Three 1800mattress.com stores to stay open 24/7
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, March 10, 2008
New York — For the City That Never Sleeps, now there are sleep shops that never sleep.
1800mattress.com, based here, last week became what it said is the first bedding retailer in the city to stay open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The company, which bills itself as the nation's largest tele-retailer of bedding products and accessories, said it is throwing away the keys (figuratively) to the front doors of three Manhattan showrooms (at 64th Street and Second Avenue, 95th Street and Third Avenue, and 34th Street and Ninth Avenue) and its regional clearance center in Long Island City.
A key feature of the new business model, company officials said, will be delivery around the clock in Manhattan. If a consumer finds the right mattress during the night, the mattress can be delivered and set up in a bedroom within two hours.
The retailer launched the initiative during National Sleep Awareness Week. As part of the nationwide effort, it also had medical sleep experts at each of the Manhattan showrooms for a 24-hour period to give consumers advice on how to get a better night's sleep.
"We have always offered our customers the ability to shop how they want, when they want and at the price they want to pay by offering 24/7 telephone and Internet capabilities," said 1800mattress.com founder and CEO Napoleon Barragan. "It made good sense to extend that to our showrooms. We now understand that nearly 30% of consumers want to try a bed before making a purchase, so it is increasingly important to have the showrooms open for them when it is convenient for them."
Officials expect to broaden the 24/7 policy to stores beyond New York.
"Manhattan will be the first of what we see as a nationwide launch of the program," said John O'Connell, executive vice president of sales and merchandising. "Between people working late, commuters and shift workers, it is a 24-hour city. We also know from the history in the call center and online that there is good business to be done after 10 p.m., when most of our stores traditionally closed."
He said the 24-hour delivery option is a key to the program.
"Before, we delivered from 6 a.m. to about midnight," O'Connell said. "Now the consumer in Manhattan can also get their bed during the night, when candidly, they need it most."
