So after a brief stop at Mattress Giant, we drove straight there.
The unemployment problem has eased a bit as "Grand Reopening" signs have popped up at mattress stores, gas stations and other businesses.
If all goes well, Alison picks me up at the Sarasota airport around 10. On the way to see the house, we will stop at Mattress Giant to buy one king, two twins and two queen mattresses.
Bils's research and advocacy at Select Comfort exemplifies the approach, as does a recent series of appearances by doctors at mattress stores around the country, sponsored by Leggett & Platt, the leading supplier of steel springs.
His latest work, A Second Home, now open at Mattress Factory's 19th century row house at 516 Sampsonia Way in Pittsburgh, is a house that one could very well imagine Terry Gilliam, Tim Burton and Tony Oursler collectively building with its odd intersections of wooden frames, sculpture elements and video screens.
"Thank you, I'll get out here," said Smiley, politely, and paid the cab off at the mattresses.
"I have yet to hear of a buyer going into the apartment for the preclosing walk-through and picking up the bedspreads and looking at the mattresses," Mr. Shmulewitz said.
Some less aesthetic categories of items aren't allowed at all — mattresses, for instance, and no electronics either (so you can't flog your room-sized flat-panel TV).
Walmart, meanwhile, will focus heavily on competing on price, with low-cost products, like sofas that start at $159, twin mattresses starting at $59, and rugs starting at $17.
