In response to a Craigslist ad selling beds, after arranging a day and time with the poster of the ad, I found myself outside a very nice house in a very nice neighborhood.
Knocked on the door, and a man answered it. This was the husband–or so it had been said–of the person I’d been previously in contact with. He let me in, and…
Oh they had beds alright. Literally wall to wall, floor to ceiling, stacked with beds and mattresses in boxes. Very beat up looking boxes, but not just random boxes–corporately packaged boxes, relevantly labeled.
At one point as I was taking my merchandise to my van (yes, I took 'em…) I asked “Wow so are you guys running a warehouse out of here?”
He looked puzzled, then sort of looked around. Then smiled a “oh huh look at that” kind of smile, laughed heartily, and exclaimed “Yes I guess it does sort of look like a warehouse doesn’t it!”
“So this is not a usual situation for you?” I asked?
“Yes, it is always like this. Like a warehouse!” And he laughed again.
And in the probably irrelevant and maybe a little racist to notice department, but also adding to the strangeness and possibly relevant, while the person I’d been talking to sounded like a kind of feisty old white lady with maybe a little redneck in her, the man at the door was a very young African man, with a heavy accent of some kind. So yeah, old white people marry young black people, for sure. But right now I’m not even sure the lady I talked to wasn’t some kind of central operator for a whole network of these houses or something.
Well, I would’ve erred on the side of “Oh, guess their family owned mattress store went out of business, so now they’re trying to sell off their leftover stock out of their house to make a buck” but the funny line at the end about “I guess it does sort of look like a warehouse” and the different people involved (that employee/employer sense) started giving it a weird turn.
Could also be hoarders I suppose. Only other explanation than illicit for not realizing what your place really looks like.
ETA: I guess theoretically the family owned business could still stand, i.e. she just hires a day laborer to sell off the mattresses so she’s not in any danger from random craigslist dudes, and she never told him the details other than “sell these mattresses”, hence the weird “dunno what you’re talking about” vibe, but…
When my parents sold their old house, the buyers used it to store some of their stock. They owned a store that sold rugs and home furnishings.
My parents visited, post-sale, a few times & said that the house was packed with inventory. (Not sure if the couple lived there or not, or whether they arranged sales & pick-ups from that location)
Tax dodge, or maybe warranty dodge. This is actual stock from a local business that is selling things on craigslist off the books.
It’s possible that these are returned products that they can’t sell as new through their storefront, and they’ve gotten a refund from the manufacturer for destroying them (mattresses are bulky and heavy, so it’s not worth shipping them back). Or just selling them cheap with little overhead and no sales tax collected.
I have no idea what’s going on here. I would just say that one shouldn’t read too much into awkward word choice or ways of speaking. Some people are just like that.
If the seller has a wholesale supply connection and is not entertaining or raising a family at the residence it actually makes more sense to keep them in, and sell them from a a house than a rented warehouse from a cost, access and security perspective. It makes living there a PITA however.
If they were selling both mattresses and beds, that implies to me that these items came from a retail setting (where the two items would be likely to be sold together.)
I’d guess it’s related to some kind of retail outlet going out of business or closing. Perhaps they got the entire lot in an auction. Maybe they usually deal in less bulky items, and hadn’t realized exactly hopw much stranger a house full of mattresses looks than whatever they normally sell.
Anyway, it could be anything. It’d be neat to get to the bottom of it, but I’m guessing it’s some wierd one-off situation rather than some giant underground mattress network.
So you bought a surprise foam mattress through amazon, then a black market/fell off a truck mattress through craigslist? What will your next zany mattress adventure be?
Sounds like to me that these guys are most likely violating the local zoning ordinance by running a warehouse in a residential neighborhood. Unless they somehow managed to get their property re-zoned commercial.
Thefts of mattresstrucks or from factories happen from time to time, sometimes followed by sales on Craigslist. I’d be surprised if this episode was anything different.
Frylock, particularly in light of the African connection, let’s hope they weren’t a product of this theft. :eek:
