The Original Mattress Factory Chapel Hill

The Original Mattress Factory is a large chain of mattress stores that tries to bill itself as a small town "local" Raleigh business. Although it claims to have rock bottom "no middleman" pricing, its prices are comparable with Macy's and other upscale stores.

I had previously owned a mattress from The Original Mattress Factory, and was shopping for a new one, though the first had worn out after 5 years, and had big enough "body impressions" that it was barely possible to sleep in a position other than the one worn deep into the mattress. Nevertheless, I liked the idea of supporting a "local" company, and the store location was so convenient to my house that I found myself shopping for another The Original Mattress Factory bed.

This time around, my experience with The Original Mattress Factory was less than pleasant. The basics of my shopping trip went off without a hitch: I went into my conveniently-located neighborhood store looking for a memory foam mattress, and was able to find one that was perfectly comfortable. The salesperson was polite and very low-pressure, to the point that he just sat behind his desk in another room while I tried out the mattresses. I paid for the mattress and, since the store hardly carries any inventory at all, I arranged for delivery at a later date.

When the "big day" arrived, the mattress didn't. I waited and waited. Then, I got a call from the store: no surprise, the message was that the delivery crew was running very, very late. I went out and ran some quick errands, and, of course missed the delivery crew. They left me a handwritten note, and appeared to have taken my house's address sign as a souvenir of their visit.

I called the store and cancelled my order, ended up buying a top-of-the line memory foam bed from Marriott on-line shopping service instead--it's the same model of bed they use in their full-service and resort hotels. The kicker? It was cheaper than the middle-of-the line foam mattress from the Original Mattress Factory, and it was delivered on time.