There Are So Many Mattress Firm Stores That People Think Something Fishy Is Going on Behind the Scenes

Not one, not two, not three, but four — that’s the number of Mattress Firm stores one Redditor noticed at a single intersection. Many other netizens have noticed the same abundance of Mattress Firm brick-and-mortar stores, which has led many to suspect a conspiracy theory about Mattress Firm participating in money laundering or some other illicit activity.

While a few journalists have studied the ins and outs of the conspiracy theories that lead back to Mattress Firm, there hasn’t been enough evidence to point to illegitimate activities relating to the sleep brand. Even still, the conspiracy theory remains a popular one. So what’s the deal with Mattress Firm, and why are there so many stores?

The conspiracy theory about Mattress Firm first gained traction in early 2018 when a Redditor shared on a thread asking, “What conspiracy theory do you 100 percent buy into and why?” that they believe, “Mattress firm is some sort of giant money laundering scheme.” They elaborated, “They are f--king everywhere and always empty. I remember seeing four Mattress Firms all on each corner of an intersection once, there is no way there is such a demand for mattresses.”

Others added their own experiences with Mattress Firm. “Either it’s a front for something or the world’s most boring job,” one wrote. So which is it? Is Mattress Firm a front or just a boring job? Someone else wrote, “Have you ever stepped foot in a mattress store? They act like they've never seen a real human before,” adding fuel to the fire that something fishy is going on.

As many of us know, buying a mattress is an expense no one wants to take on. Before the likes of Amazon and online mattress retailers, our only option was to go to the store and buy an exorbitantly priced mattress. A mattress is typically a long-term purchase, which lasts people 10 or more years, so it’s not like people are buying mattresses left and right. This explains why the stores are so empty.

But even still, at the height of Mattress Firm in 2018, there were almost as many mattress stores as there were Starbucks stores, according to an episode of NPR's The Indicator from Planet Money, and we all know people buy way more coffee than they do mattresses. However, mattress sales have much higher margins than coffee. A mattress typically costs around just $200 to make, while it would typically sell for about $2,000. With just about 100 sales per month, a mattress store can pay for itself.

In order to then monopolize the market, Mattress Firm opened up several locations in close proximity, a business strategy they were able to employ by buying up smaller boutique mattress stores that tried to compete with them. In 2018, they owned 3,300 of the 10,000 mattress stores in America, which is no small feat.

After Mattress Firm acquired Sleepy’s in 2015. Then, in 2016, Steinhoff, which is the second largest furniture retailer in the world after Ikea, purchased Mattress Firm for a whopping $3.8 billion, double its market price, according to the same NPR podcast episode. Many criticized Steinhoff, which is based in South Africa, for the move. And as it turned out, Steinhoff was under investigation for fraud at the time.

Steinhoff’s executives, mainly former CEO Markus Jooste, spent lavishly in plain sight on yachts, luxury cars, and more. But in Dec. 2017, Markus resigned, and then in early 2018, the conspiracy theories about Mattress Firm began circulating. Mattress Firm CEO Ryan Murphy resigned on Jan. 26, 2018, fueling the fire to some sort of illegitimate activity happening behind closed doors.

However, Mattress Firm has never spoken officially about the theories since. And even if the investigations into Steinhoff found illicit financial activity, this related to fraud and tax accounting rather than money laundering, disproving the crux of the theories.