Mattress Firm responds to the wild conspiracy theory about its business that people are going crazy over
- On Tuesday, a comment on Reddit that suggested Mattress Firm was laundering money went viral, but has since been removed.
- Reddit users said that the company was overstored in the US, given that it stocks a product that people typically buy every seven to 10 years, and suggested that this was a sign of something more dubious going on.
- Mattress Firm responded to the allegations on Twitter.
Mattress Firm has received some unlikely attention this week after a wild conspiracy theory about why there are so many store locations went viral on Reddit.
The Reddit comment that sparked the theory suggested that Mattress Firm, the largest specialty mattress retailer in the US, is a money-laundering operation. The comment was later deleted, spurring even more speculation, The Next Web reported.
"Mattress Firm is some sort of giant money laundering scheme," a Reddit user wrote, adding: "I remember seeing 4 mattress firms all on each corner of an intersection once, and there is no way there is such a demand for mattresses."
This provoked an outcry on social media as people claimed that their suspicions of the store being involved in something sinister could be coming true.
In response to Business Insider's story on Tuesday, Mattress Firm tweeted this meme and laughed off the accusations.
But some Twitter users are still adamant that there is something going on.
They have even claimed that the 3,500 store chain could be linked to a government agency.
The retailer is owned by South African retailer Steinhoff, which came under scrutiny at the end of 2017 after it postponed publishing its full-year accounts, citing "accounting irregularities," and its two top executives and chairman resigned. Its stock price tanked by as much as 62% in one day, wiping out $15 billion of its market value, Reuters reported.
Mattress Firm has not responded to Business Insider's request for comment.
The Future of Retail 2018 by the BI Intelligence Research Team.
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