UK beds and mattresses at lowest ever prices
Over the last 2 years bed, bed frame and mattress sales have plummeted, and retailers and manufacturers have cut prices to the bone. Now, I believe, is when prices will go no lower. And very soon you could find yourself paying 20% more. Why?
First, price cutting hasn’t produced the goods. The demand for beds and mattresses is pretty static and pretty independent of price. When a manufacturer or retailer cuts their prices they simply redistribute the cake. The cake, unfortunately grows little. Will I go on holiday or buy a bed? What would you do if money was tight? Yep, you don’t need a degree in Economics to answer that one.
Conjecture apart we now have real evidence. Silentnight, Sealy and Rest Assured have just announced an 8% increase across the board from 2nd August. They assure us that Simmonds Group and Airsprung will follow. So apart from the Batley boys (Highgrove, Sweet Dreams and Kozee Sleep) who are still reducing prices and improving specifications btw, a big part of the bed manufacturing base has had enough.
And what about the retailers? Our “mystery shoppers” have found one remarkable trend. The national chains who work to absurdly high margins have scaled back on their equally absurd discounting. “Yes madam, this bed has a £1000 price ticket, but if you buy today, I’ll throw in a mattress worth £999, 2 years interest free credit and would you like a complimentary coffee?”
Retailers are faced with low footfall and no sign of an upturn. Margin busting discounting or suicidal pricing will always lead to catastrophe. The time is nigh, and I believe sanity is returning, and honest but profitable pricing is about to return.
Finally VAT goes up to 20% in January. No-one is going to wait until the 4th of January to put their prices up. Believe me we will all start to adjust to the new VAT regime over the next couple of months.
So the moral to the story is BUY NOW. There will never be a better time to get a great night’s sleep. Trust me, I’m a doctor.
Related posts:
- Silentnight mattresses at lowest prices
- UK bed buyers out in record numbers
- Barcelona Bed at New Cheap Prices
- Recession advice
This entry was posted on Saturday, July 10th, 2010 at 8:48 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
