Marketzzzz In Everything
I use naps as work extenders -- slipping into bed with the doggie between writing jags to repower.
I build them into my work day with my editor, too. After about an hour and a half, we'll take a 20 or 25-minute break. She's at her place and I'm at mine -- we work over Skype -- so it's no problem for either of us to just pop into bed and nap.
But say you're running around Manhattan for the day -- but your home or apartment is a long train ride away.
Well, mattress- and other sleep stuff-selling company, Casper, has opened a nap center in New York City. Chavie Lieber writes at Racked.com:
Right next to its New York City store, Casper has launched a branded nap destination called the Dreamery. For $25, customers can catch a 45-minute nap inside little sleeping pods, furnished with Casper mattresses (obviously) as well as Casper sheets, pillows, blankets, socks, and an eye mask. Staff will provide fresh linen for every nap, and also on loan are pajamas by Sleepy Jones, a toothbrushing set from Hello, face wash from Sunday Riley, and audio tracks from Headspace -- you know, all the necessary sleep accoutrements any Instagram-fluent millennial could desire.Eleanor Morgan, Casper's senior vice president of experience, tells Racked that Casper has been working on this "nap experience," as she calls it, for about a year, with the company testing the concept on customers in its New York offices. While paying to take a very short nap on sheets that are changed every 45 minutes might sound like the height of indulgence, Morgan says Casper believes it's filling a need. It surveyed customers and found that many wanted a place to nap or unwind at for short amounts of time, but there weren't any options for them.
...Morgan admits Casper is curious to see who will be signing up for its naps, which can be booked on the Dreamery site, on apps like MindBody or ClassPass, or as walk-ins. But even without any user data, the company is already set on expanding the concept. Morgan says Casper is in talks with a few companies to open the Dreamery at travel hubs like airports, as well as office spaces (she wouldn't drop any names but we have our money on places like WeWork).
The $25 fee Casper will charge just covers the Dreamery's costs, she adds. The concept is not about making money, but is, of course, about an experience: "We don't really see this as retail. A big part of this is building a community of people that value sleep and want to share that with us. They might join the brand family and ultimately become Casper customers, but the conversation around sleep is the main focus."
That kind of yicks me out.
Sleep stores, ride-sharing, co-working spaces. What's cool about start-up world is how so many "Wouldn't it be great...?" are becoming realities. (I do think the nap store is really just an urban thing -- though it would be a great airport thing...a version of pay-by-the-hour pod hotels.)
I also think businesses would be wise to offer nap pods or nap rooms. The idea of just working somebody like a whipped horse is not an efficient way to run a business. An article that relates to that here.
What are your "wouldn't it be great...?s" that could be filled by a start-up business?
It is great that people are trying new things. Especially with how the Obama era hurt small business creation. But if "The concept is not about making money, but is, of course, about an experience" is actually true they are doomed. Especially in a high tax area like New York. For a small business you need to try for a 50% profit margin so you can actually make a 20-30% profit margin. If you aren't making that 20% profit some unexpected event will happen and you won't have the cash on hand to deal with things, wiping your business out.
Ben at July 15, 2018 6:13 AM
This business will fail. It is too structured and to expensive for something that for most of us is a spur of the moment thing. Some cars even have massaging sets now days.
Dont want to spend twenty minutes getting to the nap place when I could just be sleeping in my car with reclining seats.
However it could work for hookers and hook ups. Bet ya a dollar it will turn into that.
Isab at July 15, 2018 6:17 AM
That doesn't work if your car is 40 miles away at the suburban train station? As Amy noted, it's more of an urban thing - when people don't have a car nearby. As Ben noted, urban areas tend to be higher tax areas. That will raise costs and decrease profits.
And if this becomes a popular thing, look for the ones adversely affected by it - hotels and hotel regulators, urban landlords - to fight back. Regulators will decide that nap pods should be regulated by them and will need licenses, regular cleanings, inspections, fire safety systems, etc. And what happens when a bedbug infestation is traced to one of them?
Conan the Grammarian at July 15, 2018 7:14 AM
Don't kid yourself, it's about making money - whether on the front end from nap pod sales or on the back-end from increased mattress sales.
"It's not about money, it's about the experience" is an appeal to millennials that the company is "authentic" and not "corporate."
Conan the Grammarian at July 15, 2018 7:19 AM
I can see myself doing it once as a novelty but yeah, I'm on team "I'd just have a nap in my car".
I don't understand the phrase "yicks me out", I take it it means excites you? Because I read it as it grossed you out, which didn't make sense in the context.
NicoleK at July 15, 2018 7:38 AM
“That doesn't work if your car is 40 miles away at the suburban train station?”
Um. And why wouldnt you just sleep on the train or in your office chair instead? The Japanese are masters of this.
Isab at July 15, 2018 9:14 AM
nope - I don't want to sleep in someone else's bedbugs.
charles at July 15, 2018 9:33 AM
I also think businesses would be wise to offer nap pods or nap rooms.
We've got a "quiet room" where I work. It's not very appealing -- the look is like a dentist's room without the dental equipment -- but I love the fact that it's available. I use it about three times a week, always around 2:00-3:00 in the afternoon, for about 15-20 minutes. It's amazing how refreshed you can feel after a short nap.
What are your "wouldn't it be great...?s" that could be filled by a start-up business?
I think it would be great if a start-up could create a fleet of drones that would detect assholes that throw cigarette butts on the ground and instantly vaporize them with a laser.
JD at July 15, 2018 11:39 AM
Where I did my internship they used to have one too. But employees started to use it as a love room. So it became a storage room for office supplies, and it's always locked with a padlock.
Sixclaws at July 15, 2018 2:04 PM
About half of the people I've heard say that line actually mean it. And then their business folds in about six months.
And yes I recognize that the proposed business isn't that new. It is just hotel rooms by the hour. And the reason the owner doesn't want to admit this is both due to regulations (may even be illegal in NY) as well as their long standing reputation as hooker rooms.
I'm just glad that more people are both talking about entrepreneurship as well as starting more small businesses. That is where all the future growth is and due to their inherent inefficiencies they really help unemployed people without formal skills.
Ben at July 15, 2018 6:17 PM
I've seen airports with these. It might work there -- you have a captive audience.
Cousin Dave at July 16, 2018 6:24 AM
Leave a comment