Memorial Day Mattress Sales

Did everyone enjoy their Memorial Day? What did you do on your holiday? Some people went to parades, others wore poppies, or just enjoyed the three day weekend. Other people went to one of billions of mattress sales. Mattress retailer Amerisleep This Memorial Day, Amerisleep sought to honor past and present service members and all fellow Americans with their best deal of the season on memory foam mattresses! Amerisleep promised  "$200 off any mattress and... free shipping throughout the continental United States!" "$200 dollars?" "ANY mattress?" "FREE SHIPPING?" WOW! What a deal! Good ol' mattress retailers, providing a mattress for our national heroes!

But seriously, why have we diluted Memorial Day to the point where it can be associated with enormous mattress sales?

One theory is the generational gap between World War II veterans and 'millenials,' the newest generation, which includes mainly children actually born in the 2000s and 90s kids, with some late 80s kids. Basically people who have grown up in the 2000s, far away from the Cold War. The New York Times showed in a study that "in the past decade, less than 1 percent of the American population has been on active military duty, compared with 9 percent of Americans who were in uniform in World War II. As a result, there is a growing generation gap, with younger Americans far less likely than older ones to have a family member who served" and, subsequently, experienced war firsthand. I consider 9 percent to be pretty low, but "less than 1 percent" is microscopic. And "the growing generation gap" between those who have served in the military during a war or even had a relative who served diminishes.

And empathy for veterans decreases as a result. Millenial man Mike Goorhouse explains his separation with veterans.Even though he has "grandparents who served in the armed forces" as do many of us, "their terms were complete well before I was born" In terms of the >1% of Americans on active military duty, Goorhouse has some "classmates from high school who currently serve in the military but none of [his] close friends have ever served our country in this way" and he has no solid connection to anyone served in the armed forces. Goorhouse believes that his "experience is that rare among members of the Millennial generation" and is one cause for the lack of love for Memorial Day.

So if our veterans mean less and less to us, then our national holiday turns more into a three day weekend. And with three day weekends, most people stay at home and rest on Monday. With customers staying at home (right where they want us!), mattress retailers like Amerisleep are pretty smart for creating an annual mattress sale for Memorial Day Weekend. Obviously no one cares anymore about our veterans, so let's make some money!


However, we are still fighting in Afghanistan and have plenty of Iraq War veterans, so the idea that we lack veterans or a war to remember what war feels like feels a little inconsistent. I also still don't know how mattress stores started their sales on Memorial Day. Maybe other retailers (like clothing, food, etc.) have or have had sales for Memorial Day, and the mattress sale became more iconic. Maybe this is one of the few times mattress retailers have sales, which is why it's become such a big deal. What do you think? Feel free to comment.