Mega Group member opens Sleep Experience store in Sudbury, Ontario
Specializes in better, best price points
Michael Knell -- Furniture Today, December 1, 2009
 Taking part in the Pajama Day grand opening event for the new Sudbury Sleep Experience store are Julia Rosein, left, Natura World; store owner Jim Conlon; Gerry Wong, Mega Group; Bob Lalonde, store manager; and, Simon Walker, Natura World. |
SUDBURY, Ontario — Sleep Experience, the bedding specialist operated by Mega Group, has opened its fourth standalone store here, marking the occasion with a Pajama Day promotion.
Owned and operated by Jim Conlon, the 2,400-square-foot, mall-based store floors 24 SKUs, mostly in the better and best price points, topping out at C$3,000 for a speciality gel mattress.
"We carry the best models from each brand," said Gerry Wong, Mega's director of bedding and Sleep Experience. Examples are Serta International's Vera Wang, Natura World's NexGel assortment and Sleep Spa, from Irish mattress maker Kaymed.
Wong said the format is designed to support annual sales in the C$350 per square foot range.
"We saw an opportunity for a specialty sleep shop in Sudbury," Wong said. "There wasn't anyone in the market selling sleep, although there are lots of people selling mattresses."
A longtime Mega member, Conlon is also the owner of Inspiring Interiors by Barton's, a nearby furniture and mattress store. Wong said the Sleep Experience store's assortment shouldn't steal mattress sales from Barton's but rather increase Conlon's overall bedding business.
 The interior of the Sudbury Sleep Experience follows Mega Group’s Zen design, which features curved walls, soothing music and sounds, a water wall and relaxing color scheme. |
In addition to mattresses, the new store offers metal headboards, frames, pillows, comforters and other sleep accessories.
"Items such as these are quickly becoming a staple of comprehensive, service-oriented retailers who know how to maximize their bottom line with both big-ticket mattresses and smaller-ticket accessories," Wong said.
Mega developed an interior design for the standalone stores and the banner's eight in-store Sleep Experience galleries that Wong describes as a "Zen" motif.
"Curved walls, soothing music and sounds, water wall, and relaxing color schemes are a wonderful way to approach the bedding industry's primarily female customer base," he said. "Moreover, these Zen design elements ensure that the store appearance and ambiance actually add to a sales experience that focuses on the importance of relaxation and sleep."
The store's grand opening marketing efforts included using social media such as Facebook as well as events such as Bed for Your Head and Pajama Day promotions as well as radio ads and broadsheet flyers.
Mega said it plans to add three more in-store galleries to the Sleep Experience network in the coming months.
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