1800Mattress.com: Difference between revisions
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{{Infobox company |
{{Infobox company |
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| company_name = 1-800-Mattress |
| company_name = 1-800-Mattress |
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Revision as of 12:41, 7 July 2011
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| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | retail |
| Founded | 1976 |
| Founder | Napoleon and Kay Barragan |
| Headquarters | , USA |
| Products | bedding |
| Revenue | $100 million |
| Owner | Sleepy's |
Number of employees | 325 |
| Website | http://www.1800mattress.com |
1-800-Mattress (also known as Dial-a-Mattress) is an American bedding retailer famous, especially in the New York area [citation needed], for its ads that used the slogan "leave off the last S for savings" (since the word "mattress" has 8 letters and only 7 are necessary for a phone number. Since the phone number would be cut off after the first "s" and the second letter "s" would be supefluous (as far as the telephone number goes) they devised the catch phrase to leave off the last "s" and that would be for all the savings you would get, i.e. "leave off the last "s" for savings" (since you'd only be dialing 1-800-MATTRES and not 1-800-MATTRESS (which is the correct spelling in English but not for the purposes of the telephone number))) and also "the original dial-a-mattress".
After purchase of its assets by rival Sleepy's, its 325 employees and annual sales topping $100 million at its most successful, 1-800-Mattress had 47 showrooms around the country, and 250 distributors around the United States.
Napoleon Barragan, founder
1-800-Mattress was founded by Napoleon Barragan. He was born in Bolívar province, Ecuador, on March 8, 1941. He went to Colombia at the age of 17 seeking work and found a job delivering beer and soda on donkeys [citation needed].
He emigrated to Queens, New York, from Bogotá, Colombia, with his wife, Kay, also a native of Ecuador, and young daughter. With a $2000 loan from his wife, Napoleon Barragan founded his mattress firm in 1976 after hearing an ad for the now defunct Dial-a-Steak. [1][2]
Crain's New York Business named Napoleon Barragan as one of the 100 most powerful minority business leaders. That same report noted he pled guilty to sales tax fraud in 1994. Luis Barragan, Napoleon and Kay's elder son, was the company's president until his accidental death in a swimming accident at the age of 34 in 2006.
Business difficulties
In 1994, Napoleon Barragan was found guilty of tax-fraud crimes and agreed to pay $1 million to the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance and to serve a year in prison. On March 23, 2009,[3] 1-800-Mattress filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection pending a proposed merger with former rival, Sleepy's.[3]
Kay Barragan
On May 14, 2009, it was reported that Kay Barragan's body had been discovered in her home. Her younger son, Eduardo, has been charged with her murder.[4] Kay Barragan was 65 years old.
On July 7, 2006, the Barragans lost their son, Luis, in a swimming accident when he was only 34. One of the Barragans' two daughters, Beatrice, died of pneumonia on December 2, 2003. Kay is survived by her husband, and the couple's other daughter, Kay Otilia Massell, who stated that her brother Eduardo suffers from schizophrenia.[5][6]
On December 25, 1992, a southern woman called Howard Stern demanding money she had been scammed out of from a fictitious gentleman from Israel by the name of Mr. Crawford. Since Howard had no idea what she was talking about, Artie told her to call 1-800-MATTRES and to leave off the last s for "sucker."
References
- ^ 1-800 Mattress background Queens (NY) Tribune article on 1-800-Mattress' history
- ^ New York Metro report about 1-800-Mattress
- ^ a b "Crain's NY report". Archived from the original on 2009-05-16. Retrieved 2009-05-14.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ Report of death
- ^ Weichselbaum, Simone; Standora, Leo (2009-05-13). "Report of Kay Barragan's death". Daily News. New York. Archived from the original on 2009-05-16. Retrieved 2009-05-14.
{{cite news}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ Kay Barragan obituary