Why are there so many mattress stores? How do they stay in business?

There aren’t as many as there used to be.

If you read the trade journals for the bedding industry there has been an acknowledgement going back several years that there were too many mattress dealerships.

That situation is changing. In October 2018, Mattress Firm, the largest mattress retail chain in the U.S., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

In a statement issued by the company:

Houston-based Mattress Firm plans to close as many as 700 of its 3,230 company-owned stores. Those stores are located “in certain markets where we have too many locations in close proximity to each other.”

One reason why mattress stores are downsizing is that online mattress sales are rapidly growing.

Online retailers are offering longer and better warranties than the brick and mortar retailers and have been generating excellent reviews from their customers.

As a result, more and more consumers feel that it is no longer necessary to try out mattresses in stores.

[This article was originally written prior to the beginning of the Covid 19 Pandemic.  

Since the advent of the Pandemic, many brick and mortar mattress stores have restricted access to walk-in customers.

Mattress sales are shifting even more rapidly to online mattress retailers.]