The inability to count these days

We have a new POS system.  So far, it is going great.  Except for how things are put on it and how people interpret those.  Last week Maurice ordered 1 Split Queen Adjustable bed.  He meant that he needed the entire queen bed.  He got one side of it.  As he said “If I had ordered two, they would have sent me four.”  Then yesterday, we had ordered seven cases of pillows in Raleigh, we got 32.  I have used my fingers and toes to count, and cannot make seven turn in to 32.

I was curious why Maurice called to ensure that the 15 pillows he ordered was not 15 cases, then the 32 cases of pillow thing happened, and I understood.

New Energy use to be great about this.  They would read our order and if it didn’t make sense they would call and ask.  Another manufacturer we use (no names, but made in the USA), will let us get two headboards or three rails.  All kinds of things.  Sometimes we accidentally order them.  Other times they throw it in for us.

Oh the adventures of orders.

 

Let me guess, its blue?

Gel.  More gel.  Gel sprinkles, gel balls, liquid gel, gel in candy stripes, gel sewn in with thread.  Lord have mercy.  When our industry finds something new everyone runs with it.  Well, not everyone.  I respected the manufacturer that said “We aren’t sure how well it holds up or ages yet.”  A question I’d asked numerous folks and was told “Oh it’ll be fine.”  I know you don’t know.  I don’t know how we’d simulate ten years of age.  I know how we’d do ten years of wear.

Other than that I shopped a lot of furniture.  I mean a LOT.  Saw a lot of nice stuff.

Our legislative meeting never happened.  I haven’t followed up to see why yet.  A bunch of us showed up and yet there was no one else there.  If it was started by e-mail, it could have been finished with it.

My favorite things I saw-  The slow response latex.  Feels a lot like visco, without all the bad stuff.  The new drop foot adjustable base and the six way adjustable base.  Both were very impressive.  The feel was awesome.  Like sitting in a recliner.  I liked Anatomic’s mounting system that went with the base.  That is going to put them a step ahead.  iComfort was impressive.  I see what the fuss is about.

Just a lot going on with my stores.  We’re renovating one to make it bigger.  Working on some special things with another.  Looking at another space.

As far as my house goes.  Its still under construction.  Needless to say, life has been hectic, but it keeps me out of trouble.

I think it was a successful market.

 

Tom McLean

Tom dropped me a note the other day that he had retired, again.  More officially this time I suppose.  It makes me a bit sad.  I think I’ve known him for fifteen years, and I’m only twenty-seven.  I may have known him a bit longer.  He has forgotten more about sleep than most people have learned in their lifetime.  In the industry there are a few outstanding people who want to see change and want to see younger people move up.  He is one of those.  I think back of the number of papers he helped me with in college.  It seems I was always writing a paper on sleep.  Imagine that.  It is what I know.  He is one of my favorite people to run in to at market, or at Kingsdown, or in Monaco.  Whenever someone asks me how I am, if I respond “Fantastic!” I think of Tom.  He is always so positive.  He was the perfect person for the position he is leaving.  Of course he is also the perfect person for the position he is filling in retirement.  I’m sure he is a fantastic grandfather!  Now lets just hope he doesn’t drive Holt too crazy.  I won’t be a bit surprised to run in to him somewhere business related again, and I hope I do.  I hope I run in to him on a boat before then.

Tom, enjoy your retirement.  Thank you for all the things you have taught me over the years.  Thank you for your support.  Thank you for being a wonderful mentor, not only to me, but to a lot of folks in the industry.  May we all strive to be as positive as Tom, everyday.

I’m alive!

Summer is a really busy time of the year for me.  Our business picks up.  Our advertising picks up.  I work more at my second job (bartender).  Throw in to the mix of that buying a new house that needs a lot of work.  Needless to say, I have not blogged much lately.  I have also been pretty terrible at keeping up with industry news.  I don’t go to Vegas market in the summer because it is just too hot and I am just too busy.  I have very little to say really.  Except I have been invited to a market event that I am truly excited about.  I’ll write more about that when I know more details.

I am very excited for High Point market.  I love fall.  I love football.  I love High Point.  I feel like we get a lot done there.  I’m going to make a true effort to get better at blogging.  I hope everyone is well!

My new Zeo

I ordered a Zeo yesterday.  I have looked in to it many times, but never gone through with it.  I saw a tweet about something, and it was like it was the first time I’d heard of it.  (Obviously it wasn’t, but for some reason my interest was renewed).

My big question was if you can have multiple users.  The best I can tell, you just have to keep track of the nights you would like other people to use it.  I know Dad will want to.

It comes in today.  I can’t wait!  My sleep geekiness is going to increase.  I’m really interested on those nights that I work until 4am.  I’d love to see how my sleep cycle is after that.

Sealy Lawsuit over mattress staining

When I sell a mattress, as a retailer I am always very specific that “You must protect your mattress from staining to protect your warranty.”  I also tell the customer where they will find the warranty info, that they need to keep their paperwork, and give them suggestions on where to put that paperwork (in a plastic bag between the mattress and the box).

This never had to make it to being a huge lawsuit.  It would have saved them a lot of money to concede to the customer.  It would have saved Mattress Warehouse a lot of grief too.

This goes back again to a conversation a few of us were having on Twitter yesterday.  Warrantys are too long!!

Maybe in my lifetime I will see the decrease in the mattress warranty.  I’m an eternal optimist.

Kingsdown suing Comfort Solutions- My opinion

Go ahead and get offended if you like (I’ve worked too many hours this weekend, and don’t really care).

Having seen both systems and having dad involved in the development of one, I wonder what took so long on this.

You cannot leave one place where you developed one thing and create a version of it somewhere else and then be surprised someone is suing you.

I have BodySystem, or Dormo, or Dormo Diagnostic, or mySide, or whatever we are calling it this week in my stores.  I love it.  I think it does a great job diagnosing the customer and getting them to tell you things they wouldn’t otherwise.  Is it a bit of smoke and mirrors?  Of course, but there is a lot of science behind some of that smoke.  Does CS’s program get the same qualifications?  Probably.  Do they have close to the number of profiles?  Heck no.

I can’t for the life of me remember if there is a weight question on the CS profile.  If there is, you cannot expect people to answer that correctly.  Kingsdown’s system actually doing the weight measurement, so it doesn’t have to be discussed.

Here is the bad thing- I like every party involved in this suit.  I don’t like the CS system, I haven’t since the first time I saw it.  Actually, I’m pretty sure I scared my rep the day I saw it.  It is a preference though.  Choices are a good thing.
I am very grateful to Comfort Solutions for making the XL product, so I can sell that bigger customer something.  Because I sure don’t want to sell them Kingsdown.

I hope the suit works out ok for both parties, but no side ever wins in an issue like this.  Just the attorney’s win.

Bedding Conference

I really should thank Leggett as I sit here and blog with my iPad 2 from my Papa’s hospital room. It was wonderful seeing everyone last week. I can’t say it was the best conference we’ve had but it was ok. Dr. Maas was amazing as always. I always learn something new from him. I will upload pictures when I get back home. I spent maybe 36 hours there before we found out my Grandfather was rushed to the hospital. He had an intestinal loop. They cut him open last night at about 5 pm. Mom and I got here at 3. He is doing very well to be 87.

It is funny because we learned so much last week about sleep deprivation. I was getting caught up on my spindles. That has all gone down hill now. My uncle’s cat found it necessary to play in the blinds all night. I’m allergic to cats too. Tonight is my night to sleep in the hospital. My sister is sending my eye mask with someone and my pillow. That should help.

My step Grandma asked where I was working from this week. I said “I guess right here.”. I may make a visit to Raleigh while I’m this close. Then again I have a feeling I’m going to be a tad on the crazy side tomorrow.

Will discuss more on the bedding conferene later. Have a good week y’all. Be thankful for your health.

4-16-11 Tornadoes

Yesterday I was at the Western Blvd. store near Cary.  We knew there was bad weather coming, but I honestly didn’t expect it to be that bad.  One of my employee’s (and very good friend) Andrew Cagle had stopped by because he was moving and knew I was in town.  Dad was there, because he was supposed to work for me so I could go to my Step Grandmother’s 80th birthday.  When I realized how bad the weather was to get there, I realized I wasn’t going to be able to go.  Before it got bad, Dad ran to Harris Teeter (anyone take a gander at what he needed? then to Auto Zone to get more RainX.  He parked my truck in front of the store.  He came back inside.  Then it started hailing.  So what does he do?  He goes and gets back in my truck to roll it up on the porch so the hail won’t mess up my paint.  Then he realizes he can’t get out because he is parked between the columns.  All of the sudden the sky goes blacker than it has been.  I mean, jet black.  So I try to run out the front door to get him out of the truck.  Andrew tells me to go back in and he’ll get Dad.  Dad finally comes in.  My heart was beating through my chest and I thought I was going to throw up.  In the mean time the power had been flickering off and on.

Andrew decides he is ready to leave and take David (one of my delivery guys) with him to help him move some stuff.  I told them they weren’t going anywhere until everything cleared out better.  I was thanked for this later in the evening.  Andrew arrived to his new house that he had just moved in to, to find a tree had fallen on his neighbors house.  If it had gone the other way, it would have been his house.

Dad and I called the other stores.  Oscar at Capital said all the power was out downtown.  I started getting bombarded with texts, but to check the times they were all 18 minutes later.  The cell phone systems were overloaded.  We decided at that time to close the stores and send everyone home to check on their families.

Dad and I pull out of the driveway to find the intersection ahead of us has no stop lights and the intersection behind us is closed because of a tree.  We were in the 5500 block, the bad wind damage was in the 5300 block.  Best I can tell from the map, the black was from the tornado going across the 5300 block.

We start down 40.  There was a tree in the highway near South Saunders street.  It started pouring again about Jones Sausage road, we stopped for a minute.  Then went on.  Dad was watching the radar on his phone.  When we got to 331 there was an over turned tractor trailer in the west bound lane and a swath of damage 200 yards wide across a field and across the highway.  That is the second pink line down on the map.  You could see emergency vehicles back to the right at homes that had been razed.  This wasn’t just a tractor trailer that delivers mattresses or furniture or something.  It was one of those big ones that carries rock.

We kept listening to 101.5 and watching radar on the phone.  We stopped at Newton Grove, because I needed to potty.  There was no power, so I didn’t get to go.  We got back on the road.  There was some heavy rain.  As we approached Warsaw I said “That’s it, I’m stopping at the rest stop.”  As I got to the stoplight Dad’s phone refreshed.  He said “We have 15 minutes to get through Rose Hill before that cell goes.  Keep driving.”  That we did.  It wasn’t raining there.  It was sunny.  I was in the l left lane moving a bit more swiftly than I normally do.  As we got to Rose Hill, the rain started falling harder.  All the people on the highway started pulling off.  I told Dad “You watch the sky and the ditches and if I need to pull over and get in a ditch, we will, but I’m going to keep driving.”  You could see light on the other side.  It would be stupid to stop, but people were stopping.  I had my polarized glasses on, my rainx, and my knobby tires, I kept on moving.

As we approached Wallace, the wind got really, really bad.  I was struggling to stay in my lane.  Dad was on the phone with Christina.  A bad gust hit and he said “I love you gotta go bye.” and hung up.  I looked in my rear view mirror at Rose Hill behind me.  There was a perfect V shaped funnel cloud crossing the road about five miles back.  I said “Dad, look behind us.”  He did.  We didn’t say much for a little while.

It was really black ahead of us where he wanted me to get off at 416B.  I said “No, I’m going through Rocky Point.”  I took of there.  We got to Hampstead.  Checked on the dog.  She was happy to see us.  I think we were happier to see her.  Then guess what flashed across the screen on TV?  Tornado in Rocky Point.

I sat back at Mom and Dad’s for a while and ate potato cakes.  Then I came home to Topsail and told everyone I saw that I loved them.  I am so blessed to have great friends.  I hope everyone else is ok.  If anyone needs any help with anything, please let me know.  I’m very, very thankful to be ok and that my businesses, friends, and family are ok.

Mom and Christina came back a few hours behind us.  Luckily, they had an uneventful trip and are ok

Market time again?

I swear it feels like we just got settled from Vegas.  Actually, we really did.  I just finalized my line up from stuff I saw at Vegas, last week.  I still have more stuff that I saw at Vegas that I will roll out this summer.

I have really slacked on this market.  To be honest, I’ve been busy trying to get my ducks in a row.  Redoing pricing, line ups, pricing for those line ups, everyone took vacation at the same time, so the usual mess.  Yesterday I had a friend over to watch something I’d DVRed for them, and I’m sure they thought I was anti social as all get out.  I couldn’t get the High Point Market planner thingy mabobber to work right.  Once I did, I think I like it better than the Vegas market one.  While not getting it to work right, I was shuffling through papers mumbling “Where is my market guide?!”

It is supposed to be 83 on Monday.  Suit pants, jacket, and button down will not work for that.  Thank God I am a woman and can wear a dress.  Sorry for all you men who will be wearing ties.

One more thing.  It always tickles me when I say “Yeah, I have to go to Market Monday,” the response I get.  “Oh, I’d LOVE to go to Market sometime!”  You’re kidding me right?  If I was buying for accessories, or gifts, or something like that then maybe it would be mysterious and wonderful too.  No, I go to buy furniture and mattresses.  Once every few years I’ll get some accessories.  It is a lot of work.  This time I don’t even really need anything new, I’m just going to show my face to my current dealers.

Good luck at market everyone.  I hope you get done what you set out to get done!  Hope to see a lot of smiling faces there.  I hope everyone’s feet end up ok