ANDRE BEGIN

Just recently, my partner and I were thinking that it was time to search for new pillows and sheet sets.

As our journey began for what should have been a fairly simple transaction, it became apparent that our options for stores and locations had dwindled in recent years.

Regrettably, the pandemic was not kind to the retail landscape as my last purchases of bedding were made at specialty stores that are no longer with us.

For as long as I can remember, department stores were a great source for bedding, but their numbers have dwindled dramatically as well.

When I think back to the 1980s, I can name off the top of my head 10 department stores we could choose from that would have bedding among their offerings. Today only 2 of those original 10 remain with just 2 new competitors added to the list.

The weird part is that in one of the remaining department stores, the footprint of the bedding department seems to be shrinking. Why is that?

With the number of vendors getting smaller by the hour, what does that do to competition, choice and the potential for a good nights’ sleep? It’s enough to lose sleep over it.

“Where do people buy bedding?” we wondered.

The only possible answer was that people were buying online.

While that is certainly a viable solution, isn’t the process of buying bedding a tactile experience? Don’t people like to feel the material of a textile given its close proximity to our skin for 8 hours at a time?

Similarly, when shopping for pillows online, how is one supposed to know when a given pillow offers the right degree of firmness? Doesn’t a prospective pillow need a good hug to know for sure if it’s… THE ONE?

Sadly, when shopping online, we can’t really go by reading the reviews for any given product. Opinions are so subjective.

I was considering a “firm support” pillow featured in a department store’s web site, described by different reviewers as “too hard”, “too soft” and “just right” at the same time. Who should you believe?

When it comes to pillows, I don’t have as many options as feather filled pillows have caused me itchy red eyes and occasional breathing issues. That being the case, the hunt is more challenging.

When the stores started re-opening during the pandemic, I was on my usual quest for a replacement pillow that truly supported my head and neck with a little bit of elevation. Maybe it’s because of my gigantic beach ball sized head, but pillows tend to flatten quickly, leaving me with knots in the neck and shoulder blades… But that can be chalked up to just another day in the life of someone over 50.

To me, the issue with buying a pillow online is that regardless of the guarantee offered, I always worry that by the time I have given it enough time to make a decision, it might be too late to return it.

And even then, who wants to accept a return on something that someone has breathed into for several consecutive nights?

This is where I wonder if we have made our own bed, so to speak, if we have not supported our bricks and mortar businesses in person rather than gravitating to online purchases.

While it is certainly more convenient in the long run and a big timesaver, this erosion of options makes purchasing products that are tactile in nature that much more challenging. As a result, if we need to travel extra kilometers, the ventures become less sustainable when we factor in the extra gas needed to go from place to place to comparison shop.

And don’t get me wrong while I am pleased with the options that we do have and we were able to benefit from a 25% off sale, we truly had to go out of our way and to make a special trip for these purchases.

If bedding stores and bedding departments continue to disappear, I guess we’ll just have to accept the inevitable and start ordering online.

Until that happens, I’ll try not to keep myself up at night worrying about it.

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Sincere thanks for reading!
Have a great day,
André