Slumberland chain furniture stores
I went mattress shopping recently around Rockford. I wasn't too hip on giving a Rockford owned business any money on general principal so I checked out American and Slumberland in addition to Leath and Ingrassia. Slumberland had a flyer in the Sunday paper advertising 'we won't be undersold' 'free delivery on premium mattress sets' blah blah blah.
I went in their store and talked to a nice enough guy Ben Bleed who was helpful and noted that Slumberland blows away mattress prices in the rockford area because they are the among the top 3 distributors for Simmons and Sealy in the country and that they get huge volume discounts and pass them onto customers. He also noted that delivery and removal of old bedding is not included in the price (add $50 for this service).
That struck me as odd and I asked a lady at the front desk (she was a redhead with a red fitted shirt) about the flyer that said free delivery on premium sets. She said 'THAT APPLIES ONLY TO QUEEN SETS $899 and higher.' Their flyer advertised a total of 12 mattresses. 9 of those 12 sets advertised were under 899. I asked her if she thought it was misleading. Her response.....'that's store policy.' WRONG ANSWER. American needed $40 to deliver and $10 to remove. WRONG ANSWER. Why wrong answer? Ingrassia had the EXACT SAME Sealy posturpedic plush and firm mattresses as American and Slumberland for the exact same price. EXCEPT Ingrassia (the local store) includes delivery, setup and removal in all of their mattress sets $599 and higher AND offers 12 month no interest no fee financing. Ingrassia supplied me with great service and now I have the ability to exercise $820 in the market for the next 11 months.
I learned the following about Slumberland based on this Experience:
They are neither competitive on their pricing (they claim to be one of the largest volume buys of Sealy in the country but price the same as as the competition)
nor their service (no financing deal and no free inhome delivery setup and removal...less service than the competition)
nor their advertising (putting FREE DELIVERY in big bold letters when it only applies to 25% of the products advertised with no disclaimer that it only applies to 25% of the products advertised is quite misleading).
My purchasing dollars went to Ingrassia. The salesman, Don, was very experienced (30 years) in the furniture business, applied ZERO pressure for a sale and answered all of my questions. For this reason, if you live in the Rockford area, I wholeheartedly recommend Ingrassia for your home furnishing needs. . He sent a postcard three days later thanking me for my purchase. I put this on the fridge and attached a gold star.