleep, increase circulation, reduce tossing and turning, greater need for temperature regulation. Queen or King. • Ages 50-56, Empty Nester: Pain relief, healthful benefits, soft and deep comfort, TV viewing and reading in the bedroom. Requires a motion base. • Ages 57-65, Retirement: Downsizing homes, downsizing beds. Queen or Dual King motion base for individual comfort. • Ages 66+, Early to Bed, Early to Rise: Multiple uses for beds – reading, TV, resting, healthful comfort and gentle support. Full, Queen or Dual King. The first step in helping your shoppers understand the need to enhance their quality of sleep by upgraded their bedding is to teach your sales team the value of explaining it to the shoppers. Sometimes, it means investing in youth bedding beyond the $99 Twin. You may need to show the value of moving from a Queen to a King if the kids and dogs like to curl up with mom and dad. And at some point, adding a motion base with massage, low-level lighting and lumbar support to the new bed for the Century Village condo may be your shoppers' right buy. The right car at the right time makes driving (and sitting in traffic) a pleasure. When the car spends more time with Mr. Goodwrench than in your garage, it's simple to figure it's time to change. When you explain to your shoppers the value of changing mattress, bases and accessories as they move through life's path, you'll help keep them on the road to comfort for a long time. Gordon Hecht Bedding Trends Gordon Hecht is a business growth and development consultant to the retail home furnishings industry. You can reach him at Gordon.Hecht@aol.com. RO BEDDING DOWN ON THE ROAD OF LIFE

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