True Confession

March 7, 2016  by in Business Strategy, Industry   

I confess. I shopped online and bought a new mattress. Yep, you read it right. The fan of all things retail—most especially home furnishings retail—broke the golden rule and bought online.

Before you start writing the hate e-mail, I’ll explain.

First and foremost, it came down to a convenience and time-crunch thing. Two of us share the master suite, and more times than not, the down time we have involves lacrosse matches, concerts, art shows or robotics competitions. We don’t have much time to visit a furniture store or a bedding store together. We’re busy.

Next, it was time for a new sleep set; actually, a year or two beyond time. We’re aging, our bones ache and we’ve become restless sleepers. We’re keeping up with three kiddos, all at different schools with different activities.

So here’s how our mattress purchase happened.

We spent a weekend with friends at the beach. They’d recently replaced the mattress in one of the guest rooms at their beach house. The very guest room in which we typically sleep.

For two nights, we sleep beautifully, peacefully and comfortably. We awoke the first morning and were pleasantly shocked. The second night rendered the same results. We were hooked and scrambled under the mattress cover to find the maker and model name.

Shocking that we agreed on the same sleep surface. He prefers firm as a rock; me a bit softer. This bed met and passed both of our comfort requirements.

Sold!

Once back home, we were online searching for the bed, which shall forever more remain unnamed to those in the industry. Within a few computer keystrokes, there it was—sleep utopia. We knew it was the one. We’d had the best, two-night rest test of all time. That, sadly is something you just can’t get in a retail store. To be fair, you can’t get it online either.

A few more computer clicks, and the bed was ordered with free, white glove delivery. Bonus points when you consider the trick of hauling a king up the stairs and making a hairpin turn into the bedroom.

The delivery guys arrived as scheduled—more stars. Carried the mattress and foundations up the stairs; set them in place; and removed the old set.

Done. Clean, simple and easy. The only way it could have been better would have been for them to put the linens in place.

Now, is our experience unique in that we had the opportunity to sleep on a mattress that we happened to love? Absolutely, and I don’t discount that luck. Would we have been willing to part with the money without having that weekend? It’s hard to say, but the bed does have a 120-day comfort guarantee.

Sweet dreams!