Laura Smith-Mayne and husband Chris Mayne, of Furniture Walk in Paget, always talked about opening a mattress store in Hamilton.

“We have a presence on 12 Harvey Road, Paget, but it is very much a warehouse district,” Ms Smith-Mayne said. “We felt like there were clients in Hamilton that we were not connecting with.”

When a space suddenly opened at 7 Front Street last month, they jumped at the opportunity.

They opened Sleeper’s Paradise, selling everything from mattresses, sheets, headboards and pillows to back-friendly office furniture, on October 10.

“Some people have come in and said oh, you moved from Paget,” Ms Smith-Mayne said. “We have not moved. Our Paget location is still open. We just wanted to expand, and bring great sleep to Front Street.”

So far, they are finding the location formerly occupied by Calypso’s Sisley to be perfect. With a stop light outside the store, they frequently get people peering in the window while they wait to cross the road, or they walk in out of sheer curiosity.

In addition, she said, the newly renovated Point House across the street is also drawing a lot of foot traffic.

“The area is becoming very popular,” Ms Smith-Mayne said. “There is a lot of activity on this corner.”

She said their goal of reaching different clients has already been met, just in the few weeks they have been open.

“People say I am so glad you are here now, because I have been wanting to go to your Paget location, but I just never make it up there,” she said.

Store manager Marie-France Thompson said they are seeing “everybody in Bermuda”.

“We have mattresses starting at $1,499 and they run up to more luxurious mattresses,” she said. “Sometimes we have visitors from the United States who come in, and we are seeing a lot of business people looking at our mattresses. Sometimes they are in a rental and not happy with their mattress. They are willing to invest $2,000 to $3,000 because they have a three-year contract and sleep is important to them.”

Their biggest sellers right now are pillows, not just for the bed, but also cushions with lumbar support for the office environment. And they work hard to fit every customer with the perfect pillow.

Ms Thompson said: “We try to guide people to get the right pillow for the way they sleep, their size and weight, but also the position they sleep in such as on their back and stomach, or on their side.”

She said many people sleep with the wrong pillow for their sleep position and then suffer neck and back pain in the morning.

Ms Smith-Mayne said during the pandemic Furniture Walk struggled to source popular headboard colours such as oat and charcoal.

“That was due to all the supply-chain issues,” she said. “Now we have these colours back in stock and things are starting to improve.”

www.sleepersparadise.bm