It’s kind of crazy how these online mattress companies have repackaged memory foam and apparently have sold a whole generation on them. It’s like waterbeds x 1000. The trick seems to be that upper “supportive” layer of latex rubber lattice they stick on top to even out the memory foam feel, and that people are lazy and would rather have it delivered.
Not surprising. They’ve opened up 3 stores in the area in the past year, all within 20 minutes. I’ve never seen anybody in them.
I did some forum deep dive research on a new mattress a couple years ago (before the online mattress craze really kicked in), and all the crazy forum types talked about how the “Big S’s” we’re overpriced garbage (Sealy, Simmons, etc).
So, it isn’t just the convenience of delivery (all the mattress places always offered free delivery) or the pseudo-scientific claims of the magic of memory foam, the mattress industry was ripe for disruption one way or another.
Also, my personal experience is that Mattress Firm over expanded as well. I think they figured the way to fight online sales was with ubiquity: make it easy and convenient to test a mattress in person, but I guess they missed the mark.
We have a mattress store near my work (not Mattress Firm) and we’ve all wondered how it stays in business. No customers ever. Just a couple sales people inside all day.
Front for a mexican cartel, most likely. They use the back rooms as a waystation for trafficked Guatamalans and to cut fentanyl with corn starch.
As someone who just did exactly this, I’ll note that it was a fantastic experience, and I’m very happy with my queen-size frame and 10.5" memory foam mattress. $400 delivered to my house. That’s not really crazy in my opinion. Do you know what is crazy though? Spending hours perusing absurdly overpriced beds at a mattress store with salesmen hovering over your shoulder like you’re buying a car (and you might as well be with the gobbledygook “feature” list and outrageous price points.
In order to chip away the mountain of bullshit that has been built up over the last century so we can get back to good products at fair prices, this industry—much like the eyeglass industry—needs to be completely demolished by online retailers. And it will be.
In this case it’s only partly because of the online mattress stuff. The parent company is Steinhoff, a South African conglomerate which revealed a massive hole in its accounts a while ago and has been liquidating assets ever since. It’s not in a position to invest anything to turn Mattress Firm around.
I guess money laundering wasn’t as profitable as they thought?
There are more mattress stores than liquor stores in this town, at least it seems that way. I am not surprised that one of them is closing down.
I will grant they sell over priced mattresses, and that the buying experience could be better, but the idea of buying a mattress without trying it sounds crazy to me.
Were they in trouble before their renames over the last couple years?
Seeing the shops by me go from Sleep Country --> Sleep Train --> Mattress Firm has been confusing to say the least.
My wife and I just bought an Avocado Mattress after reading it’s incredible reviews from Consumer Reports and other reputable outlets. Extremely happy with it so far over the last couple months. We had absolutely no interest in trying to buy one in a store since it’s impossible to tell whether it would be good in the long run, return policies are crap, and prices are way inflated.
Mattress Firm’s biggest error was over-expansion. One one intersection near me there are 3(!). The fourth corner houses a Sleep Number store.
As to the name changes, that’s more the result of MF purchasing local dealerships.
Most of them offer no-hassle 90-day returns. I did that with Casper–they sent me the wrong one the first try–and it was easy easy.
The prices of mattresses have been ridiculous. I like my memory form mattress just fine. I also don’t have a wooden box spring but a collapsible metal one.
One thing I liked about buying from a store a few years ago, was that they took away my old mattress. That’s another $100 right there, but more than that, just not worrying about how I get rid of the old one. No more appointments etc. More often than not, I am all about convenience.
That said, as others have said, mattress shopping was weird. Empty stores with pushy salesmen. I went to multiple stores and I was the only one in all of them.
There are a bajillion mattress stores here. Each major byway has 3 competing with each other, some are lterally right next door to each other.
I remember reading a report about how the mattress industry was ripe for abuse/collapse as people were able to open stores with almost no investment or money needed.
I called up my garbage place and asked them if they took extra things, like mattresses and box springs, and they said yes. They sent out a guy and they charged me 15 for the box spring and I think 20 for the mattress. I don’t know if all places do that but they just picked it up on garbage day. Just an FYI, from my experience.
Here it is:
Thanks, probably the way it works if you live in a house, but I live in a condo. Technically I could just throw it in front of the dumpster, but they charge the condo if they have to get out the truck. Of course no one else who lives here seems to care about that…
I actually have a box spring currently I want to get rid of. At least $100 to get it picked up. Thought about buying a saw and just chomping it up instead, but my cats love it. It’s a huge bed, climbing tree, and scratching post in one.
I live in a townhouse in Seattle and calling the city to take away a mattress was very cheap:
http://www.seattle.gov/util/MyServices/Garbage/HouseResidentsGarbage/ExtraorBulkyGarbage/index.htm
Just $30 for a service private companies would charge me $50-$100+ for.