Dale R. Carlsen founded The Sleep Train Mattress Center in 1985, [1] and has guided the company to become the largest retailer of mattresses on the West Coast, and one of the top three in the United States. [2] In 2002, Dale purchased 54 of Mattress Discounters' stores in California during that company's bankruptcy—more than doubling Sleep Train's size. [3] In August 2006, Dale purchased Sleep Country USA from Simmons Bedding in a move to re-enter the northwestern market. [4]
He is a 1984 graduate of Sacramento State University in the College of Business Administration and a member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. In 2013, Carlsen was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from Sacramento State University "for his work and contributions on behalf of foster children" [5]
Lambda Chi Alpha (ΛΧΑ), commonly referred to as Lambda Chi, is a collegiate fraternity in North America. With over 300,000 initiates as of 2024, it is the third-largest social fraternity in the world by number of initiates. It has almost 8,700 current undergraduate members affiliated with chapters and associate chapters at 166 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. Its members may be known variously as Lambda Chis, LXAs, LCAs, Lambdas, Chops, or Choppers at different campuses.
ARCO Arena was an indoor arena located in Sacramento, California, United States. Opened in 1988, it was the home of the Sacramento Kings of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1988 to 2016. It hosted nearly 200 spectator events each year. The arena was named for ARCO, at the time in 1988, a Los Angeles–based independent oil and gas company that today is now a brand owned by Findlay, Ohio–based Marathon Petroleum. It was later named for Sleep Train, a chain of mattress and bed retailers based in Rocklin, California, that at the time of the agreement was a subsidiary of Mattress Firm, a Houston-based retailer that has since re-branded all Sleep Train stores as Mattress Firm. Several major entertainers have performed at the venue, including Bruno Mars and Linkin Park.
Delta Lambda Phi is an international social fraternity for gay, bisexual, transgender and progressive men. The fraternity was founded in 1986 in Washington, D.C. It offers a social environment and structure similar to other Greek-model college fraternities. It was the first, and as of 2013 the only, national fraternity with an emphasis on gay and bisexual men.
Delta Zeta is an international college sorority founded on October 24, 1902, at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Delta Zeta has 163 collegiate chapters in the United States and Canada, and over 180 alumnae chapters in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. As of 2013, there are over 300,400 college and alumnae members, making it the third largest sorority in the nation.
Beta Upsilon Chi is an American Christian social fraternity. It was founded at the University of Texas at Austin in 1985 and has chartered 29 chapters.
Pi Alpha Phi Fraternity, Inc. was an American university-level fraternity. It was founded in 1929 at the University of California, Berkeley. On August 1, 2023, Pi Alpha Phi Fraternity announced that it was closing all of its chapters. At the time, it was the oldest active Asian-American interest fraternity in the United States. It was a founding member of the National APIDA Panhellenic Association.
The Simmons Bedding Company is an American major manufacturer of mattresses and related bedding products, based in Atlanta, Georgia. The company was founded in 1870. Simmons' flagship brand is Beautyrest. In addition to operating 18 manufacturing facilities in the United States and Puerto Rico, the company licenses its products internationally. According to a Simmons press release, net sales for 2005 were $855 million, and its revenue was $1.13 billion in 2007 and $1.228 billion in 2013. In 2011, Simmons ranked in third place among U.S. mattress manufacturers, with a 15.7 percent market share. In 2012, Simmons and its sister company Serta International were acquired by American private equity company Advent International. As of 2022, Simmons is a subsidiary of the American company Serta Simmons Bedding, LLC of Doraville, Georgia. On January 23, 2023, Serta Simmons Bedding filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Downtown Commons, formerly known as Sacramento Downtown Plaza, Westfield (Shoppingtown) Downtown Plaza and Downtown Plaza, is a two-level outdoor mixed-use entertainment and shopping complex operated by JMA Ventures, LLC, located along the alignment of K Street in downtown Sacramento, California, United States, near the State Capitol building. The complex is bordered by J Street to the north, L Street to the south, 7th Street to the east and 4th Street to the west. Downtown Commons' previous format was a mainly two-level outdoor shopping mall commonly known as Downtown Plaza, despite numerous official name changes over the years. The majority of the site has been redeveloped, centering on Golden 1 Center, home of the NBA's Sacramento Kings. The section between 5th and 7th Streets was demolished in 2014 to make room for Golden 1 Center, as well as The Sawyer, a 250-room boutique hotel operated by Kimpton Hotels immediately north of the arena site. The remaining standing section between 4th and 5th Streets was also redeveloped a few years later in association with the arena project.
Sleepy's was a retail mattress chain with over 1,000 stores, primarily situated in the northeastern United States. The company was founded in New York City in 1931. Sleepy's was acquired by Mattress Firm in December 2015 and all stores were rebranded under the Mattress Firm name on January 1, 2017, but the website continued as an online retailer until 2018. Mattress Firm now uses the Sleepy's name for their private label mattresses.
Golden 1 Center is an indoor arena in downtown Sacramento, California, United States. It sits partially on the site of the former Downtown Plaza shopping center. The publicly owned arena is part of a business and entertainment district called Downtown Commons (DoCo), which includes a $250 million 16-story mixed-use tower.
Mattress World, Inc. orMattress World of Michigan was a mattress retail chain in Michigan and Indiana in the Midwestern United States. Its headquarters were in Genoa Township, Michigan. Stores were usually freestanding and located in bedroom communities instead of big box store corridors.
Mattress Firm, Inc. is an American mattress store chain founded on July 4, 1986. The headquarters of the company is located in Houston, Texas.
Sigma Zeta (ΣΖ) is a national honor society founded in 1925 to recognize undergraduate excellence in the natural sciences, computer science, and mathematics. The society's purpose is to encourage and foster the attainment of knowledge in the natural and computer sciences and mathematics.
Fraternities and sororities at the University of Virginia include the collegiate organizations on the grounds of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. First founded in the 1850s with the establishment of several fraternities, the system has since expanded to include sororities, professional organizations, service fraternities, honor fraternities, and cultural organizations. Fraternities and sororities have been significant to the history of the University of Virginia, including the founding of two national fraternities Kappa Sigma (ΚΣ) and Pi Kappa Alpha (ΠΚΑ).
Tuft & Needle is an American bed-in-a-box company that launched in 2012. On September 28, 2018, the company was acquired by Serta Simmons Bedding.