My wife and I bought our mattress roughly five houses and 13,000 miles ago. It’s a “Bob-O-Pedic” purchased from Bob’s Discount Furniture in Newington, Conn., that we brought with us to West Palm Beach, Fla., and have moved to multiple homes.
It’s more than 10 years old, which exceeds the suggested life of a mattress, although much of the advice about when to replace your mattress comes from companies that make mattresses.
“The most obvious sign of getting a new mattress is if it starts to droop or sag. Mattresses bear your entire body weight for a minimum of 8 hours every day,” according to Nectar Sleep.
“…Due to such reasons its natural for the mattress to sag over the due course of time. This may usually start at the edges where they begin to wear out and slowly spread to the sides and enter until your mattress loses all its firmness.”
That hasn’t happened with our mattress, so we have never even considered replacing it, and that speaks to a problem currently impacting the mattress industry.
Replacing a mattress is broadly discretionary. It’s something people can put off, and with the economy struggling, many have. That has led to numerous Chapter 11 filings in the industry, and another popular chain, No Bull Mattress & More, has joined that list with its own Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.
No Bull Mattress files Chapter 11 bankruptcy
No Bull Mattress & More, a mattress retailer with stores in North Carolina, South Carolina, and New Jersey, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, according to court documents found on PacerMonitor.
The company’s legal entity, Mattress Warehouse of Charlotte Inc., filed a voluntary Chapter 11 petition Aug. 24 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of South Carolina, according to bankruptcy records. The case number is 26-03863-jd.
Owned by John S. Madden, Mattress Warehouse of Charlotte operates under the No Bull Mattress & More banner located in North Charleston, S.C., according to Furniture Today.
The company lists assets of $374,535 in personal property, and total liabilities of more than $2.82 million. More than $756,000 of that comes from nonpriority unsecured claims. The filing indicates the company has $178,055 in mattresses, beds, sheets, and other bedding for sale, along with floor models, according to the bankruptcy petition.
No Bull Mattress & More has not shared whether it’s closing any stores as part of its Chapter 11 reorganization efforts.
The retailer operates six stores in South Carolina, three stores in North Carolina and one location in New Jersey, according to its website.
In the bankruptcy filing, the company showed a steep decline in gross revenue over the past two years, with 2026 sales for the first eight months listed at $825,414, down from more than $1.9 million in 2024.
The mattress industry has struggled
In most cases, consumers have significant discretion when it comes to replacing a mattress. That allows them to put off the purchase when times are tight.
That, however is not the biggest problem facing the industry, according to Mike Magnuson CEO of GoodBed.com
“We’ve created a market that, by pure accident, is unfortunately giving consumers the impression that all of our products are the same,” Magnuson said at the SleepNXT conference. “Commodity products continue to steal share in this market.”
Using Better Sleep Council research, Magnuson highlighted a sharp decline in consumers’ perceived value of mattresses. Inflation-adjusted expectations of what consumers planned to pay for a mattress fell 15% between 2016 and 2022, while willingness to pay dropped 18%, Furniture Today reported.
“That’s against a backdrop where we all believe people are more and more conscious of the benefits of sleep,” he said. “Notwithstanding that, we see them valuing this product less.”
The industry broadly struggled in 2025, according to attendees at last year’s High Point Market industry event.
“Business has been challenging overall, and many retailers are reporting that their sales are down anywhere from 2% to 5% or more for the year,” the exhibitors told Bedding News Now.
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They painted a portrait of a generally difficult year for mattress retailers.
“In general, 2025 has been a challenging year for retailers,” said Derek Leishman, national sales director for Mlily. “There has been geopolitical uncertainty, a back and forth on tariffs, and the country’s biggest employer, the federal government, is shut down. With all of that, consumers may be holding off on purchases until things get better.”
Some consumers have delayed purchasing a mattress.Shutterstock
Mattress retailers face an expense problem
RTM Nexus CEO Dominick Miserandino thinks there’s an easy explanation behind why many mattress chains have struggled or filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Look, mattress chains are failing for one simple reason: you can’t pay strip-mall rent on a product people buy once every decade. Their big defense has always been ‘customers need to try before they buy.’ But laying on a bed for two awkward minutes under fluorescent lights with a commission salesman hovering over you isn’t testing a mattress,” he told TheStreet.
That advantage has largely been replaced by another type of trial that actually gives you more peace of mind.
“Direct-to-consumer brands completely neutralized that by giving people a 100-night trial in their own bedroom with free returns. When consumers can test a bed at home for three months, paying massive markups just to lay on a floor model for three minutes makes zero sense,” he added.
Demand has also dropped as consumers choices have risen, according to Miserandino.
“Once the housing market froze and inflation hit big-ticket items, foot traffic vanished, leaving these chains trapped in high-rent leases for showrooms nobody needs anymore,” he shared.
Multiple mattress brands have filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy
It’s a market that has led to a number of Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings, including some major names in the space.
Serta Simmons Bedding: Chapter 11 filed January 2023. The mattress manufacturer filed a prepackaged Chapter 11 restructuring after years of heavy debt. It emerged from bankruptcy in June 2023, with its debt substantially reduced and ownership transferred to lenders, according to Retail Dive.
Factory Mattress/Southwest Mattress Sales: Subchapter V Chapter 11 filed June 7, 2024. Austin-based Southwest Mattress Sales, which operates Factory Mattressand Factory Mattress Sales, filed under Subchapter V. The company subsequently had its reorganization plan confirmed in May 2025, Inforuptcy reported.
Metro Mattress Corp.: Chapter 11 filed Sept. 4, 2024. The New York-based mattress retailer filed Chapter 11. The case was ultimately dismissed in January 2026, according to Inforuptcy.
American Mattress/AFM Mattress Co.: Chapter 11 filed July 2025. American Mattress’ parent company, AFM Mattress Co., filed Chapter 11. The filing covered 52 stores in Illinois and Indiana; stores in Michigan, Florida, and Missouri were operated by non-debtor affiliates. The company cited a difficult business environment, election-year uncertainty, and costly mattress-vendor product line changes and showroom resets, reported Furniture Today.
Landmark Furniture/Mattresses For Less: Chapter 11 filed Nov. 9, 2025. Brenmark Inc., doing business as Landmark Furniture and Mattresses ForLess, filed Chapter 11 in Texas along with Taylors Fine Furniture & Mattress LLC.Source: Bankruptcy case information, reported Inforuptcy.
Sleep Number: Chapter 11 filed June 2026. Sleep Number filed Chapter 11 with approximately $672 million of debt and entered bankruptcy with a $415 million stalking-horse acquisition agreement from Sleep Country Canada. The company subsequently received court approval for a $701 million total-value sale of its assets, according to Reuters.
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Consumers push back mattress purchases
When your car breaks down, you need to fix it, replace it, or find another way to get to work. That’s not the case with mattress purchases.
Toby Konetzny, CEO of South Bay International, told Bedding News Now that consumers have been pulling back on spending at a time when consumer confidence is down.
“Life feels more expensive these days,” he said. “That makes consumers think, ‘I don’t really need a new mattress.’ Products have to be on sale for consumers to buy.”
The data from the the International Sleep Products Association (ISPA) 2026 Mattress Industry Trends Report (MITR) shows a steep decline for the industry.
“Total U.S. mattress market value declined 6.5% year over year, while unit shipments fell 13.2%, underscoring continued softness in consumer demand,” according to the report.
Mary Thorpe, director of industry research and analytics at ISPA, did see some positive signs.
“Looking beyond the headline numbers, the data shows a market where value proved more resilient than unit demand,” she said. “Unit demand remained under pressure in 2025, but pricing discipline and product mix helped limit the decline in dollar value. Manufacturers largely maintained pricing despite lower volumes, while a shift toward larger mattress sizes contributed to higher average unit values.”
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