'I think it's gonna be hit and miss:' How consumers, local businesses fare during Memorial Day mattress sales
May 22-Weekend camping trips on the water , hot dogs on the porch and large holiday discounts mark Memorial Day weekend.
Each year, mattress and furniture stores advertise big sales around federal holidays when consumers are off work and free to shop. The big-ticket home essentials, like mattresses, drop a couple-hundred dollars cheaper than their original retail price.
Retailer Walker's Furniture & Mattress draws customers in with manufacturer discounts during holiday sales. Brands such as Beautyrest and Serta offer discounts straight to shoppers through retailers, said Sarah Little, marketing director for Walker's Furniture and Mattress.
"During major holidays, the mattress manufacturers extend savings to the consumer, so the holidays are the best time to buy a mattress because that's when you're going to get your biggest discounts," she said.
For many consumers, the economy plays a large role in whether they hold out for holiday sales to buy big ticket items like mattresses.
"During harder times more people wait for holiday sales, whereas when the economy is a little freer, we see more traffic in between those holiday sales," Little said.
At Walker's in Spokane, store manager Gary Schwisol said the economy is having an impact.
"It is definitely affecting sales, especially traffic coming in the door right now," he said. "If people don't need something they're holding off."
However, he recommends consumers buy now because how and when prices change is "unknown."
Thomas Greene, a marketing professor at Eastern Washington University, said consumer spending is dependent on the economy. He said it will be hard to predict how consumers will behave this holiday weekend.
"I think it's gonna be hit and miss," Greene said, noting inflation and the rising cost of gas. "It could have a real impact this Memorial Day."
Retailers' target audience also play a large role in consumers' sale participation. One of Walker's Furniture advertising efforts has been on Instagram where the brand shows items they recommend buying during the sale.
"Gen Z, they very much have different shopping habits, and what I'm seeing in some of my classes and everything else, it's most of Gen Z are shopping online and not going to stores," Greene said.
For Spokane Furniture Company, holiday sales are largely successful.
"Absolutely an increase because every store is advertising," store manager Paul Paradiso said.
"They see it as an opportunity when families are home and available to shop."
The store runs major sales for Memorial Day, Labor Day and Black Friday. Holiday prices are the lowest price for the quarter or year, he said.
Spokane Furniture Company tries to keep deals the same on each holiday sale, he said, so families who aren't able to afford the item during the Memorial Day sale have time to save up.
"Whether they decide to buy on Memorial Day or can't afford it at that time, when they come back on the next sale, like Labor Day, they're gonna get an equal price, so we're treating everyone as fairly as we can," he said.
Twilight Bedding, with stores in north Spokane and Spokane Valley, manufactures their mattresses in Spokane, so deals and profit margins differ for the company, compared to others like Walker's and Spokane Furniture who sell mattresses from national brands, said Vincent DeFazio, Twilight Bedding's president.
To stay competitive with other mattress retailers, the store is running sales such as king-sized mattresses for the price of a queen and 10% off queen- and full-sized mattresses for the Memorial Day holiday. However, the store previously ran large sales around earlier holidays in the year.
"The reason the sales pick up, especially President's Day and Martin Luther King, is because a lot of people are getting their tax returns back around that time of year," he said.
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This story was originally published May 23, 2026 at 7:13 PM.