MATTRESS FIRM HAS FILED FOR BANKRUPTCY 
The nationwide chain filed for Chapter 11 this morning in order to deal with its debt — $3.2 billion by Paul Takahashi’s accounting — as well as what the company calls “certain economically inefficient store locations.” 700 stores nationwide are goners, 200 of which will be closing “in the next few days,” according to the company. [Previously on Swamplot] Photo of shuttered Mattress Firm at 208 Westheimer Rd.: Swamplox inbox
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Sorry but I laughed at the headline.
It seems a bit heartless to say it but I’m NOT going to miss having fewer Mattress Firm stores. If they are blowing away in the wind, can they take some of the other mattress stores with them? Pretty please?
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(I am empathetic to those store employees who will need new employment. But, today’s labor report says jobs are a-plenty.)
Overly optimistic expansion fueled by BILLIONS in unpayable debt. The employees get screwed while the execs get rich. But the market drives the cyclical nature of business. Either adapt /change /grow or fail. There are TOO many mattress retail outlets. While the new breed or retail / online businesses are killing the old school outlets.
I guess all their sales people were laying down on the job.
Maybe the “matress killer” from a few months ago had something to do with this?
“It is a curious subject of observation and inquiry, whether hatred and love be not the same thing at bottom. Each, in its utmost development, supposes a high degree of intimacy and heart-knowledge; each renders one individual dependent for the food of his affections and spiritual life upon another; each leaves the passionate lover, or the no less passionate hater, forlorn and desolate by the withdrawal of his object.†Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter
Mattress firm got caught undercutting competitors on Tempur-pedic, a price regulated product, and they lost the license to sell Tempur-pedic, Stearns & Foster, and Sealy which is the lion’s share of the market. While people aren’t sad to see the stores leave their neighborhoods, employees of their competitors who play by the rules aren’t so sad about it either.