Going to the Mattresses: Uber to Deliver Casper Mattresses in NYC
This weekend, it’s going to be easier than ever to fall asleep in your Uber.
Starting Friday in New York City, the multibillion-dollar vehicle-for-hire service Uber will team up with the fledgling mattress startup Casper to send out a fleet of on-demand “bedmobiles,” which will deliver the latter company’s mattresses on demand to New Yorkers.
There will also be a tricked-out roving bedmobile on the streets of Manhattan that will let sleepy (or mattress-curious) New Yorkers try out a Casper. That bedmobile will consist of a cargo van whose trunk has been transformed into a miniature bedroom, with fake walls and a preinstalled Casper mattress that you’ll be able to lie down on and test out.
Climb on into the bedmobile and try out a Casper mattress. Because, honestly, who among us hasn’t fallen asleep in the back of a van? (Casper)
A Casper press release compares the bedmobile to a mattress store on wheels — rather than head to Sleepy’s or Mattress King, the mattress store will come to you.
Interested New Yorkers can use the Uber app and enter the code UBERSLEEP to buy a mattress and then watch, delighted, as the future site of their slumbers barrels toward them in a Casper-branded van.
Casper’s bedmobile. No, the van is not driven by a friendly white ghost. (Casper)
While the promotion, which runs from Friday through Labor Day, might not seem too intriguing to any non-New Yorkers who aren’t on the market for a new mattress, Casper and Uber are worth paying attention to on their own merits. They are natural partners: Both are attempting to “disrupt,” in the parlance of San Francisco, unloved players that are entrenched in their industries; and they are doing so using modern technologies and a simplified, Apple-esque approach to business and sales.
Uber, the far larger of the two, is aiming at various taxi cabals (and competing services) in cities around the world, with a popular app that lets riders request a car from their phones and then pay via the app. The ride is generally a bit more expensive than a local cab, but the convenience of the ride, and the ability to watch your car’s progress as it drives toward you for pickup, has won legions of fans and billions of dollars in value as a company.
How Uber works. (Uber)
Uber is now also dabbling in local courier services, using its mapping technology to let customers deliver or have delivered any package their hearts desire and watch it trek across the city. Though not as well known, or used as often, as its cab service, Uber’s transparent delivery system could also prove preferable to traditional couriers and delivery companies.
Casper, meanwhile, hopes to take down the major mattress sellers and makers in the U.S. — Sleepy’s, Serta, Simmons — through website sales of a single kind of mattress. The mattress, a slim, memory-foam mattress with a latex top, arrives to your home in a box in one to three days. The Casper mattress also comes with a 100-day money-back trial, so if you’re dissatisfied with your sleep, someone from the team will haul your mattress away again.
Prices range from $500 for a twin to $950 for a king — more expensive than a mattress from IKEA, but far cheaper than a comparable item from one of the big S mattress sellers.
Both companies have the potential to transform their industries: Uber has already begun to do so, bringing ride-sharing and smartphone-hailable cabs to hundreds of cities around the world. Casper could, if the model catches on, alter the way you buy a mattress, and also the price you pay.
Another satisfied Casper customer! (Casper)
Unless, of course, they don’t. Uber has faced legal fights from taxi unions and local governments, as well as complaints that prices are too high. It has also come under recent fire for what many critics and competitors say are shady business practices. (Talk about going to the mattresses!) Casper, meanwhile, may find that shoppers really do want to test out their mattresses first, free trial or no.
If both companies have their way, however, the future of mattress shopping may be on display this weekend in the Big Apple. Open an app on your phone, choose your mattress size, and watch it zoom toward you onscreen.
Wow! The future is exhausting. Who needs a nap?
