Earn Cash Back at Mattress Firm
Mattress Firm is the leading specialty mattress retailer in America, boasting 3,420 store locations across 49 states and Washington DC. After purchasing Sleepy’s in 2015, Mattress Firm expanded at an ideal time but found itself over-retailed with expensive leases that made it difficult to adjust to online direct-to-consumer sales.
Mattress Firm’s sales began to stagnate as more and more competitors entered the mattress market, according to The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. As a result, Mattress Firm began losing out on profits as it fell further into debt and over-invested in real estate – leading it into bankruptcy, according to their reports.
Although the company’s expansion was successful, it also sparked allegations that insiders paid bribes or kickbacks to land lucrative real estate deals. This may have been the catalyst for filing for bankruptcy by the chain.
Conspiracy Theory
A Reddit comment claiming Mattress Firm was involved in money-laundering went viral, but was quickly taken down. Nonetheless, this theory remains intriguing and could potentially have some merit.
Could the problem lie with Steinhoff International, the second-largest furniture retail company globally after IKEA. The company owns numerous retail properties in South Africa which are under criminal investigation.
Numerous stores in South Africa are being investigated for possible money laundering activities, with Steinhoff at the center of this probe. It’s also suspected that they paid insider bribes to increase their share in South African property market – where much of their business comes from – through insider dealing.