A wildly popular conspiracy theory about why there are so many Mattress Firm stores is starting to sound less crazy

Shutterstock/Jonathan Weiss

There are over 3,500 Mattress Firm stores in the US.

• Mattress Firm is the largest specialty mattress retailer in the US.
• The company has been accused of being overstored. A comment on Reddit went viral today after it suggested that Mattress Firm was running a money laundering business.
• The comment has now been removed, The Next Web reported.

If you've ever wondered why there is a Mattress Firm store on every corner of your city, you're not alone. But, one explanation for this phenomenon is more extreme than you might expect. 

On Tuesday, a comment went viral on Reddit after it claimed that Mattress Firm is running a money-laundering operation. The comment has since been deleted, The Next Web reported.

"Mattress Firm is some sort of giant money laundering scheme," the Reddit user wrote. "I remember seeing 4 mattress firms all on each corner of an intersection once, and there is no way there is such a demand for mattresses."

This caused an outcry on the Reddit thread.

Mattress Firm is the largest specialty mattress retailer in the US. It now has over 3,500 stores after acquiring Sleepy's in 2015. 

Reddit users argue that the company is completely overstored, especially given that it stocks a product that consumers typically buy only every seven to 10 years. 

Google Maps

This map shows the concentration of Mattress Firms in Austin, Texas.

It's a popular conspiracy theory on Reddit. 

"Multiple stores = more places to shuffle money between and more sources for fake money to appear to come from," another user wrote. 

Mattress Firm was bought by South African retailer Steinhoff for $3.8 billion in 2016. At the time, analysts were skeptical as to why Steinhoff had forked out so much on a business whose model was increasingly coming under the threat of new startups such as Casper, which is taking market share.

Since then, Steinhoff has been embroiled in an accounting scandal. Towards the end of 2017, the parent company's stock price tanked by 62% in one day, wiping out $15 billion of its market value, Reuters reported.

The company postponed publishing its full-year accounts due to the "accounting irregularities," and the top two executives and the chairman resigned. 

Mattress Firm did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment. 

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