We have stories on The Dirty Dozen, The People in your Neighbourhood and our new Charity Chips!

As a member of the local business community, we have been chatting with our neighbours here on Victoria’s Fabulous Fort Street, looking for ways to encourage our local community to continue honouring us with their business.  Times are tough for many local small family businesses due to increased competition from big business in the suburbs, big business on the internet, as well as increased taxation and a faltering economy.  Times are tough!

And yet small business is the main driver of our economy. For every $100 spent in a locally owned independent store (The Good Planet Company, for example!) $68 returns to the community through taxes, payroll and other expenditures.  If you spend that in a national chain, only $43 stays here.  Half of this country’s private sector labour force works for, and is dependent upon, small business.

So we put our heads together and came up with a low key campaign along our block of Fort Street, entitled “We Are The People In Your Neighbourhood”.  Thank you, Jim Henson and Sesame Street for loaning us your song, we hope there are no copyright infringement lawsuits pending.

What we’re saying is that your local downtown merchants rely on the community for support, and the favour is returned with a wide variety of  products and services, friendly service and conversation, taxes galore, charitable donations, wages and benefits, so many of the factors required for a functional, inviting and safe community.

As the world economy continues to spiral towards what could be major upheaval in the coming years, we hope that people will continue to embrace local, independent business as the lifeblood of their community.  The global economy, at least in it’s current form, may sputter and one day fall apart, but your local merchants are working hard to support the community, and, we hope, earn your support in return!

We are the people in your neighbourhood

This month, we have an unprecedented promotion on all three of our natural rubber mattresses. If you purchase a Sienna, a Serenity or a Vimala mattress set* you will receive up to a $500 credit towards your choice of bedding accessories, such as pillows, duvets, pads, sheets and blankets.

It’s that simple!
Pick your mattress, pick your accessories, and they will be delivered directly to your door!

*Double, Queen, King or Cal King mattress with foundation = $500 credit
*Double, Queen, King or Cal King mattress without foundation = $300 credit
*Twin or Twin-XL mattress with foundation = $300 credit
*Twin or Twin-XL mattress without foundation = $200 credit

Why buy a rubber mattress?
It’s easy to be confused by manufacturers bombarding us with pocket coils, pillow tops, memory foams and all manner of other useless bells and whistles.
We believe that a mattress should benefit you in four basic ways:

• a fabulous night’s sleep… due to unequalled comfort and excellent lumbar support
• peace of mind… that you are not breathing in the off-gassed petrochemicals and toxic flame retardants prevalent in department store and big-box store mattresses
• value for money… A regular big-box store mattress is built to last no more than 10 years. Our high quality, Canadian-made, natural rubber mattresses will last for up to 40 years!
• environmental health… Our mattresses are made from 100% natural products! At the end of their life cycle, they are completely biodegradable!

And as we hope you will soon find out, a natural rubber mattress will give you all of this and more!

Why rubber?
Natural rubber comes from the rubber tree. It’s tapped in the morning, whipped and baked into a soft, medium or firm slab during the afternoon, and from there transported to our Canadian craftspeople who wrap them with layers of pure wool (a natural flame retardant and temperature regulator) and a durable high-quality ticking made from certified organic cotton.  This process has been in place for more than a hundred years, and has given generations of customers across thew world the benefit of unequalled sleep quality.  No smelly memory foams! No bouncy, squeaky springs! No flattened, lumpy “comfort tops”!

Why a promotion?
As a local, trusted, well-established company, we don’t believe in gimmicks, but we do believe in offering our customers quality products at reasonable prices. In co-operation with our manufacturers, we came up with this promotion to help ease your transition to a quality, long-lasting mattress product that will be the envy of your friends and family!

What kind of accessories are free?
You name them! Our entire range of bedding products is yours for the choosing.  You might considerpillows (made of rubber, shredded rubber, kapok, buckwheat, alpaca or sheep’s wool) or maybecomforters (a choice of sheep’s wool, alpaca, silk or, for our vegan customers, bamboo) or great quality organic cotton bedsheets, pillowcases and duvet covers (three great brands to choose from) and lots more.
You pick what you want, and they will be delivered on, or before, your mattress delivery date.

Where can I try a mattress out?
Drop by our store in downtown Victoria at your leisure.  We have three beautiful natural rubber mattresses for you to choose from, and we invite you to stay as long as you want! Bring a book or use one of our eye-shades and take a nap!
Need an early morning or after-hours private appointment? We can do that, too! Just call us at 250 590 3500 to make arrangements.

I like a firm mattress, my partner prefers soft
We have that all figured out for you! We all have different body shapes, different sleeping styles and different comfort needs, therefore all of our mattresses have a choice of firmness, and can be unzipped to change the firmness level in future months or years. But better yet, our Serenity and Vimala models can be custom built at no extra charge to suit the sleeper on either side of the bed! Each partner gets the perfect level of comfort for the perfect night’s sleep.
Better yet, with our “comfort promise” if your needs change in future years, your bed’s natural rubber cores can be changed too!
As an added bonus, your sleep will be uninterrupted, because unlike a spring mattress, no motion is transferred when your partner turns over or gets out of bed. Hello, uninterrupted sleep!

Why spend more on a natural rubber mattress?
Well, we don’t think you do! Let us explain.
Firstly, our mattresses compare with, and in many cases cost far less than a typical “furniture gallery” mattress.
Secondly, our mattresses last far longer! Your average department store mattress salesman won’t admit to you that your mattress is built to last for less than ten years… he wants you to come back and buy another, and another as the years go by.
Thirdly, buying a quality rubber mattress from The Good Planet Company gives you peace of mind that you are buying an environmentally-safe, human-safe, Canadian-made, craftsman-made product! It’s a fact that a natural rubber mattress, well maintained, will last you 20, 30, 40 or more years… that’s mere pennies per night for the best sleep ever!

Is there a warranty?
You bet!  And not just a flimsy pro-rated warranty that diminishes the value of your mattress every night you sleep on it!  A Good Planet or Green Sleep mattress is warranted for 20 years against defects.  And that includes excessive compaction of the rubber!

Here’s our July E-News! We welcome your comments by e-mail, comments to this blog entry, or better yet, in person here at the store!

Click here: July E-News

Take a peek at our Earth Day E-News!   We have questions to ask your electoral candidates this week, news about our 1% for the Planet party, new products and discounts, even a dental hygiene story!

Please Click here for the April 2011 Good Planet Company newsletter!

(Or here for our E-News archive)

We have the best customers at The Good Planet Company!

And no, we’re not just saying that.  Our customers are educated, thoughtful and discerning members of the community. We always like to solicit your opinions on what’s right and wrong here at our store, but for those times when you might be feeling a bit shy to critique us face-to-face, we have created a short survey.

We encourage you to let it rip! Tell us if we have ever upset you, if you think we are selling the wrong products, creating the wrong atmosphere, being too chatty or not chatty enough.  Anything goes! If we shed a tear at what you have to say, we’ll try to hide it, but will do our best to make things right for you.  If you have anything nice to say, then we thank you for that too!

Your privacy is ensured, and if you decide to leave your email address at the end of the survey, it will not be added to our mailing list.

Here’s the link: Good Planet Survey.  It’s just ten questions, it shouldn’t take you more than five minutes, maybe ten minutes if you have lots to say.

Thank you from all of us for participating!