Enjoying this OP. At the risk of being "that guy" I'm wondering if you can answer my question (it's at post #32). If not, no worries - just wanted to make sure it wasn't overlooked, as it was posted right as you were answering a previous batch.

This is what I personally use. $28k credit limit, have several employees with cards. When I've called, it was never a huge problem for me to get the credit limit increased. Ran through about $120k last year.

awesome thread, congrats

have you or your partner ever stained a mattress?

I'm in the market for a new bed set. What advice can you give me on choosing a new mattress and getting a good price?

I was literally researching buying a mattress online and decided to take a break to read 2+2 and found this thread. I know everybody is different, but what are the best features (not gimmicks) of mattresses? How nasty are the floor models going to be when you sell them? Have you had any scratch and ding incidents?

big mattress article on bloomberg.com today. can't find it on the site anymore but i'm sure it's there.

two things jumped out at me:

1) big 3 mattress companies (at least that's how bloomberg saw it) sales were up huge last year. why would that be? new housing hasn't been strong for a long time (maybe the year over year % could be good as it's coming off a very small base)... also the article talks about encroachment on big 3 by successful upstarts so that suggests to me that big 3 growth should be less than market

2) people make a big deal out of finding the exact mattress for you i.e. go to big box mattress retailer (maybe medium box retailer) and then buy it there as you know exactly what you're getting.......... but one observer makes the point that if you buy a mattress in the middle of the softness range you should be happy. that's what hotels do. i stay in a lot of hotels and never remotely had a problem with a mattress unless it was really old. and frankly when i go to the mattress store i would have happily purchased any mattress i've ever laid on there.

Mattresses will be internet proof for a long time. I saw an economic analysis a while back arguing that, compared to other consumer products, the percentage of the price attributable to shipping is sky high. That's why an online consumer with an Amazon Prime account can get free shipping on bed sheets but not a mattress.

OP do you agree with this?

i'm pretty sure a lot of mattresses are "free shipping" on amazon.. obviously shipping is baked into the mattress price.

if i buy a queen-sized mattress at B&M, aren't i paying for shipping that's baked into the price?

in fact, buying a mattress online = two trips for the mattress (asia to warehouse, then to my house) same as buying from mattress retailer.

i think there are huge gross margin % in mattresses and it's an expensive item. so you can easily save $300-$400 on a $1400 mattress online... and as article says pretty much a modern mattress in standard softness range works for many people.

i agree many people won't see it like that.

Congrats OP. Didn't you post ages ago about whether you should take a plunge and move to a new place? I remember replying to that thread.

edit: I looked it up, this was the thread. Congrats on making a great life choice!! I hope you took my advice and have a solid portion of the equity in the business - if not you should get it while he needs you, before employing staff so he can't squeeze you out. It looks like this could run into a lot of money. You should see a business lawyer/accountant immediately and discuss what you should be doing in this situation to maximize your share and where you stand if he decides to cut you out. Even the best of friends and most reliable of people will screw you if they can. Don't **** around here, there's a lot of money on the line and this could go a lot bigger than you imagined. All the big chains started off like this. Get your affairs in order now and get enduring equity while he still desperately needs you.

As for staff, I think hiring someone and giving them a percentage/almost equity is a horrible idea. You should hiring part time office staff, delivery drivers, etc. Then a floor salesman on commission. Use a temping agency at first if you want to get a feel without the paperwork and hassle. It'll cost quite a bit more than hiring directly but it's still small change and worth it to get a feel for the issues involved in employing people.

+++1 to all the other people who said the same thing. They're smart guys and well respected around here.

i said that online and B&M might be similar. shipment from china to warehouse, then warehouse to my house...

but are finished mattresses assembled in north america? i think they were recently. that's a lot of air to ship across the ocean.

Cool thread

I'm a retailer myself (two stores) & so naturally I'm interested in this thread.

Very impressive beginning; it'll be interesting to see how OP grows / maintains this business. Presumably they won't want to continue to operate for long without hiring employees which will both reduce and add to their headaches & responsibilities.

Anyway, haven't heard from OP, so time for an update.

Bump.

OP, what do u think of Casper?

OP started this thread in early February; for the first month he was very responsive & prolific, but for the last two months....nothing.

Have to assume one of the following:

1) Business has gotten even better & OP is so busy selling & delivering mattresses & managing the business he has no time to post updates.

2) Sales fell off a cliff.

3) Business &/or partnership imploded or in some way fell apart.

4) OP has decided to stop publicly posting about what a profitable niche & untapped market he's found in the fear that doing so encourages others to open other B&M stores in his area.

5) OP decided to take his shot--he & his 100K bankroll are in Vegas playing 5/10 PLO while he anxiously awaits the start of the WSOP.

I believe OP said they were located in a town of 20,000 with a surrounding market of around 200K. So, I'll take door #2 Wayne.

Selling $3-$4K average or whatever they were doing DAILY in a market that size, during what he considered the slow season seems impossible.

Hopefully I'm wrong....always rooting for the small biz.

200K people with a 10 year lifespan for a bed = 20K beds/year. If there are three other bed places in town and they capture 1/4, that is 5K beds/year. At a very modest $500/bed that's $2.5 million/year.

It's not #2.

Not OP, but will likely buy next mattress online from Casper or Tuft & Needle (offering same 100 day home trial now as Casper) just to avoid mattress store hustle & lies.

There (easily) has to be more then 3 other places in the city (big retailers alone >3) and surrounding areas to purchase mattresses, plus the internet, plus not all of these 200K people individually sleep on their own mattress.

It could very likely be #2. Hopefully I'm proven wrong though, and OP updates us.

Looking for an update. Terrific thread, thanks for sharing.

TIME FOR AN UPDATE:

-March was our biggest month yet, $115.646 in sales. It still feels surreal we're doing these numbers. April started slow as ****, 3/4 of the way through we were on par for 68,000 for the month. All of a sudden things boomed and we did like 38 000 in one week. Finished April with 93 000 in sales.

-Margins are climbing, we're operating at about 52% the last few months. Expenses remain low, we opted to not bring another full time guy , and we've started hiring more part time staff. They are paid well. $20 for an in-town delivery, $30 for an out-of-town delivery, $15 dollars per hour for miscellaneous work we have them do (taking loads of old mattresses to the landfill, shipping/receiving, truck,trailer, store maintence, etc.) . It averages out, they usually make between 15 and 23 dollars per hour. I still think we are overpaying, but we really value good help and compensate our employees well.We often buy them lunch and tip them for good work, etc. We've gotten lucky and found a couple really promising part-time employees. I only hope they stick, and we're doing everything we can to keep them around.

- I really think we found a ridiculously inefficient market. Things can only get busier. I imagine an extremely large part of the market still does not know we exist. We've started spending a bit more on advertising, yet still a pretty small amount in comparison to sales numbers.

This is me. I locked in 30% equity, notarized and official, came up with some funds to buy in. Partner with 70% is ecstatic, says I'm the best investment he's ever made, (I'm on par to make like $150 000 grand this year, putting him on par for 350 000 ****ing dollars. How many startups net can net 1/2 million year one?) He can't believe how quickly I picked up sales, and we couldn't be more grateful that no other investors had the balls to invest. It seems sickening that we offered people like 15% of the store for a measly $20 000 dollars before startup, it feels absolutely ludicrous, and would've been extremely tough to swallow given the way things have taken off. We've rubbed it in the face a little bit for some of these people, alluding to them an idea of the numbers we've been doing. It feels great.

1- Business has continued to grow. We're getting more efficient though, I've had more time off than before, both my partner and I can find a day or two off per week now.

2- Sales are continuing to climb, margins are increasing.

3- Partnership is still strong, we are becoming closer as friends, and our strengths/weakness seem to compliment one another thus far.

4- I'm not so worried about others tapping into the market. Find one as starving as ours and more power to you. The main thing that's driving our success is the salesmanship, and if you can do what we do, you deserve every penny.

5- I'm still gambing, got 2-outed on the turn for a $1000 pot at 1/2 NL last night. Drunk guy to my left straddles $25. I flat with Q9d, two other callers, gets to straddles and he raises to $100. I flat, one other guys calles. Flop comes 239 two clubs, straddler bets $200. I call. Turn comes 8o. Straddler jams, I call. He flips 88.

Awesome man, glad I was totally wrong....just seems like such a small market you guys operate in based on what you said to be doing those numbers but obviously I know F all about the mattress or retail business for that matter. Congrats.

Thanks alot man. I'm not sure how this would relate but there is a city of approximately 300 000 people about a 3 hour drive away from where we are. There is a large retail chain there with 3 locations. The slowest location of the 3 did 977000 last year (we have a buddy who is a regional manager there), and we are going to beat that if we continue as we are.