The money laundering theory seems to have originated on online message boards. People began posting about Mattress Firm on sites like Reddit as far back as 2015, speculating in conspiracy subreddits as to why the company could possibly be opening so many new stores so close to one another. 

"Mattress firm is some sort of giant money laundering scheme," one Reddit user asserted in 2018, saying they were "everywhere and always empty. I remember seeing four mattress firms all on each corner of an intersection once, there is no way there is such a demand for mattresses." Many other users agreed that this theory made a lot of sense. "There's definitely something going on with those mattress firms. All of a sudden they popped up literally everywhere ... And they are always empty," posted another user. 

The Times of Northwest Indiana even noted in December 2015 that a single eight-tenths of a mile-long stretch between the border of Schererville and Highland, Indiana, had five separate Mattress Firm locations, while the nearby Indianapolis Boulevard had six locations within 2.5 miles of each other, according to Snopes. These stores seemed to keep popping up close to each other, adding fuel to the conspiracy that these eerily omnipresent, largely empty stores had to be a front for something else. After all, people don't need to buy new mattresses that often, so what could all these storefronts really be for?

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