Funnimetric

Sit and Sleep commercial.

Sit 'n Sleep, Southern California's largest mattress retailer gave away its first mattress today after failing to beat an advertised price. Customer Brian Phillips explained:

I went to Sit and Sleep with a price for a Simmons Beautyrest from Mattress Warehouse. I just looked at the salesman dead in the eye and dared them to beat that price. He went to talk to his manager (I could hear them arguing in the back) and reappeared a few minutes later, but instead of the cocky smirk, he bore a sort of scowl. I knew that face from my chess club days- it was the look of defeat, utter dejection. He just pointed to the mattress. I walked over and took it away. It was sweet.

Follow up:

In an interview, Sit n sleep founder Larry Miller was defiant, "yeah, we couldn't beat it that day, but since then, we've cut costs. Today, that guy would have lost."

Miller's accountant, Irwin, was quite satisfied with the outcome, "Had we lowered the price of that mattress, we would have set a dangerous precedent. We may have lost a mattress, but we gained some fiscal sanity.