Defunct restaurant chains and retailers

[Rothman]

Good riddance to Mattress Firm.  What a stupidly run company.

[jp the roadgeek]

I've seen cases where there are two Mattress Firms within 2 miles of each other; it's a running joke in my area that there is a Mattress Firm and a Dunkin Donuts every mile.  In my town, the old Sleepy's acquired the assets of a locally owned store when one of the brothers passed away, and rebranded it Sleepy's, despite having a store about 3/4 of a mile away the other side of a highway interchange.  Eventually, they closed the location, and the surviving brother reopened a new store, which remains to this day.  Meanwhile, here's an example of why Mattress Firm is closing:

https://goo.gl/maps/BHzvoBVjAuG2

For another cautionary tale, look at Ames.

[LM117]

Not defunct (by any means with 3 flipping stores on every flipping street corner), Mattress Firm is apparently headed to bankruptcy.

Mattress Firm explores U.S. bankruptcy to close stores

Mattress Firm's deliberations offer the latest example of a U.S. brick-and-mortar retailer struggling financially amid competition from e-commerce firms such as Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O).

I take issue with this as who the hell buys a mattress online?  The real issues are quoted below in the story.

Mattress Firm lost Tempur Sealy International Inc (TPX.N), the maker of popular mattress brand Tempur-Pedic, as a supplier last year, limiting its offerings.

When you lose a big supplier like that, you get really screwed, and...

Mattress Firm acquired HMK Mattress Holdings LLC, the parent company of competitor Sleepy's, in 2016 for $780 million and then rebranded the shops. Sleepy's had over 1,050 stores on the U.S. East Coast and Illinois.

Now we get to the real reason Mattress Firm is in trouble.  When you over-acquire competitors and have two or three stores on a corner, you've over-saturated the market for your own stores.

I'm shocked.

Hell, I know of two in Goldsboro, NC that are right across the street from each other on Berkeley Boulevard. One of them is part of a new strip mall that was built recently, so I figured it was a relocation. Alas, nope.

https://goo.gl/maps/hSMAdJaFS9N2

[Brandon]

I've seen cases where there are two Mattress Firms within a mile of each other; it's a running joke in my area that there is a Mattress Firm and a Dunkin Donuts every mile.  In my town, the old Sleepy's acquired the assets of a locally owned store when one of the brothers passed away, and rebranded it Sleepy's, despite having a store about 3/4 of a mile away the other side of a highway interchange.  Eventually, they closed the location, and the surviving brother reopened a new store, which remains to this day.  Meanwhile, here's an example of why Mattress Firm is closing:

https://goo.gl/maps/BHzvoBVjAuG2

For another cautionary tale, look at Ames.

I've got an even better one:

https://goo.gl/maps/L6pT43NkyWk

And...

https://goo.gl/maps/EsQMbakrKXx

[abefroman329]

who the hell buys a mattress online?

We did. Granted, it was for the bed in our in-law suite, which will be slept on one night a week, but we did. In part because we tried to buy a bed from Mattress Firm, but we kept telling the salesman we wanted the cheapest bed they sold because it wasn't going to be used frequently, he kept trying to upsell us, and we left in disgust.

Apparently there's a solid theory that Mattress Firm is a money-laundering front. I personally think they can support so many stores because margins on mattresses are so high, they only need to sell like one per week to stay solvent. But I don't think it helped that they didn't appear to close a single store after they bought Sleepy's.

[hbelkins]

I take issue with this as who the hell buys a mattress online?

I probably would if they had free shipping. Otherwise, any money you might save would be eaten up in shipping costs.

[abefroman329]

I take issue with this as who the hell buys a mattress online?

I probably would if they had free shipping. Otherwise, any money you might save would be eaten up in shipping costs.

We bought our mattress through Amazon and got free shipping because we are Prime members. I'm sure other companies provide free shipping as well. They also have a pretty generous return/try-it-at-home policy to make up for the fact that you can't go try it out in a store.

[roadman]

Good riddance to Mattress Firm.  What a stupidly run company.

With an even stupider name.

[hbelkins]

Good riddance to Mattress Firm.  What a stupidly run company.

With an even stupider name.

Actually, I prefer a firm mattress vs. one that's so squishy soft that you feel like you're falling into quicksand.

[Flint1979]

What do you expect when you put multiple locations within a short drive of each other?

[abefroman329]

What do you expect when you put multiple locations within a short drive of each other?

The question is actually "What do you expect when you buy one of your competitors and don't close any redundant locations?"

[SP Cook]

I take issue with this as who the hell buys a mattress online?

I did.  I think what the article is referring to is the new type such as Casper, which is what I bought.  Heavily advertised on talk radio.  Other brands I have heard of are Leesa, Purple, and Saatva.  These items come in a box about the size of a kitchen trash can in an ultra compressed state.  The box is easily handled by one person, so it can be delivered easily by UPS and easily set up by one person.  You remove the plastic bag it is in and over about an hour it puffs up to regular size. 

I found the whole process easy and find the mattress to be as good as any.  Much better than trying to find three guys, including one with a truck; or sitting around waiting for some delivery guys who show up whenever.  I have also seen similar products in retail stores, which one person with a standard car could easily purchase and take home without help.

[jeffandnicole]

I believe mattress stores were well known for their price guarantees if you found the same mattress at another store for cheaper.  However, all the chains had mattresses with labels exclusive to their store, so you could never find the same mattress cheaper!

[LM117]

What do you expect when you put multiple locations within a short drive of each other?

Or walking distance.

[hotdogPi]

What do you expect when you put multiple locations within a short drive of each other?

Or walking distance.

North Station in Boston has two Dunkin Donuts within 300 feet. Their prices are slightly different.

[Rothman]

There is demand for Dunkin.  There are also two locations practically on top of each other at the Downtown Crossing T station: One in the station and one above.  Lots of people want their daily coffee and/or donut.

Mattresses?  Not so much.

[abefroman329]

I take issue with this as who the hell buys a mattress online?

I did.  I think what the article is referring to is the new type such as Casper, which is what I bought.  Heavily advertised on talk radio.  Other brands I have heard of are Leesa, Purple, and Saatva.  These items come in a box about the size of a kitchen trash can in an ultra compressed state.  The box is easily handled by one person, so it can be delivered easily by UPS and easily set up by one person.  You remove the plastic bag it is in and over about an hour it puffs up to regular size. 

I found the whole process easy and find the mattress to be as good as any.  Much better than trying to find three guys, including one with a truck; or sitting around waiting for some delivery guys who show up whenever.  I have also seen similar products in retail stores, which one person with a standard car could easily purchase and take home without help.

Two potential drawbacks to online mattresses are:

1) You're limited to memory foam (like H. Belkins, I prefer something firmer)
2) Online companies don't offer removal of the old mattress(es)

As for delivery windows, I've never had issues with that.  We even timed delivery of our most recent bed to coincide with our arrival in Chicago in the moving truck from DC, and the delivery men arrived bang on time.

[hbelkins]

1) You're limited to memory foam (like H. Belkins, I prefer something firmer)
2) Online companies don't offer removal of the old mattress(es)

As for delivery windows, I've never had issues with that.  We even timed delivery of our most recent bed to coincide with our arrival in Chicago in the moving truck from DC, and the delivery men arrived bang on time.

1.) I don't know about this H. Belkins character, but I haven't found memory foam mattresses to be too soft at all.

2.) Put the old mattress out with the garbage, call for special disposal from the garbage service (many cities provide this service at no extra charge, take it out in the back yard and set it on fire, or haul it up into the woods behind your house and turn it into a bed for wild animals. 

[Flint1979]

What do you expect when you put multiple locations within a short drive of each other?

Or walking distance.

North Station in Boston has two Dunkin Donuts within 300 feet. Their prices are slightly different.

I can understand that type of thing. It's like Starbucks in Seattle.

[abefroman329]

What do you expect when you put multiple locations within a short drive of each other?

Or walking distance.

North Station in Boston has two Dunkin Donuts within 300 feet. Their prices are slightly different.

I can understand that type of thing. It's like Starbucks in Seattle.

Or Starbucks everywhere.

ETA: At least when you have two Starbucks at the same corner, both will have a line out the door at 7 am on a weekday.

[Flint1979]

What do you expect when you put multiple locations within a short drive of each other?

Or walking distance.

North Station in Boston has two Dunkin Donuts within 300 feet. Their prices are slightly different.

I can understand that type of thing. It's like Starbucks in Seattle.

Or Starbucks everywhere.

ETA: At least when you have two Starbucks at the same corner, both will have a line out the door at 7 am on a weekday.

Pretty much but Seattle being it's Headquarters is probably the reasoning there. There are at least 7 Starbucks in a mile radius in downtown Seattle, possibly even more. Another business that has a lot of locations in a single metro area is Waffle House in Atlanta. It must be something about over saturating the market in the city that your Headquarters is located in.

Just a straight up business that has a ton of locations around the Detroit area is coney island restaurants. There is a coney island on just about every major intersection in the Detroit area it seems like.

[abefroman329]

What do you expect when you put multiple locations within a short drive of each other?

Or walking distance.

North Station in Boston has two Dunkin Donuts within 300 feet. Their prices are slightly different.

I can understand that type of thing. It's like Starbucks in Seattle.

Or Starbucks everywhere.

ETA: At least when you have two Starbucks at the same corner, both will have a line out the door at 7 am on a weekday.

Pretty much but Seattle being it's Headquarters is probably the reasoning there. There are at least 7 Starbucks in a mile radius in downtown Seattle, possibly even more. Another business that has a lot of locations in a single metro area is Waffle House in Atlanta. It must be something about over saturating the market in the city that your Headquarters is located in.

Just a straight up business that has a ton of locations around the Detroit area is coney island restaurants. There is a coney island on just about every major intersection in the Detroit area it seems like.

I don't think it counts as oversaturation if you have numerous locations in a small geographic area and they're all packed.

[sparker]

Late last year Mattress Firm bought Sleep Train, a CA-centered retailer.  At the time I thought "good riddance" to the local chain with the weirdest TV/radio ads around -- featuring a cartoon "old-fashioned" steam locomotive -- but with a diesel-type air horn heard at the end of each ad.  But there were too damn many Sleep Train outlets; looks like that questionable corporate policy fit right into Mattress Firm's similar "saturation" strategy -- with predictable results. 

[D-Dey65]

Another day, another set of store closures for a major chain. This time, it's Bon-Ton. 42 stores closing (in addition to 5 announced previously), including the one in my hometown of Queensbury. Before that location opened around 2000, it was a Caldor.

Speaking of Caldor, I've seen Caldor sign in Flushing, Queens as recently as the 2000's.

Beyond this, I have post (or re-post) this link:
http://definition.org/remember-defunct-restaurant-chains/


The link turned up in a Microsoft News Article, and showed an old Cracker Barrel as clickbait, despite the fact that Cracker Barrel shows no signs of doing anything else but expanding as far as I can tell.

[D-Dey65]

A & P Grocery Stores: at least here in the South

A & P is dead in the North too. The nearest one to my hometown has actually been a Chuck-e-Cheeses restaurant since the 1980's. A few years back, my brother brought his kids to that one, and I told him that it used to be an A & P Supermarket, but he didn't believe me.

Western Auto: at least 1 store in downtown Minden, LA still has the iconic sign and is open.

Being a Long Islander, I never saw one anywhere else but in the movies and on TV until I wound up in Florida, and the only two I knew of were in Brooksville and Bayonet Point. The one in Brooksville is an Ace Hardware store now, and I didn't even notice the change in franchise until recently.