As many consumers are delaying spending on luxury goods and items, so do they delay upgrading to new mattress. Barrie Brown, CEO of Mattress Giant a Dallas-based bedding retailer, believes that even when mattress warranties last to up to ten years only, there are households that prefer to keep the mattress longer.

Because of this, sales have been declining. The industry, as a whole is feeling the crunch, prompting Mattress Giant to focus on their marketing strategy elsewhere, such as a green mattress program.

UPDATE: Mattress Giant is neither downsizing (as your headline states) nor scaling back. In fact, Mattress Giant has spent time, energy and money to build a sustainability program, which is about to be announced has opened more than 30 new stores in 2008 and several so far this year has expanded its offerings by bringing on several new lines including Natura pillows and the high-end Stearns & Foster line of mattresses

The full story is here.