Have you ever actually been in a Mattress Firm? The odds are, you haven’t. And if you have, don’t you think the layout is a little weird? It’s like, remember that one episode of “Spongebob” with all the mattresses? Yeah, that’s basically what it is. But many of us have never even been in one before. I hadn’t before this article.

But one thing I couldn’t help but notice about Mattress Firm is, why are there so many of them? I swear every corner of every street has a Mattress Firm. I genuinely don’t understand how this is possible. Until I did some digging, and it turns out, I’m not the only person who thinks this is weird.

If you simply look up the words “Mattress Firm” in your Google search bar and scroll down a little, you will be shocked at the amount of people convinced that Mattress Firm is in fact not just a place to go to buy mattresses, but behind the scenes is a money laundering firm.

It may sound a little far fetched, like why would they choose to front as a mattress company out of all things? But just hear me out, their past has been, well, sketchy to say the least.

The first came in 2016, when the company Steinhoff International purchased Mattress Firm who, at the time, operated over 3,600 stores. A year later, Steinhoff revealed that there had been many “accounting irregularities” discovered in the books of Mattress Firm.

While this instance didn’t exactly mention anything about a deep money laundering scandal, or really anything of the sort, it’s still something to note.

The second instance, and perhaps one that is a little more suspicious, began with a Twitter user posting about the fact that, at one point, there were five different Mattress Firm locations within a mile of each other in Schereville, Indiana. Why would one company which only sells mattresses, need so many stores in a city which, at the time time, had a population of just seventeen thousand people?

The post went on to allege that Mattress Firm was a money laundering business, as “they seem to appear everywhere but have little to no demand, or so it appears that they don’t.”

But that’s just another person with a baseless claim, right? Surely nothing came out of it. That’s where you’re wrong. Soon after this post, the company and the CEO himself, Ken Murphy, came out and stated that these claims were, “absolutely unequivocally false.” Seems like a normal response. Two days later, Murphy resigned.

It all seemed a little too suspicious to dismiss, so I decided to do what any truly committed high school journalism student would do: apply for a job interview. And, instead of answering their questions, ask them questions about if their company is legit or not. What could go wrong, right? Well, let’s hop into what actually went down.

Upon my arrival at my “job interview”, I was quickly greeted by the manager of the store I went to. To avoid any possible consequences or actions from Mattress Firm, I will not be disclosing which location I went to or who I was speaking to. I wanna be able to keep doing these stories, you know?

So I walked in and was greeted by the manager, who promptly asked me to put my phone at a table separate from our interview for a “more professional environment.” A little sketchy, no?

We then began the beginning of the interview, which went pretty much how any job interview goes. He asked me about my resume, why I want to work at Mattress Firm, which I promptly answered with, “I love sleeping,” and all of that kind of stuff.

But the fun started after this, however it did not last for long. I asked a relatively harmless question, just asking if he has heard about the conspiracy theories that Mattress Firm is a money laundering business. And this is when it all went bad.

Immediately, he starts asking me who I think I am and getting aggressive. I was caught off guard to be honest, I didn’t think the first question was that bad. In the hopes of saving the interview, I attempted to apologize and rephrase, but it did not work.

I was swiftly kicked out of the store and as I was sitting in my car contemplating how to go back and salvage what I can from the interview, two police officers rolled into the parking lot of the Mattress Firm. I thought it was a little suspicious, but they didn’t turn on their lights or come right to me so, like any logical person, I left.

Now, does the reaction of the manager mean that they are in fact a money laundering business? Not necessarily, but I can’t say it helped their case against it. We very well may never know what their true intentions are. Maybe they are plotting against us all, maybe they are a secret government business, maybe they are a money laundering firm, or maybe they are just really good at selling mattresses.

We will never know, but I urge you, loyal reader, to continue asking questions. Never believe what anyone says, they’re all against you. Good luck. If you don’t hear from me next issue, you know why. Watch your backs.