Something Weird About "My Pillow" As A Company

[ProfessorGAC]

So, just out of curiosity, I looked up that company. Lindell is running an ad saying he created THOUSANDS of US job.
But, then I found this: "In the Furniture & Appliances market in the United States, mypillow.com is ranked #51 with > US$150m in 2019.". (From ECommerce DB)
Ok, it's a $150M company, so how could he create thousands of jobs, in a company that size?

So, a little more digging & found:

My Pillow, Inc. is a pillow manufacturing company based in Chaska, Minnesota, United States.[2] The company was founded in 2009 by Mike Lindell, who invented and patented My Pillow, an open-cell, poly-foam pillow design. From 2004 to 2009, My Pillows were sold through Lindell’s Night Moves Minnesota, LLC and have been sold through My Pillow, Inc. since 2009.[3] My Pillow has sold over 41 million pillows, due mostly to TV infomercials.[4][5] The company started with five employees in 2004 and had 1,500 employees as of 2017.[6]

Two years after employment hit 1,500, revenues hit $150M. That's only $100,000 per employee!

Finally, I found this:
Mike Lindell
Occupation Founder and CEO of My Pillow (2009)
Net worth ~US$300 million (2018)

So, he's worth $300 million owning a $150,000 dollar company with a shop that only makes $100 grand per employee! In eleven years, tops.

First, he's got to be paying crap wages, because labor costs, at Minnesota's median single person income would suck up 38% of revenues.

Second, how could he legitimately accumulate wealth at $27 million a year from a company that averaged $65 million in size, with an average of 700 employees?

This is damned unusual, and awfully suspicious.

I knew I didn't like that guy.

[dawg day]

1. And the pillows get very bad reviews.

Good analysis. Like most Trumpian types, he's probably a big fraud.

[ProfessorGAC]

3. Or Something Other Than Pillows

And the pillows are a front.
$36k is only $18 bucks an hour. That's the median!
The median % of labor to revenue in manufacturing is 28%. And yet, it's profitable enough from him to have a net of 2x his company's value?
Like I said, it's very suspicious.

[fleur-de-lisa]

5. Years ago, before I knew who Lindell was

I thought about buying one, but thankfully, I read the reviews first.

Lots of people wrote that the pillows had a funky smell that never went away. And most reported that they had a difficult time getting a refund.

Can you imagine trying to sleep with a smelly bag under your head? I get frequent migraines and obnoxious smells will absolutely trigger one. I’m so glad I didn’t buy one.

[2naSalit]

2. Front for money laundering, perhaps?

That would explain why he and the dumpster fire are buddies.

[Initech]

8. Or selling high quality crystal meth?

[ProfessorGAC]

9. I Have My Suspicions

Especially given his shady past.
The numbers don't add up, and it's not like they're selling a state of the art, novel product. It's a freaking pillow! (And sheets now, I hear.)
1,500 employees in a company that size, in a northern state, and he adds >$27 million a year in wealth?
Um, no.

[Dream Girl]

4. Great analysts. Wat do you think is going on? Money laundering?

[Buckeye_Democrat]

6. The guy was/is a druggie.

No telling what he's doing.

[luv2fly]

12. What would you expect

I mean he lives in that dude's medicine cabinet!

[Clearly fogged in]

7. you wash the money in loses, with the pillows

see

[samnsara]

10. worse pillow ever!!!!

[judeling]

11. Minimun wage, High Turnover, Mostly Part Time

That really answers all your questions.

[ProfessorGAC]

14. No It Doesn't

First I said "crap wages", so you must have missed that.
Secondly, turnover has nothing to do with productivity or revenues except in a negative way. It has even less to do with profitability.
And, you missed an important point in the OP that your response doesn't address at all.
"... Really answers all your questions"?
Whiff! Strike 3, you're out.

[Initech]

13. I'd say either corruption or something really shady is going on.

And yeah, fuck My Pillow.

[Shermann]

15. The highly partisan public persona he has cultivated is questionable from a business perspective

That's really a no-no for the vast majority of manufacturing and retail companies.

MAGA fans aren't going to buy twice as many pillows as they need just to reward his loyalty to the GOP.

[aidbo]

16. From your analysis:

Last edited Fri Nov 6, 2020, 10:49 PM - Edit history (1)

So, he's worth $300 million owning a $150,000 dollar company with a shop that only makes $100 grand per employee! In eleven years, tops.

From what you wrote earlier, I think that $150,000 was supposed to be $150,000,000. ($150k vs $150M)

The $100,000 revenue per employee is correct.

But I would be willing to bet that about 95% of his employees are making minimum wage ($10/hr in Minnesota for large employers). $10/hr x 40 hrs/wk x 52 wks = $21k per employee per year. If 95% of 1500 employees (1425) each made $21k per year that’s about $30 million in payroll per year to pay the vast majority of his employees (assuming they all work 40 hours per week which is almost certainly not the case).

$150 million minus $30 million leaves $120 million per year to pay for his highest paid 5% of employees and his materials and overhead costs. I’m sure he skimps on materials costs and makes a nice tidy profit which he keeps mostly for himself.

The numbers don’t seem that suspicious to me, especially considering he probably only pays his employees the minimum amount he legally has to. (We need to raise the federal minimum wage to $20 per hour!)

[liberal_mama]

17. My mother bought me a set of MyPillows as a gift last year

They are the worst pillows I've ever had. So uncomfortable. I can't believe people like them so much.

[PSPS]

18. Your math is off, but I know how he can honestly say "thousands of jobs"

The working conditions are so poor that there's a high turnover rate. If he has, say, a 50% turnover rate, that would account for "thousands of jobs" right there in in six years (350 x 6 = 2,100.) On the other hand, he may be like Devin Nunes whose farm in Sibley, Iowa employs undocumented immigrants. When there's an ICE raid, more "jobs" are instantly "created."