City Mattress says goodbye snow; hello sun

PHOTO EVAN WILLIAMS Eric Anderson in the City Mattress Warehouse The corporate headquarters of the store one might peruse for a comfortable snooze, City Mattress, just moved from Buffalo, N.Y. to Bonita Springs, just off Interstate-75 on Bonita Springs Road.

"It took a long time to happen, transitioning executives down here and what not," Director of Advertising and Marketing Eric M. Anderson, said. "We're here because Florida's growing and Western New York is not."

Anderson also said that is a "brutal simplification," and that another reason the business moved is that the two sons of the original owner, Jay Schiller, who founded the business in 1963, both live in Florida.

"It's a family run company in its second generation," Anderson said.

Schiller retired two years ago, and turned over City Mattress to the two boys: the youngest son Marc, 36, is the president of the company. Stephen is the CEO.

"Marc is the face and voice of City Mattress," Anderson said. "The one you see on all the commercials."

PHOTO FLORIDA WEEKLY Eric M. Anderson The family had started opening up mattress showrooms in Florida in the 1980s when they discovered, during vacations, that it was a place they really enjoyed being.

Now, there are 19 City Mattress outlet stores in all, eight in New York, and 11 in Florida.

The company has about 125 employees, Anderson said, and is the largest specialty sleep shop in Southwest Florida.

He also, unsurprisingly, owns a City Mattress Mattress.

"Yes, of course, you have to," he said.

Anderson also noted the two things that make City Mattress unique: service and selection. At every location, over 80 different mattresses and box springs in all price ranges are available from $300 to over $9,000, as well as all kinds of bedroom accoutrements: dressers, mirrors, armoires, nightstands.

"Basically, we're a one stop shop for your bedroom," Anderson said.

And he said the referral business they receive is "tremendous."

The headquarters in Bonita Springs was built two years ago specifically for the company and includes an enormous warehouse in back that stores thousands of mattresses and furniture. Anderson walked through it, giving a cordial tour, late last week. He passed a couple of forklifts sitting unused, dwarfed by the immensity and sheer volume of the storage space, lit in every corner by bright fluorescent bulbs. Some of the mattresses were also confidential, experimental and not yet released for sale. One, called the Prana Sleep, was exceedingly lush and comfortable. Anderson said it's one of the most popular designs, and that it is a latex mattress built with no coils.

PHOTO FLORIDA WEEKLY Mattresses in the new Bonita Springs warehouse All the City Mattress stores in Florida and New York close at 8 p.m. every night, Anderson said, and as soon as they do, the computers automatically report all the sales to this office in Bonita Springs, and then the trucks arrive.

"Not every item can be delivered overnight, but we sure try," he mentioned, with consummate salesmanship.

Anderson said the company plans to expand in 2008 within the state of Florida.

City Mattress billboard along I-75