I ran into Barbara from American Mattress again. She was at Target buying beer to drink on her new mattress. I wanted to buy her a card from the "friendship and love" section to show her my appreciation for being a kind stranger, and making the awkward task of wrestling with a salesman a more pleasant experience. I'll never forget when she sprawled out on the full-size Beauty Rest with pillow top and said, "I just want to get some rest." She was newly retired at 65 spending her first social security check on a good mattress.
She and I actually ended up buying the same mattress, and the salesman, Tom turned out to be not so awful after all. I sympathized with him. "I know it's a little less than what that gorilla Mattress Firm will give you, but you can be sure that I'm here doing everything I can to get you the mattress you'll love." I didn't like to see Tom squirm like that. Buying the mattress from him felt wholesome and rare.
I think this was also the day I learned that Amazon had not put Toys R' Us out of business, like someone told me, but that they had actually been slowly and deliberately cannibalized by private equity.
-MPB
