In some ways, it was like getting ready for bed. I changed into pajamas, donned some socks, and tried to prepare my mind for sleep. Then, an attendant led me to a large circular nap pod, where a twin-sized bed with crisp white linens awaited. She closed the large fabric flaps and I was left alone in my little cocoon.
“Sweet dreams, Katharine,” said a hand-written note on my pillow. I turned off the light and closed my eyes.
I was ensconced in a nook at the Dreamery, a new napper’s paradise in the Soho neighborhood of Manhattan. Created by the popular mattress startup Casper, the Dreamery gives anyone access to a nice clean bed outfitted with a Casper mattress, sheets, and pillow, and a surprising number of goodies (pajamas, sleep mask, ear plugs, Casper-branded socks, face wash, toothbrush, and comb that reads “bedhead taming device”) for 45 minutes–all for $25. That might sound expensive for something you can do for free on your couch, but Casper hopes to provide a place to crash for Manhattan busy-bodies who need a catnap during the day, after a red-eye flight, or even before a night out on the town.
It’s also part of an emerging brick-and-mortar retail strategy that many e-commerce startups like Warby Parker, Glossier, and Everlane are adopting. “Nowadays every startup is making stores. For a while it was like, we’re e-commerce only,” says Neil Parikh, cofounder and COO of Casper. “And now everyone’s like, actually, people like stores. But I think that makes sense. I don’t think retail is dead, I just think bad retailers are gonna be.”
Casper opened its first and only permanent mattress store in February 2018 in a space adjoining the new Dreamery, which opened last week. The $750 million company also has a total of 20 pop-up retail spaces in North America, each of which is outfitted with small, treehouse-sized structures where shoppers can try out mattresses away from the prying eyes of desperate sales associates–a far cry from your average mattress store with its dozens of beds lined up in endless rows.