A reader wanted to make sure Swamplot readers had a chance to see the sign that’s gone up on the construction fence surrounding the Park Place Memorial strip center at 5801 Memorial Dr. — on the south side of the street just east of Westcott St. near Bayou Bend — for the new Mattress One store. (It’s the red banner on the far right of the submitted image, above.) When the store opens this August (on the opposite side of the 10,000-sq.-ft. center from Dunkin’ Donuts), it’ll count as the Florida and Texas chain’s fifty-seventh Houston-area location. Also moving in: Express Rolls, Piada Italian Street Food, and Omni Cleaners.
- Previously on Swamplot:Â How a Stretch of the Memorial Dr. Strip Earned Its Newest Strip Center
Photo: Swamplot inbox
57 Varieties, Near Donuts
Seriously, who is buying all of these mattresses?
MattressFirm’s are taking over Houston! On the bright side, MattressFirm probably only takes up a couple parking spaces an hour. If it was another eatery there would be no parking… ever. Just ask Starbuck down the street, when Texadelphia was there.
Finally addressing the critical shortage of mattress stores in Houston….
It’s a true sign of a mattress glut. We are running out of mattress storage, and mattress production is at an all time high. If we don’t get more mattress stores soon, mattress prices could dip even further.
YAAAy! More mattresses!
I’m thinking about leasing a storage unit or apartment to store my mattress collection. Or adding on a bunch of new bedrooms. If you want mattresses, then you came to the right place because they’ll give them to you here!
I am guessing the margins on a $1G mattress are pretty good, but how often do people buy a new mattress? How many mattresses does this place need to sell in a month to make their rent?
I would guess there is some sort of formula they use to crunch how far inner loopers will drive to go shopping for a new mattress, or how far they will drive with a mattress on the top of their Audi.
I don’t feel as bad now knowing folks in Memorial get their own Mattress store. I was worried it was unfair that Montrose was being greedy with 3 stores (Mattress Firms on both Westheimer and on Gray as well as their offshoot store also on Westheimer). Note, I have yet to see anyone in either of the Westheimer locations since their big grand opening.
The Sinola & Zeta Cartels need to launder their money someplace.
I think Mattress Firm is trying to set themselves up for some sort of private equity takeover. No, there’s actually no much profit in mattresses, at least not how their business model sells them. Their net income per store is only $2200 a month. According to their press releases though, they want to grow from a present 2300 stores to 4500 stores over the next couple of years.
the houston urban model is not about how close you live to a rail system but rather how close you live to a mattress store.
The Piada Street Food addition seems interesting.
Houston has 2.2 million people. If you buy a mattress every 10 years, then on average 200,000 mattress are being purchased a year. Assuming $100 profit on each mattress , then you’re looking at $20 million in yearly profits for mattress stores in Houston. There’s money to be had.
I’ve bought all my mattresses online for the last few years. Costco when I got one with my bedroom set. And a,az on for the last few. 100x better buying experience. And much cheaper / better product.
They are not selling mattresses- they are selling mattress financing- that is where the real money is in this business. I am a bit surprised about that locale- not sure many people in that neighborhood need to finance their mattress over 5 years.
Last weekend I saw a paper sign on the door of a mattress store that said “Be Back in 5 Minutes”. I thought it was funny that they can’t even keep them all staffed, so I took pictures of it. My wife pointed out that sharing the pictures might get someone fired, so I didn’t. So you’re welcome, mattress store guy.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
Here’s all of your Mattress Firm, Mattress pro and Mattress 1 One locations on one map. http://www.cdandrews.com/2015/04/mattress-manifest-destiny-part-2.html
@ahn: given the number of young $80k/yr miliionaires in the area, financing their mattresses is exactly what they are doing.
I’ve long suspected the real reasons mattress stores are so prolific is because they have to be one of the lowest overhead/footprint retail spaces you can have. No complex wall installations, no real floor installation, inventory is managed offsite. 1 employee usually, maybe 2. You can put one of these together in a matter of days, and take it down just as fast. My guess is that they are able to find short term low cost leases and hold onto them as long as they can. It’s good for the strip mall because they can fill quickly and don’t have to commit for very long and it’s good for the mattress store because…well it’s cheap.
This doesn’t explain the monster on Montrose/Westheimer, I doubt that one is a short term lease. But it explains most of the rest. Montrose has a lot of empty or underutilized retail space, this at least gives them some semblance of purpose.
but just imagine the possibilities. if we really had gotten all that ground floor retail people have been clamoring about we could’ve had a mattress shop on every street in central part of town.
@htownproud a couple things; your yearly revenue seems accurate, but while there are indeed 2.2 million people in Houston, there are nearly seven million people in “Houston”. So bump that to ~700,000 mattresses per year at $100 margin and you’re looking at about $400,000 per store if we use the store figures Chris Andrews posted.
As you said, there is money to be had! Especially if you own more than one location, as I believe some of these chains (such as the ubiquitous and farcical MattressFirm) are franchises.