private industry retail founded 1976 founder napoleon and kay barragan headquarters hicksville new york usa products bedding slogan leave off the last s for savings website 1800mattress . com 1800mattress . com formerly known as 1 800 mattress dial a mattress and dial a mattress operating corps is an american bedding retailer headquartered in hicksville new york and famous for its ads that used the slogan leave off the last s for savings since the word mattress has 8 letters and only 7 are necessary for a phone number . 1 2 2 contents 1 history 2 see also 3 references 4 external links history edit 1800mattress . com was founded as dial a mattress in 1976 by napoleon barragan who got the idea as he saw an ad for dial a steak a business that sold meat over the telephone while working in a furniture store . 2 3 4 from its beginnings as a basement operation 1979 saw the first dial a mattress ads on television 2 and in october 1988 dial a mattress started promoting their toll free 800 number in broadcast ads . having quickly eclipsed the furniture store where barragan originally worked 5 the company went national in 1994 and later the name was changed to 1 800 mattress corresponding with the familiar 1 800 mattress jingle written by andy vallario the president and chief creative officer of media results inc. part of the company s growth was spurred by referrals and a familiarity with the brand largely due to the catchy jingle and brand awareness . 6 in 2005 near the company s peak when it was the leading bedding telemarketing company in the us 1800mattress had more than 300 employees with annual sales in excess of 100 million . it had nearly 50 showrooms and 250 distributors nationwide . 2 on march 23 2009 1 800 mattress filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection pending a proposed merger with former rival sleepy s 7 and later that year the merger was completed and 1 800 mattress officially became 1800mattress . com . see also edit dial a mattress franchise corp. v. anthony page references edit 1 800 mattress . new york magazine . 1996 01 01 . retrieved 2012 06 10 . a b c d e how 1 800 mattress turned zzzz s into . the new york enterprise report . retrieved 2011 08 11 . because a guy from ecuador can sell soda off the back of a donkey then come here and build a 120 million business all it takes is a few mattresses and an 800 number new york magazine . retrieved 2011 08 11 . sleep on it an ecuadoran finds a novel way to sell mattresses and builds on empire along the way . bnet the cbs interactive business network . retrieved 2011 08 12 . lebhar friedman 1999 . chain store age . chain store age . retrieved 2012 06 10 . floor ko 2006 . branding a store how to build successful retail brands in a changing marketplace . kogan page publishers . p. 184 . bankrupt 1 800 mattress plans merger with sleepy s. crain s ny report . retrieved 2011 08 11 . external links edit 1800mattress . com retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title 1800mattress . com & oldid 737949919 categories mattress retailers of the united statestelephone numbers in the united statesdirect sales companiescompanies established in 19761976 establishments in new york navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 6 september 2016 at 01 22 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view