Existential angst is an unremitting condition. The angst us bed buyers crave. And the 2012 NEC furniture show satiated our craving in dollops. The best NEC furniture show ever! And I think we found the best bed.

Let me explain. There was no Staples or Dunlopillo. No Tempur or Sleepeezee. With the demise of the bed brands our thoughts were not polluted by the well meaning but  autocratic choreographers of what a poor bed shop ought to show and sell at what price and in what quantity and at what lead time.

We were like Sergei, that well known Ukranian ballet dancer bunking off for a week from the Royal Ballet. Do our own thing in tights? Wonderful.

But it got better. As we all know, existential angst requires (more…)

For choice, style, versatility and value for money, IKEA PAX extra wide wardrobes are hard to beat .

But I think we have their match: Rauch (German, pronounced like a dog bark with phlegm). 90cm to 350cm, sliding mirrored doors to neat bi-fold hinged doors. Beech to Wenge, tie racks to internal drawers. Rauch has it all.

Over the last 10 days we have built 10 shop displays, 150 wardrobes, and may Ingvar Kamprad strike me (more…)

I popped into Candleriggs and Kilmarnock Bed Sheds last week. All beds and mattresses are reduced to clear and the staff say they are being taken over by Bensons.

Bit of a bummer us having to compete against all this clearance stock hitting the Scottish bed market. But Bensons taking over the Bed Shed? Why?

This just doesn’t seem logical. At Archers we never hear of Bensons: English company selling posh kit designed for the English market and frankly doesn’t interfere with us. We wouldn’t miss them if they never existed.

However I have always had a soft spot for (more…)

People say I am the 21st Century version of Dr Johnston. He had Boswell and the Western Isles. I have Robert and every bed shop in the UK.

So after my Orpington bed shop blog, it was Colchester’s turn for Dr Archibald. And what can I report?

Every single carpet retailer in Britain has given up on carpets and is selling beds instead. It must have been a light bulb moment. Beds sit on top of carpets: therefore beds are best (was that Jean Paul Sartre 1941?).

On this Colchester Retail Park we had Carpet Right, Carpets for Less and Allied Carpets all selling beds. Dreams Beds was on the estate too and they did have a nice welcome foot mat but (more…)

I had a spare hour in Orpington last week. Visit a local site of antiquity? An art gallery? No, a wee tour of the local retail park and high street.

Orpington it turns out is the centre of the south east bed universe. Paul Simon Beds, Sleepmasters, Dreams Beds, Beaumont Beds. Those Kent folks have an insatiable need for a new bed it seems. And I bet there are more bed shops again but this was a tour in a straight line to lunch at a local Italian.

So what was on offer? A single pine Pickwick bed frame for £99 from Julian Bowen. Ouch, I thought that’s (more…)