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Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Say "Mattress" 10 times fast

Every where I go, I see a billion mattress stores. I see 10 mattress commercials in a half hour television show. I hear catchy mattress jingles on the radio.
Mattress Firm, Mattress Giant, Mattress One, Sleep Number, Temperpedic...and that doesn't even count department stores and furniture stores that devote entire departments to the sales of mattresses.

Of course there are other things that I'm used to seeing en masse; fast food restaurants, gas stations, drug stores, but these stores all sale things that we buy on a fairly regular basis.

How often do people buy mattresses?

Of all of the people that I know closely enough to have intimate knowledge of their mattresses, I can say with some certainty that my parents were the last people I know to buy brand new mattresses...and that was five years ago. In fact, its common place, at least among the people I know, for them to have 10 to 20 year old mattresses. I think that's disgusting, and terribly uncomfortable but not everyone is as much of a princess as I am. I can also say with confidence that people will go out of their way to not buy a mattress. For instance, my dad who has been sleeping on an inflatable bed for the past year and a half (I know, this seems terribly contradictory to the fact that my parents have a nice, newish bed but I've never explained how my dad works in Memphis and flies home to Tampa every weekend - hence, the inflata-bed)

Seriously. Can you think of anything one might buy less often than a mattress? A car maybe? A house? Even those are debatable.

How do mattress stores sustain themselves? In Tampa alone there are 25 Mattress Firms. If you combined all of the stores in all of the city that sell mattresses, 25 seems like too many. 25 stores of just one of the chains? What am I missing here?

Who is buying all of these damn mattresses?!?!

8 comments:

Queen Lindstifa said...

My guess? Dog owners. I have always had hand-me-down beds, until I bought my first condo and bought a brand new bed. Correction: overspent for a new bed. Which was peed on - repeatedly - within two years of it's introduction to my home.

So, yeah. Everytime I change the mattress pad I'm greeted with a yellow circular reminder of my dog's assholiness.

Do you think the mattres people and next-day carpet/flooring people are conspiring together?

Also...I get the jingles confused, like "Call one eight hundred steamers, only at mattress giant - Hmm, haaaah."

Rinse and repeat about 100 times and you've got a standard morning commute in my head.

Sarah Elizabeth said...

Hilarious. I have never really noticed mattress stores, but you are absolutely right. How do they stay in business?

Beth said...

I was thinking the same thing the other day.

On Long Island, in a 5 mile vicinity of my house, there are 13 Sleepy's. 13. Sleepy's. Just Sleepy's. 13.

There are some sleepies across the street from other Sleepy's.

They are like Starbucks except they have no practical purpose.

Vanessa said...

Dallas is like that too! There are so many mattress stores it's incredible. My only thought is they are re-outfitting every hotel in all of Dallas. Every year.

Becs said...

Me and my boyfriend recently bought a matress and it was the first one I have ever shopped for. And HOLY SHIT it was expensive. It is pretty awesome though. But for the price, we won't be shopping for another one for at least 10 years.

James Freund said...

Hi, I work for Select Comfort answering phones and emails of a customer service nature. Your mention of the abundance of mattress retailers in Tampa reminded me of this bit that the comedian Lewis Black does: apparently in Houston there's a Starbuck's right across the street from another Starbuck's! He calls that the end of the universe.

I'm not sure how other mattress stores operate but I know our beds ship out of our plants, one in Utah and one in South Carolina . Our stores are more like showrooms where customers can come in and test each bed model. Once they've found a model suited to their personal preference, an order is placed from one of our plants, as each bed is custom built. If you're interested in learning more about sleep-related topics or the Sleep Number bed, visit beds.com. There you will find conversations about sleep, video clips, testimonials and more.



James Freund
I'm a 45!

James Freund said...

Hi, I work for Select Comfort answering phones and emails of a customer service nature. Your mention of the abundance of mattress retailers in Tampa reminded me of this bit that the comedian Lewis Black does: apparently in Houston there's a Starbuck's right across the street from another Starbuck's! He calls that the end of the universe.

I'm not sure how other mattress stores operate but I know our beds ship out of our plants, one in Utah and one in South Carolina. Our stores are more like showrooms where customers can come in and test each bed model. Once they've found a model suited to their personal preference, an order is placed from one of our plants, as each bed is custom built. If you're interested in learning more about sleep-related topics or the Sleep Number bed, visit beds.com. There you will find conversations about sleep, video clips, testimonials and more.

Take care,

James Freund
I'm a 45!

Anonymous said...

Well written article.