Why the sudden increase in stores?
Mattress Firm's statistics showed that many customers shopping in the company's other Austin stores came from the Bee Caves Road area, Mattress Firm Communications Coordinator Tammy Friedeck said. The company was drawn to this part of town because of its high traffic and convenience for area customers, she said.
"We're very highly concentrated in metro areas," Friedeck said.
The company currently has more than 1,200 stores in 28 states and has been expanding, opening more than 170 locations in the past year alone. It acquired Mattress Giant in a 2012 corporate buyout, she said.
Dallas-based Sleep Experts has opened 10 stores in the Greater Austin area within the past year and plans to add a Bee Cave site at 12400 W. Hwy. 71 in July. The 10-year-old company, led by Christine and Chris Cook, has an additional four leases signed for future local openings, Chris Cook said.
"We view [Austin] as a 20-store market," said Chris Cook, who entered the Austin market by opening the Steiner Ranch location and three other stores in May 2012.
One expert suggests that the mattress sales business model, with its use of distribution centers and simple showroom decor, supports an easy influx into a high-growth area such as Lake Travis or Bee Cave.
Wallace W. "Jerry" Epperson Jr., home furnishings investor at Mann, Armistead and Epperson Ltd., said that mattress stores are small and use space efficiently. Showrooms only display queen-size models. The mattress store business model uses regional factories that make mattresses on demand so individual stores do not have to hold a lot of inventory. The industry also recommends users replace their mattresses every eight to nine years, he said.
Although Sleep Experts will have two stores within a few miles of each other—one each in West Lake Hills and Bee Cave—Chris Cook said the sites represent two different markets, referring to West Lake Hills' demographics and Bee Cave's growth opportunities.
He said he researches at which stores people are making purchases and then figures out if more stores are needed to fill in the gaps. He said selling mattresses is also directly linked to the real estate market.
"Austin is one of the hottest growth areas in the country," he said.
The Austin Board of Realtors released statistics that showed local home sales were up 29 percent for May.
"If your economy is doing particularly well with an influx in homes in the area, there's a pretty good correlation with mattress sales," said Karin Mahoney, director of communications at International Sleep Products Association in Virginia. "Slowly but surely, on a national scale, we're doing better but not back to pre-recession levels."
