Remember the “Great Falls Mattress War?” It started back in 2015 when two mattress stores opened just a few hundred yards apart along 10th Avenue South.
First there was a new build of a Mattress Firm store on the north side of the road. Here’s a pic from October 2015 – after it was built, but before it got branded and stocked.
Then a Sleep Number was built on the SW corner of 10th Avenue South and 9th Street. Here’s a pic from March 2016 – you can see the Mattress Firm on the left side of the photo, just a few hundred yards away.
Of course there was much chatter on social media about a supposed glut of mattress stores in Great Falls, with (too many) people whining about how many mattress stores Great Falls really NEEDS.
Well, it looks like Great Falls “needed” one less store – I’m not sure when, but I noticed a few weeks ago that the Mattress Firm building is now empty with a “For Lease” sign on the window.
To be honest, if I had been forced to pick which one would close first, I would have guessed Sleep Number – it seems a bit more “niche” and expensive than a “regular” mattress store.
And for people who for some reason thought that this was unique to Great Falls – nope. It’s a national thing and happens all over the place – the “over-mattressfication.”
