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Selling sleep to women brings success to Gabys

By Larry Thomas -- Furniture Today, April 9, 2006

Henderson, Nev. — Long before the first Sleep America store was opened in 1997, Len and Debbie Gaby finalized two elements of their business plan that turned out to be critical to the success of what is now a 33-store mattress specialty chain.

They decided they were going to sell sleep — not mattresses — and they were going to sell sleep to women.

"It is a different dynamic than just selling mattresses," Len Gaby said at Furniture/Today's Bedding Conference here, an event that drew some 200 industry retailers, manufacturers and suppliers.

"We decided early on that we weren't going to sell mattresses," he said.

But by selling sleep to women, the Gabys have indeed sold a lot of mattresses.

So many, in fact, that Sleep America is now the largest mattress retailer in Arizona, with stores concentrated in the Phoenix and Tucson markets.

Earlier this year, Sleep America was acquired by Sleep Country Canada, that country's largest bedding specialty chain. The Gabys said they plan to remain at the helm of their Phoenix-based operation.

Delivering the conference's keynote address, the couple said marketing to women in middle- to upper-income households has been the cornerstone of their success, and will be a key driver of future growth.

"When we got started in this business, people thought the mattress industry was a zero-growth industry. But there are a lot of opportunities for everybody to grow," Len Gaby said. "Our real competition comes from industries like travel and consumer electronics."

He said Debbie, who has a background in interior design and real estate, was horrified at most of the mattress stores they visited while researching their market. As a result, she insisted on elegantly designed stores with minimal in-store signage and at least one bed dressed with a full complement of linens, pillows, shams and the like.

"Debbie once said that most mattress stores look like they were designed by bachelors," Gaby said. "She said they have no comprehension of what it looks like through the eyes of a woman."

His wife didn't deny making the statement, and she told the audience it's important for Sleep America stores to appeal to all five senses — not just the sense of touch when a shopper lies down on a comfortable mattress.

"It becomes an emotional experience when you engage all five senses," Debbie Gaby said.

For sight, she said the store's appearance is critical. She admitted she is a "fanatic about cleanliness."

"If there is a bubble-gum wrapper on the ground next to the door, 10 men will walk right by it, but a woman would never do that," she said.

To engage the sense of smell, the Gabys' stores have scented candles and aroma dispensers. To please the ear, relaxing music plays softly on each store's sound system. Radio stations are forbidden.

For taste, dishes of wrapped candy (usually butterscotch) are found throughout the stores, and cold bottled water is offered to every customer — a welcome relief in Arizona's hot, dry climate.

Len Gaby said the company's advertising builds on this theme by creating expectations about the in-store experience. Price rarely is mentioned, and ads focus on building Sleep America as a brand name, he said.

"We assume that price is important to our customers, but it's not the number one issue with most of them," he told the audience.

Debbie is the face of the company in virtually all of its ads, and she's also at the forefront of the many charitable efforts in which Sleep America is involved, Len said.

He said the in-store experience is one of 12 "essential elements" of a retail bedding business. The challenge, he said, is that virtually all the elements need some attention all the time.

"This is an intricate puzzle of interlocking pieces," he said. "We have to manage all these issues at any given time."

According to Gaby, the other elements are real estate, vendor assortment, product assortment, pricing, strategy, warehouse and distribution capacity, information systems, advertising, sales force, community relations and the brand.

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Selling sleep to women brings success to Gabys

Apr 13, 2006

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