I'd like to know the average (not median) price of mattresses sold in the US.

geoffchi --

Thanks for the invitation to post the results of my research as an answer.

According to a spokesperson for the U.S. trade association of mattress
manufacturers, the average price of a mattress in 2002 was $600.

Here are two recent national news sources for that information:

?Although the trade group [International Sleep Products Association]
has not yet compiled statistics for 2003, Ms. Blatt said that in 2002,
about 17 percent of consumers spent $1,000 to $2,000 on mattress and
box-spring sets, up from 14 percent in 2001 and 13 percent in 2000.
(The average price paid for a mattress in 2002 was $600, she said.)
Only 3 percent spent more than $2,000 in 2002, up from around 2
percent the previous year, Ms. Blatt said. But even those numbers are
significant, she added, because manufacturers sell an estimated 73,000
mattresses daily in the United States.?

Flobeds: Once Upon A $20,000 Mattress, by Elizabeth Olson (New York
Times, February 8, 2004)
http://www.flobeds.com/onceupona20000mattress.htm


?The average mattress costs about $600, but sales of beds that cost
$1,000 or more are on the rise. Higher-end beds made up 17.3 percent
of all U.S. mattress sales in 2002, up from 13.5 percent in 2000,
according to the Better Sleep Council, a nonprofit sleep education
group funded by mattress makers. Queen-size mattresses remain the best
sellers, but king-size beds are gaining in popularity as people trade
up.

"?As you age, higher quality bedding becomes even more important
because your  body is changing,? said Nancy Blatt, the council's
executive director. "?People tend to gain weight, they develop aches
and pains, so what you're looking for in a mattress changes, too.?"

Eldercare Directory: Boomers will pay for good night's sleep, By Meg
Richards, (AP January 8, 2004)
http://eldercare.uniontrib.com/news/news/babyboomers.cfm 


Here is a link to the Better Sleep Council?s website:

Better Sleep Council
http://www.bettersleep.org/


And here is a link to the parent trade association?s website:

International Sleep Products Association
http://www.sleepproducts.org/ 

Note that the addresses of both organizations have the same
Alexandria, VA address and that Nancy Blatt, the Vice President for
Communications of the International Sleep Products Association, is
listed as the contact person for both that organization and the
non-profit Better Sleep Council.

Finally, note that there is a link on the trade association?s homepage
that leads to ?Industry Statistics.?  If you follow that link you will
find links to various reports that undoubtedly are the primary (and
probably the only ?official? source) for your information. 
Unsurprisingly, these reports are available only to members of the
association.   However, I am confident that I was ultimately able to
find a very reliable statement of the piece of information that
interests you.


Search Strategy:

Since I judged that the best place to go for this kind of a statistic
was a trade association, I first employed this straightforward Google
search to find that potential source:

mattress trade association
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-01,GGLD:en&q=mattress+trade+association


After discovering that the information was likely on the site but
unavailable to non-members, I devised other Google searches to find a
reliable source for the piece of information that interests you. 
These searches included, among many others:

average ?mattress costs? 
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-01,GGLD:en&q=average+%22mattress+costs%22

?average price? mattress
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-01,GGLD:en&q=%22average+price%22+mattress+


After finding my first reference to a $600 average price, I then
narrowed the scope of the search to try to find (successfully, it
turned out) a confirming source:

average mattress 600 price OR costs
://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&rls=GGLD%2CGGLD%3A2004-01%2CGGLD%3Aen&q=average+mattress+600+price+OR+costs


Based on your comment, I am confident that this is the information you
are looking for.  If anything is unclear, please ask for clarification
before rating the answer.


markj-ga

Thanks!

geoffchi --

The best I would be able to do for you is to cite two separate
publications that quote the same mattress industry source for the
average price of a mattress in 2002.  Both statements are quoted in a
context in which it can be reasonable assumed that they are talking
about U.S. sales.

The trade association for mattress manufacturers makes such industry
statistics available on its website for its members only, so these
quote from a spokesperson for that association may be the best and
most current public information that is out there.

If another researcher is not able to come up with a more "official"
government or industry figure, I would be happy to post my information
as an answer.


markj-ga

This sounds like an acceptable answer to me.  Thanks for the diligence.

geoffchi --

You're quite welcome, and thank you for the stars and the tip.

markj-ga

$600 is, I think too much for the average. If ten million cheap
matresses were sold averaging $100: ten million costly mattress
averaging $1100 need to be sold to make the average $600.
Twenty million matresses sold at $600 average = 12,000 million dollars
total spent. Is that possible? Are we excluding imported matresses,
baby matresses, children's mattresses, pet mattresses, air mattresses,
foam mattresses, used mattresses? If not, total sales likely much
exceeded 20 million.   Neil

Neil, that's simply a case of bad math.

$600 X 20 Million = $12 Billion total spent (as opposed to 12 Million
that you stated).

However to refrain from answering your question, I don't know if that
figure includes air mattresses and the like.

Hi Jack: I have noticed that some countries use comas for decimil
points. Also some use billion for 10E12 instead of 10E9 as we do in
USA. I suppose, I should have typed twelve thousand times a million.  
Neil

hehe, I hadn't even thought about that.  I need to be more careful in
an international setting like this.

But if you're in the US then we're speaking the same language, and
billion is the only right answer unless you were purposefully talking
to non-Americans about a US subject.

Jack...12,000 million *is* 12 billion.

I think that's what Neil was trying to point out to you.

I understand that Tim,

But my last point was that everyone was talking in american terms
about an american product.  With this in mind, to say that million =
billion is simply incorrect since we are only speaking in american
terms.