Rejection 65: Sleep at Mattress Firm
Before we buy cars, we do test-drives. Before we buy sunglasses, we stare at ourselves in mirrors. Before we marry someone, we date, fight, make up and go to Disney World. Our lives are filled with examples of trying something out before making a final commitment. However, there is one important and expensive item we never try adequately before buying - mattresses. Yes, we lay on them for 5 minutes trying to see if our spines are still straight afterward. However, no one buys a mattress to stare at the ceiling. We buy it so we can spend 1/3 of our day on it in a blissful slumber. If we really want to see how a mattress would fit our lives, we should take a real nap on it. Will a mattress store allow me to do a full test-drive?
Teresa said 'absolutely' without any hesitation, and agreed to wake me up in 10 minutes. However, just like in movies, the man wakes up, the woman is gone.
When asked, the other sales person confirmed that I was the only one who has ever asked to sleep in his mattress store. Moreover, he was also surprised that no one else has ever made that request.
This made me ask the question - why not? We eat in restaurants, we read in bookstores, but we never sleep in mattress stores. Is the idea of losing conscious in a public place the reason? Or is it the fear of being rejected for making a self-perceived 'outrageous' request? I don't know. But what I do know is that I don't want to purchase then haul a $4,000 mattress home, sleep and wake up in neck pain, and have to return that mattress. I think we should all sleep at mattress stores. Or, the mattress store should host after-lunch nap hours or lock in parties. We could all benefit.
Learning - Some requests are extremely rare but also very legitimate, that even the requestees wonder why no one makes those requests. This reminds me of a quote from Robert Kennedy - "There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?". Let's all ask more why-nots.