How to hack the freeconomy

By Alexandra Suich Bass

One evening a few months ago, I had dinner at a restaurant in San Francisco called Dirty Habit. It was aptly named. One of my companions that night was a friend from the tech industry – he had studied at Stanford Graduate School of Business and been an executive at a self-driving-car firm before founding his own startup. But as we ate, he flaunted a different sort of achievement: he had lived in the Bay Area for years and never paid for a mattress.

My friend, who asked not to be named, approached this challenge methodically. First he compiled a spreadsheet of all the mattress firms’ free trials and return policies. Then he proceeded to take advantage of them one by one, “buying” six mattresses in turn and returning them just before the deadline, at no extra cost – and getting all his money back. He usually made the switch just before he moved apartments, so he didn’t have to lug a heavy mattress across town. As he described his strategy, I found myself torn between admiration and disgust. His ruse was ingenious, but was creating an Excel file about bedding really the best use of his time?