In some ways, the timing of my impending house move is absolutely ideal - it's just far enough past Christmas to be a nice time to be taking a break from work anyway, my letter's insurance expires at just the same time as my new home/contents insurance kicks in, and I'm sure there are other reasons. However, in some other key ways, it's not so good. Specifically, it comes just after the January sales gradually come to an end (since most of those have finished by the end of February, at least), and it's quite tricky buying furniture when you haven't yet fully weighed up the use to which each room will be put. Still, there is one thing I knew I would be upgrading as soon as I moved, and that is now done: I have just bought a new bed.
My previous bed-buying experience was less than successful. Yeovil is not a town well-stocked with appropriate stores, and the sales staff at those stores I did visit were less than helpful. In fact, at the first store visited, I waited for some twenty minutes for a sales assistant who never quite showed up, before losing patience and going elsewhere. I wouldn't have waited so long, but buying a bed was one of the non-negotiable aspects of the move.
Unfortunately, partly as a consequence of the failure of sales staff in Yeovil, and partly because it simply never occurred to me to do otherwise, I bought entirely the wrong bed for a rather larger price than I should have paid. It's fair to say this was not a shining moment in my story. (The problems? Well, it's too small - I should never have gone for a single. It's not very comfortable, partly due to the constant fear of falling out, partly due to the mattress. And it's rather low quality, which means that a mattress that should have lasted ten years is already suffering.)
And so it was that, very soon after realising my mistake, I made myself the promise that as soon as I moved to my 'permanent' home, I would invest in a new bed. I would wait until then so that I could be sure just how much space was available, but once the move was made... I then somehow ended up renting my current appartment for two and a half years longer than was planned, but never mind.
Anyway, yesterday I was driving en route to the party I was attending and my path happened to take me past a bed specialist that I didn't even know existed in Falkirk. What's more, they had a big sign out front stating that their sale ends on Monday. This rather settled my agenda for today.
However, Dreams was not my first stop. That honour fell to Bensons for Beds, purely because I had a parcel to pick up from the Post Office, and Bensons happened to be very close. Now, Bensons were the store that so disappointed me in Yeovil, a store that I had decided at the time I would never enter again. But then, so much else was a disappointment about Yeovil, perhaps it wasn't Bensons as such that was the problem?
And so, I went in armed with my research, and a bunch of questions that needed resolved. I also went in prepared to walk away quite quickly if things didn't go a whole lot better than was my previous experience.
Fortunately, they did. Whether because the people of Falkirk are just friendlier than their Yeovil counterparts, or because the economy has forced it upon them, I was approached almost immediately by a salesman, Paul, who quickly and efficiently got down to business, without being pushy about it.
So, we set about answering the questions. What style of bed did I want? Well, that was actually an easy one, since I already knew I was leaning towards a divan. What I hadn't quite weighed up was whether I needed integrated storage or not. My gut feeling was that it would be a benefit, but given the extra cost it turned out to be a nice-to-have that I would do without.
What size? I had, in fact, already ruled out both a single and a double. My research had turned up an interesting factoid, which is that these are 75 inches in length. As I am myself six feet tall (actually, 71 and a half inches), and since the use of space is never perfectly efficient, this means that my feet would often be hanging in empty space. It's not good. (Lying diagonally across a double works, but has other logistical problems.)
Which meant the choice came down to two: the King size or the Super-King. Now, much of the advice I'd read on the subject was aligned: get the biggest bed you can afford. But at the same time, there's just me, and frankly the Super-King strikes me as another instance of this over-consumption that we've imported from America. Frankly, it's just not necessary. Still...
That was quickly settled by seeing the two together in the shop. It turns out the Super-King is a monster, and would just be a waste of space (and money).
And then there were mattresses. What filling? How firm? This one required a bit of trial and error, but quickly reached an ideal solution. An ideal bed was picked out, costs were discussed and tallied (at some length - oddly, Paul kept checking things based on a double where I kept specifying King size, and kept talking to me about 0% finance, where I was quite clear that I'd be wanting to pay it off on delivery anyway). Oh well, never mind.
It all seemed good. I thanked him for his time, said I'd think about it, and left. While leaving the car park, I almost turned around and went back in to buy then and there.
Instead, I headed over to Dreams. Where I was met very quickly by Brian, their sales rep. And this time, the process of finding the ideal bed went much more smoothly. The trip to Bensons had provided the answers to the various questions I had, which meant most of the back-and-forth could be eliminated. And the Bensons price set a rather neat budget for the purchase - they had to provide a bed that was as good or better for a price that was no more than the Bensons price.
Anyway, it turned out Brian was a genuine expert on all things bed and sleep related. Once I explained what I was looking for, and also how that came about, he was quickly able to point out three solid beds, the second of which proved to be ideal. And he also had me try out a number of different pillows. It turns out I should have gone there years ago, since pillows are not all alike. Who knew?
Anyway, we talked things through, and a price was set. It turns out Dreams is much cheaper than Bensons. Basically, the bed I was looking at in Bensons, plus delivery, came to £600 even. The bed from Dreams, plus headboard, plus pillows, plus delivery, came to £624. (Which works out at about 17 pence per night.) Oh, and he threw in their extended 10-year guarantee for free, which surprised me a great deal, since I'd been all prepared for the hard sell on that one. Score one for the awful economy, I guess.
And so, four weeks on Monday I will have a new bed. Huzzah! And, added bonus, in the meantime I get to enjoy my exciting new pillow immediately. Huzzah again!
(I do feel a little guilty over Paul, though. He spent a fair amount of time helping me out, and ended up helping his competition win a sale. And he really did a good job, and knew his stuff very well indeed. Still, it wasn't as if I went in there intending not to make a purchase, and they were beaten quite handily on price. So, I guess that's all fair. I think I'll call that even - Bensons has now been redeemed from their failure in Yeovil.)
#5: "Pathfinder: A Memory of Darkness" by J.D. Wiker
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