The Cost Of Free: Casper Pays A Price For Generous Mattress Returns
Casper changed mattress shopping with the promise of a 100-night "risk-free" trial and easy returns. Now the cost of those returns is being scrutinized as the online company prepares to go public.
There's no free lunch, economists will say. So when a company says, sleep on a mattress for a few months and return it for free — that actually costs money.
Just how much?
That question is now in the spotlight as online mattress seller Casper plans to go public. The decision forced Casper to disclose eye-popping losses: more than $92 million in 2018.
This has become a familiar story of a startup.
