The Senate passed the Sunshine Protection Act, which would make Daylight Saving Time (DST) permanent by November 2023.

Studies have shown that switching clocks kills people through increased traffic accidents, strokes, crime, heart attacks, and more.

Seventy percent of Americans don’t want clocks to switch ever, but 40% want permanent Standard Time, while 31% are diehard DST-ers.

While most Americans are in favor of keeping a consistent clock, the debate about ST or DST comes down to a preference for more sunshine in the evening or in the morning.

In Chicago for example, where the sun sets around 4 p.m. in the winter, under DST the earliest sunset would occur at 5:21 p.m. on Dec. 8, 2023, and the twilight that follows would provide some light until just before 6 p.m.

Whether you prefer more sunshine in the morning or at night is a personal preference, but we know that keeping clocks the same is the key to better sleep and fewer deaths.

Illinois-based full-line furniture retailer Darvin Furniture recently hosted its first Sweet Dreams Slumber Party event, which aimed to connect customers with the store’s sleep specialists so they could educate shoppers on the importance of a good night’s sleep.

The FAM caught up with Hanny Diab, Darvin Furniture & Mattress VP Merchandising & Business Development, to see how the event went, as well as what worked and what didn’t.

Do you go by what the rep recommends? Customer feedback?

With more options available to dealers, figuring out which mattress to put on your sales floor can become confusing, which was recently the topic of a thread in a mattress industry Facebook group.

From one reporter’s point of view, the traffic did seem up—especially when looking at the crowded entrances of the buildings—and many exhibitors told me that this market felt like a step in the right direction when it comes to a return to normalcy.

The HPMA also said at a meeting during market that attendance from individual buying companies as of late Tuesday was up 3.3% from October and down 19.2% from the fall of 2019. Attendance from individuals, also as of late Tuesday, was up 4.4% from October, and down 17.2% from October 2019 —which was the best-attended market.

Keep in mind, these figures are based on pre-registrations and on-site registrations at market, and actual attendance figures won’t be released for a few more weeks.

Is traffic really up, or does it just seem that way because there hasn’t been a “real” market in two years?

Every good mattress salesman knows that the business is just not about sales and margins, but actually helping people sleep better so they can live healthier lives.

Serta Simmons Bedding (SSB) recently commissioned a study with OnePoll to understand Americans’ sleep habits, and what they found is pretty insightful.

We dig into a few of the key findings.

In the FAM’s exclusive research with Nationwide Marketing Group, we asked people if they’ve suffered from new sleep issues since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

While more than half said no, 36% said yes, which presents a huge opportunity for sleep retailers.

It may seem like a small percentage, but it’s about the scale—the pandemic has affected people around the entire world.

Even further, in a SleepScore survey by Sleep.com, 86% of adults said their sleep quality dropped during the pandemic.

So what does this all mean?

It means a second chance at Covid for the industry.

In 2013, Connecticut became the first state to pass comprehensive laws for recycling mattresses, which require mattress manufacturers to establish a program to manage unwanted mattresses in the state, reduce illegal dumping, and even help create jobs in the recycling sector.

California and Rhode Island soon followed suit, and together formed an organization called the Mattress Recycling Council (MRC). And just last month, they announced they’ve recycled 10 million mattresses through its statewide programs in the three states.

Now Oregon plans to be the fourth state in the nation to enact a mattress recycling program by 2024.

For youth in foster care, only 50% graduate from high school—and only 3% graduate from college.

That’s why graduating high school or college is such an important milestone for kids in foster care.

Ticket to Dream Foundation, a non-profit that helps foster kids across the country, just launched their 6th annual Cards for Grads campaign to celebrate and acknowledge the success of this year’s foster grads, rooting them on for their next steps into adulthood.

Mauri Knowles, program director at Ticket to Dream, explains that the foundation’s Cards For Grads campaign supports foster grads across the country each spring. The goal this year is to celebrate 6,000 high school and college graduates.

These are some crazy times we are living in wouldn’t you say?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: “just because you have the power to be an asshole, doesn’t mean you SHOULD be an asshole.”

Suppliers from all over are having trouble getting their products to people. Covid has shut down factories, and people don’t want to come back to work anymore. On top of that the demand spike has made it tough for the guys in the factories out there to keep up with production.

Around 2015,  Facebook changed its News Feed ranking system to weigh videos more heavily than links. Then in 2017, MTV announced it was “pivoting to video.”

Fox Sports made a similar move, laying off about 20 digital writers and editors who wrote for its website so it could focus on video content. Others followed suit.

And though the imminent “pivot to video” wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, that doesn’t mean that video isn’t useful for retailers and manufacturers.