I have long held the belief that all these mattress stores are all a front for something.
There’s a shopping center nearby that has three of them. THREE MATTRESS STORES WITHIN THROWING DISTANCE OF EACH OTHER.
Mattresses are like a once every 10 years purchase. How the fuck is there enough foot traffic to support 3 of them mother fuckers that close together?
When I worked across the street from them I never saw any of them having big sales or anything. Nobody I knew anyone that worked at any of them. They never seemed busy. Never saw trucks bringing in stock.
A person I am close with once worked at one of those mattress stores. They get maybe 1-4 sales a day, but they have stupid high margins and pay their workers poverty wages.
Yeah I can rationalize how one storeight stay open in an area, but 3 of them? With the rent in that shopping center there was no goddamn way they were paying employees and keeping the lights on.
I know a town with I think five or six large furniture (or general household item) stores basically next to each other. Big brands.
It is probably a combination of factors: The area is easy to reach by car, it’s easy to supply by truck, plenty of space for storage and people actively come there to shop furniture - yes you will be competing with five different stores, but since the customer base travels quite a bit anyway, you’d be stupid to set up shop in a different town. People will walk/drive 5 minutes to check a different store if they already came all this way, but they probably won’t head to a store two towns over just to compare prices.
I think it’s the same thing with sofa/couch shops. I have four of them at a walking distance near my place. I’ve never seen anybody going in.
Also, an Italian company which I won’t name is always advertising on all national TV channels. All the time. TV ads prices are insane, how can they afford them?
In the 70s, the police made a famous mafia family “split” and move from the South of Italy to some North cities, in a futile attempt to stop their mafia activities. A branch of this family opened a mattress factory, which is now famous all over Italy. This is not speculation, it’s history. I won’t name this mattress factory, but if you can read Italian you can Google “mafia Budrio” to learn more.
I have to imagine matrices are a high margin item because of how infrequently they are purchased, how they cost as much as some used cars, and how important in-person examination is. Perhaps there’s some kind of vendor lock in similar to car dealerships?
I have long held the belief that all these mattress stores are all a front for something.
There’s a shopping center nearby that has three of them. THREE MATTRESS STORES WITHIN THROWING DISTANCE OF EACH OTHER.
Mattresses are like a once every 10 years purchase. How the fuck is there enough foot traffic to support 3 of them mother fuckers that close together?
When I worked across the street from them I never saw any of them having big sales or anything. Nobody I knew anyone that worked at any of them. They never seemed busy. Never saw trucks bringing in stock.
It doesn’t add up.
A person I am close with once worked at one of those mattress stores. They get maybe 1-4 sales a day, but they have stupid high margins and pay their workers poverty wages.
Yeah I can rationalize how one storeight stay open in an area, but 3 of them? With the rent in that shopping center there was no goddamn way they were paying employees and keeping the lights on.
I know a town with I think five or six large furniture (or general household item) stores basically next to each other. Big brands.
It is probably a combination of factors: The area is easy to reach by car, it’s easy to supply by truck, plenty of space for storage and people actively come there to shop furniture - yes you will be competing with five different stores, but since the customer base travels quite a bit anyway, you’d be stupid to set up shop in a different town. People will walk/drive 5 minutes to check a different store if they already came all this way, but they probably won’t head to a store two towns over just to compare prices.
I think it’s the same thing with sofa/couch shops. I have four of them at a walking distance near my place. I’ve never seen anybody going in.
Also, an Italian company which I won’t name is always advertising on all national TV channels. All the time. TV ads prices are insane, how can they afford them?
In the 70s, the police made a famous mafia family “split” and move from the South of Italy to some North cities, in a futile attempt to stop their mafia activities. A branch of this family opened a mattress factory, which is now famous all over Italy. This is not speculation, it’s history. I won’t name this mattress factory, but if you can read Italian you can Google “mafia Budrio” to learn more.
I have to imagine matrices are a high margin item because of how infrequently they are purchased, how they cost as much as some used cars, and how important in-person examination is. Perhaps there’s some kind of vendor lock in similar to car dealerships?