Ellen's Futons - Another Local Business That Gets It

As long as I'm on the topic of local businesses that are Doing It Right, I should mention Ellen's Futons.

Shira and I wanted to make another room in the house a backup guest room, but didn't want to fill it with a bed that would mostly be collecting dust. The usual solutions came to mind - buy a sofa bed or a futon (we even looked at Murphy beds, but shot that down quickly).

Sofa beds have a reputation for being terribly uncomfortable, and I've slept on one at my parents one for proof - so we focused on futons.

A quick local Google search turned up Ellen's Futons. They had a totally reasonable website, and a great location so we thought we would give them a try.

They were awesome. The sales clerk was patient, good humored and just an all around good guy. Turns out there's a lot more to futons than the $99 model you buy at Wal-Mart for college, and he took us through all the salient details.

After lots of consideration and kicking the tires we decided on what we wanted to buy. Then came the tricky part - choosing a cover. OK, it's not tricky, but it does mean you have to choose from among various colors and patterns.

Shira picked one easily. Only problem was it *probably* wouldn't fit the mattress we bought. D'oh. We picked another. But clearly, the second was just that, a second choice.

So what does the sales guy do? He tells us to buy 'em both and return the one that doesn't work. And who cares that the one that might need to be returned was a custom one that the store policy clearly states can't be returned. Wow, I thought, he's putting us ahead of the store policy. Cool.

And just now I got done returning the extra cover. I had zero issues with the return.

See, they get it. They too just won a customer for life.

--Ben